Linguaphiles

The Oxford Etymologic Dictionary (OED) considers Ego / I as if it were a self-standing word developed within the Germanic and 'Indo-European' languages with a mere meaning of 'I / me / self, myself':[Spoiler (click to open)]

I (pron.)
12c., a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *ek (source also of Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik), from PIE *eg- "I," nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (source also of Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source of French Je), Greek ego, Russian ja, Lithuanian aš).
Reduced to i by mid-12c. in northern England, later everywhere; the form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c. 1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. It began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/I

ego (n.) by 1707, in metaphysics, "the self; that which feels, acts, or thinks," from Latin ego "I" (cognate with Old English ic; see I); its use is implied in egoity.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/ego

местоим., укр. я, др.-русск. язъ, я (и то и другое – в Мстислав. грам. 1130 г.; см. Обнорский – Бархударов I, 33), ц.-сл. азъ ἐγώ, реже ѩзъ (см. Дильс, Aksl. Gr. 77), болг. аз, яз (Младенов 702), сербохорв. jа̑, словен. jàz, jâ, чеш. já, др.-чеш. jáz (совр. чеш. форма – с начала ХIV в.), слвц. jа, др.-пол. jaz, пол., в.-луж., н.-луж. jа, полаб. joz, jо.
Праслав. *аzъ отличается своим вокализмом от родственных форм, ср. др.-лит. еš, лит. àš, лтш. еs, др.-прус. еs, аs, др.-инд. ahám, авест. azǝm, др.-перс. аdаm, арм. еs, венет. еχо, гр. ἐγώ, лат. еgо, гот. ik "я". Наряду с и.-е. *еǵ- (гр., лат., герм.), существовало и.-е. диал. *eǵh- (др.-инд., венет.). Недоказанной является гипотеза о существовании *ō̆go наряду с *еgō на основе слав. аzъ и хетт. uk, ug "я" (Мейе – Эрну 342 и сл.; см. Вальде – Гофм. I, 395 и сл.). Не объяснена еще достоверно утрата конечного -z в слав.; весьма невероятно, чтобы она совершилась по аналогии местоим. tу (напр., Ягич, AfslPh 23, 543; Голуб – Копечный 147), а также чтобы долгота начального гласного была обусловлена долготой гласного в tу (Бругман у Бернекера, см. ниже). Более удачна попытка объяснения аzъ из сочетания а ězъ (Бернекер I, 35; Бругман, Grdr. 2, 2, 382), но см. против этого Кнутссон, ZfslPh 12, 96 и сл. По мнению Зубатого (LF 36, 345 и сл.), в этом а- представлена усилит. част. *ā, ср. др.-инд. ād, авест. āt̃, ср. также др.-инд. межд. ḗt "смотри, глядь!" из ā и id; Педерсен (KZ 38, 317) видит здесь влияние окончания 1 л. ед. ч. -ō; сомнения по этому поводу см. у Бернекера (I, 35). Для объяснения -z привлекают законы сандхи (Сольмсен, KZ 29, 79); ср. Бернекер, там же; И. Шмидт, KZ 36, 408 и сл.; Вакернагель – Дебруннер 3, 454 и сл.
http://www.classes.ru/all-russian/russian-dictionary-Vasmer-term-17126.htm

ich (Ger.), Εγώ [ego] (Gr.), ego (Lat.), io (Ital.), yo (Sp.), I (Eng.), jag (Sw.), я [ja] (Slavic)...

However, should one look beyond the hypothetic *constructions, established by the German philologists in the 19th Century, one would see an obvious Nostratic relation of the above words with the meaning of ' I ' to the following words with the meaning of ' 1 (one)':

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Novgorodian birch bark in Finnish dialect, 11th Century - written in Cyrillic:




1. юмолануолиінимижи
Jumola nuolin imizhi
EST: Jumal noolnud inimesi.
ENG: God 'arrowed' people ( = taught people the word, the speech)*.
RUS: Господь пронзил стрелами людей ( = обучил, научил людей слову, речи)*.

2. ноулисъхянолиомобоу
noulise han oli omo bou
EST: noolja, ta oli oma poeg.
ENG: Arrow-shooter, he was His son.
RUS: Стрельцом ("метателем стрел") был Его Сын.

3. юмоласоудьнииохови
Jumola soudin iiohovi
EST: Jumal sõudnud iia-hoovi.
ENG: God rowed to the eternal yard (heaven).
RUS: И отбыл Господь на небеса (досл., "священный двор").

The author of the decryption is Andres Pääbo - who also decrypted hundreds of Venetian runic inscriptions :
http://paabo.ca/papers/pdfcontents.html
http://paabo.ca//veneti/VENETILANG2014.pdf

* ...The word is what is sent, a message from person to person. It is no coincidence that the symbol of the word in the Vedic religion was an arrow.
Valery D. Osipov, PhD. 'The single language of humanity.' Moscow. Concept. 2016.
https://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/1018511/10/Osipov_-_Edinyy_yazyk_chelovechestva.html

nool, gen. noole, part. noolt (Est.), nuoli (Fin., Karel.), nooli (Izhora), njuolla (Saami), nal (Erzia, Moksha), nölö (Mari), ńe̮l (Udmurt), ńe̮v (Komi), ńoᴧ, ńal (Khanty), ńāl (Mansi), nyíl (Hung.), ńi (Nenets, Enet.), ńī (Sekulp.), ńié (Kamas.), ńej, nej (Mator.) - an arrow;
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nyelv (Hung.) - language, words.

