Archaic English equivalents of German/Dut (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

Archaic English equivalents of German/Dut
Tags: Germanic Languages \| Dutch \| English \| German
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18 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4831 days ago
2371 posts - 3676 votes

Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 17 of 18

19 September 2011 at 12:15pm | IP Logged

Random review wrote:

bleiben = stay in German, which at first seems the OPPOSITE of to leave, but think of "left behind" or "left-overs".

I have a vague memory of an English dialect word meaning to stay, which reminded me at least slightly of "bleiben"/"bleijven", but I can't now bring it to mind.

However, I am sure there are other dialect words which can be traced back to Germanic (or Norse) ancestry.

I did some research into the northern English word "nesh" (meaning "prone to feeling the cold (, damp, wet") a while back, and according to the OED, it turned out to be related to the German "nass" (= "wet") , via a (probably old) Dutch word.

Scottish and North-east English pronunciation of "house" as "hoose" relates quite well to Scandinavian "hus" I believe, and Scottish Germanic looking words like "kirk" derive I think more from Scandinavian influence than directly from German/Dutch.

BTW linguists say that the closest language to English is Frisian. One would presumably expect to find Frisian influence, although I am not actually aware of examples. ... After a little googling, "The English language: a historical introduction" By Charles Barber, Charles Laurence Barber, in google books, has some relevant background.

EDIT: This looks interesting:

http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/old_frisian.php

(English - Old Frisian dictionary)

Edited by montmorency on 19 September 2011 at 12:21pm
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Remster
Diglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4808 days ago
120 posts - 134 votes

Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: German, French

Message 18 of 18

06 October 2011 at 12:24pm | IP Logged

I've once heard old English. It sounded even more like German and Dutch than modern day English.
2 persons have voted this message useful

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