How wonderful it should be to hear Protogermans speak, or to speak it yourself. To take beautiful melodious words in the mouth as Gasaljo (roommate), Frijondz (friend) and Andawurdijanan (answers). But unfortunately, the Protogermans is not a real language, it is a scientific reconstruction of how it must have riveted the primordial tongue, the mother tongue of all Germanic languages, when, more than two thousand years ago, it was spoken in southern Scandinavia.
By comparing related words from the various Germanic languages and dialects with each other, you can, as it were, calculate to the original Protogerman form. That method was once discovered by Jacob Grimm around 1820, and since then an army of linguists have worked enthusiastically on it.
The good old language Linguist Yoin van Spijk is about the etymology of all kinds of Dutch words, and Protogermans plays a key role. The book is written in bite -sized chunks, each chapter has the length of a column. The style is also that of columns: smart and funny.
Van Spijk starts every chapter with a question or announcement that makes the reader curious. Did you know that the Dutch prettythe French Vrais (Where) and the English Very (whole) descend from the same word? Did you know that in toes and shoes Twice the plural exit and sits and? In eaten Is the prefix twice. And, now that we are busy: in pig Is a shrinking output twice. The animal was once called one varnish. Pig meant pig.
All those chapters together give a beautiful picture of the dynamics of language: both the form of the words and its meaning are changeable. The shape changes can be described the easiest. Large patterns can be discovered in it. When hole wood was, Golt also goldand, and wolt forest. When Thingan by Thinc and dinc in thing If changed, then throughout the language, the THs are now pronounced as D’s, and the Dutch Championships as NGs.
Also over the centuries words often tend to become shorter. Matisahsan became knife,, ” Aiwohaftaz became Real. Nothing special, that still happens. People think they are actually say Naturallybut if you listen carefully it is often oak and tuuk.
The way in which the meanings of words change can probably also be traced back to general laws and patterns. But they are in books on etymology – and That good old language Is no exception – usually not very clearly described. You wonder: what can and what is not possible in that area?
In any case, linguists find it easier to describe the form. The fact that with that form sometimes also changes the meaning of words, is taken for granted, but has not yet yielded a clear change of meaning. There is still work to be done there.