LANGUAGES ACROSS OCEANS: http://www.paabo.ca/uirala/4A.whalers-languages.html



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I found the following among a collection of photos on the website of the Dominican Friars in Hungary:



I've gathered that Celldömölk is a city in Hungary, presumably where the picture was taken, but Google turns up nothing for the following word - which appears to be "juvenistakkal", if I'm reading the handwriting correctly.

Any ideas?

Hi,
I'm hoping to come up with a definitive list of the languages my great grandparents would have spoken. They all came to New York after World War I, from the late 1910's to the mid 1920's. I believe they would have spoken Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, German (and probably the Bavarian dialect also), Yiddish, Hungarian and, some English. Please let me know if you believe I'm leaving anything out or if anything should be taken away. Below are the list of places they were from and info I have gathered pertaining to what languages they may have spoken. This is just a personal curiosity of mine in researching the linguistic diversity of the country a century ago, especially as it pertains to my ancestors. Any help would be much appreciated.
Best,
Hunter


Gura Humorului, Bukovina, Romania (part of Austria-Hungary before 1917)
Also Gura Humora, hometown of paternal grandmother's father

Nuremberg, Germany
Hometown of paternal grandmother's mother - earlier Kingdom of Bavaria - probably spoke Bavrian dialect in addition to German

Smila, Cherkassy, Ukraine (then Russian Empire)
Hometown of paternal grandfather's parents - Ukraine became a republic in 1917, before part of Russian Empire

Mariupol, Ukraine (then Russian Empire)
Hometown of maternal grandfather's father - historically high Greek population, but not sure if non-ethnic Greeks would have spoke Greek - Ukraine became a republic in 1917, before part of Russian Empire

Poltusk, Poland
Hometown of maternal grandmother's parents - Part of Russian Empire, when Poland was taken over after Napoleon's defeat by Russia, 1815-1918

EDIT: I forgot about this thread here with language documents of my great great grandparents from a few years ago.

I suspect that this Israeli postcard is written in Hungarian. Can anyone try and translate what it says here? Much obliged.

Hey linguaphiles!

I have a housewarming party coming up. As my two housemates and I are all (psycho-)linguists, we'd like to have a sign saying "Please take off your shoes" in the native languages of our party guests. Don't tell me about the social protocol about such things, I'm just the one executing the task of getting the request translated. ;)

So, could you tell me how to say "Please take off your shoes" in:
Afrikaans
Dutch
French
Frisian
Greek
Hungarian
Icelandic
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Mandarin
Polish
Romanian
Spanish
Vietnamese
(If applicable, the informal singular imperative seems most appropriate for our guests. Feel free to note if that sounds off to your native ears, though. :))

Thank you so much in advance!

Hello hello. I could really use some IPA transcription for how to pronounce the following names/words in their respective languages, since none of those languages are my forte and reading the phonology pages on Wikipedia is not something I really have time for on this. XD I have some idea about a few of these, but anything that can be provided would be awesome. Thank you in advance!

Danish: Aage, Blegdamsvej, Bohr, Christian, Copenhagen, Faelled, Harald, Hillerød, Margrethe, Møller, Ny Carlsberg, Tisvilde

German: Bayrischzell, Biberach, Duckwitz, Flügge, Frisch, Gammertingen, Gerlach, Göttingen, Jura, Kaufbeuren, Landau, Leiden, Leipzig, Memmingen, Peierls, Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, Schrödinger, Swabian, Wehrmacht, Weizsäcker, Württemberg

Dutch: Goudsmit

Uncertain, but how either it would sound in either standard German or Danish: Casimir

English... ish: Heligoland

Hungarian: Szilard

(Yes, in case anyone is suspicious, this is for a production of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen.)

Hey everyone! I saw this community on the spotlight and I decided to join. Now I have some questions. :)

1. In French, how would one say "Guess what?". In English, one uses this phrase to pique curiosity about a matter, but I'm not sure if it's simply idiomatic or if there is even a French equivalent.

2. In German, how would one say "I am hungry", "I am thirsty", "I am cold", or "I am hot"? I know in French, for instance, one does not say "I am hungry"; one says "I have hunger". Is it the same in German or not?

3. Hungarian: can someone please explain to me (or direct me to a good website), how basic Hungarian sentences are formed? I understand that one must be concerned with the endings and beginnings of words, but I'm not sure exactly how sentences are formed.

Thank you! 

I have been wondering this for a while, but really honestly cannot figure out how this sounds. It's just for personal reasons relating to characters I draw in illustrations and such. I like hearing how they may sound when speaking.

Anywho! I've come to the conclusion that this character would have a Hungarian accent in Ukrainian. I know how each of these languages sound separately, but no idea how the sounds would interweave in an accent.

Anyone have any idea? I've been trying to search a sound file or a video, but I got nothing :(