I love the history of words. Etymology comes from the ancient Greek and means the "true sense of a word".
I first encountered this sense of the relationship of words in high school where I "studied" (and I use the term loosely) French and German for years. It was interesting to go from one class to another and see the relationship between the different languages. Admittedly, the connection between French and German isn't terribly obvious but it is very obvious between English and either of those two languages.
I've always been amazed by my mother's ability to speak so many languages fluently (German, English, French, Polish, some Russian). But then she grew up over there, surviving both the German and Russian occupations.
But what I didn't understand is that this ability is not unusual in Europe (or indeed, the rest of the world). This was made manifest in my time living in France. Most of my friends spoke at least English fluently as well as their native language. Almost all had third or fourth languages.
I'm considering getting a Masters in Business Administration but I want to do it in France where the process will only take a year. One of the requirements is that I am fluent in French (at the DALF level) and have working command of another language. It is striking to me that this is very common in Europe.
I looked up the word "travelling" today because I wasn't sure whether to spell it with one l or two. Turns out either is correct. But what set me off on writing this entry was the etymological footnote that the word was descended from a Middle English base, which in turn was derived from Old French:
[Middle English travelen, alteration of travailen, to toil, from Old French travailler]
As a historian by training I have noted that the further back one goes the more European languages bear a close resemblance to one another. For instance, I found that I could read medieval Dutch when I was studying medieval German.
Whilst spending time in Holland I was a bit mystified by the Dutch language until I realized that if I ignored the appearance of the language and simply pronounced it phonetically it would make much more sense. When pronounced I find it intelligible to my German-familiar ears.
Very odd but pretty darn cool.
Posted by artandscience at January 16, 2004 10:34 AM