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W H Y (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by Stamets@lemmy.world to c/memes@sopuli.xyz
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[-] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Of course you realize that English is a Germanic language? Therefore it is you who have strayed from the proper words. 😉

[-] diverging@piefed.social 18 points 1 week ago

German is not the same as Germanic. Both German and English evolved from a common ancestor, which we call Proto-Germanic.

'Who' and 'Where' are '*hwaz' and '*hwar' in Proto-Germanic.

I would say that in this case German strayed more than English.

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 4 points 6 days ago
[-] meekah@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Who = hwaz = wer

Where = hwar = Wo

[-] SippyCup@feddit.nl 17 points 1 week ago

We added a bunch of French. It's not a romance language by any stretch but it's kind of a Francish one. Francish being a Celtic word, because we added a bunch of those too.

[-] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

And lots of straight up Latin, yeah.

[-] SippyCup@feddit.nl 6 points 1 week ago

I just looked it up, German isn't even the biggest influence. French and Latin are. German is 3rd

OUI OUI BON BON LE PETITE CROISSANT EIFFEL TOWER I AM LE FRENCH NOW MOTHERFUCKER

[-] hakase@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The vast majority of the 100 most common words in English are still inherited Germanic words.

[-] SippyCup@feddit.nl 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Well yeah that stands to reason, our grammar structure is still Germanic, which is why they still call it a Germanic language. The 100 most common words are almost entirely basic grammar, like to, be, it, for, etc. Words used to reference other words.

The first non grammar based word, the first actual noun, is Time, which is a French word.

We are speaking French with German sentence structure and referencing everything in Latin.

[-] antbricks@lemmy.today 1 points 6 days ago

We're speaking German after French aristocrats gave us the names for all the fancy things we couldn't afford when we were all peasants.

this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
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