Well, me again! I have people coming over tonight and I am meant to be tidying up the house but I keep finding myself doing something else. I am up to date with all my games of scrabulous so I had better have a quick blog before I tackle the kitchen! (Actually, I may have to have another cup of tea after this)
Anyway, we noticed on holiday that there are many words in Icelandic that clearly have similar roots to English. Obviously, the nordic, germanic thing. For example, Foss is a waterfall and in the north of England a waterfall is a force. Also a church is a Kirkja which is like the Scottish word Kirk and also the German.
Heaven knows they are not pronounced easily even if they do have a common root to our own language. I took the view that I should be like Ian McKellan on Lord of the Rings ie. Morrrdorrrr.
Anyway while Trev and I were discussing the similarites somewhere in the back of my mind I remember hearing that in English most household words come from german roots, such as house and most ruling words come from French, such as parliament. However, I'm not sure if I just imagined that I heard that so I would be interested in other's opinions.
3 comments:
have your visitors arrived early? Have most what????
Blogger cut me off in my prime!
All edited now and the house is clean!
Yes, that is what I heard too...Bill Bryson wrote a book, Mother Tongue...which is all about the various influences on English. It was really good, though you might want to space the chapters out rather than read it all at once.
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