This Amazing Tree That Shows How Languages Are Connected Will Change The Way You See Our World
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Did you know that most of the different languages we speak today can actually be placed in only a couple of groups by their origin? This is what illustrator Minna Sundberg has captured in an elegant infographic of a language tree which reveals some fascinating ancestry links between the oldest languages.
Using the research data from Ethnologue, Minna has used a family tree metaphor to illustrate how all major European, and even plenty of Eastern languages can be grouped into Indo-European and Uralic families of languages. The whole image is dotted with languages, with bigger leaves representing those with the most native speakers. But even this detailed language family tree doesn’t cover the immense variety of languages out there: “Naturally, most tiny languages didn’t make it on the origins of language graph,” the artist explained to io9. “There’s literally hundreds of them in the Indo-European family alone and I could only fit so many on this page, so most sub-1 mil. speaker languages that don’t have the official status somewhere got the cut.”
More info: Minna Sundberg | Print (h/t: mental floss, demilked)
Bigger leaves represent more people using the language as their native tongue
Here’s a high-resolution image.
The European branch splits in three: Slavic, Romance and Germanic. A rather complicated relationship between the Slavic languages is visible
It also shows the Germanic roots of English language
Surprisingly, unlike its Scandinavian neighbors, the Finnish language belongs to Uralic family
The Indo-Iranian group reveals the links between Hindi and Urdu as well as some regional Indian languages like Rajasthani
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This is why we anthropologists call Caucasian people "Indo-European". All Indo-Europeans are 'so called' White people, even those living in India and Pakistan. They are just highly tanned, that's all. We still haven't officially nailed down what caused this migration all over Europe and the Middle East, but it appears that the sudden and Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, around 5,600BC, was the cause of this diasporia. And the flooding happened because the melting ice from the last glaciation finally began overflowing at the Bosphorus strait, separating the Med from the Black Sea. That, in a nutshell, is probably the cause of all this migration, and why the languages are linked to each other.
I don't understand, why all "throwed dog's" on John L, he said right opinions. Indoeuropeans far time ago were all with whites ancestry, even today they bearing that race dna, but in mix with south afro, and chineses. We all have some root's from neanderthals , from atlants!
No, only I small percentage of us have (a small procent) neanderthals in our DNA.
Evidence today suggests that our derivation from Neanderthal is incorrect, and that they were a species on its own which evolved in parallel with Sapiens - they're not a link in the chain as erroneously we had believed for approximately a century.
Oh, John. I really enjoyed your comments, and I'm saddened to hear about your hate speech. I currently work in the medical field, as well. If gender dysphoria is not only an acceptable diagnosis for the medical board, but also for notoriously difficult insurance companies, it should be more than good enough for the layman. Please desist from speaking on highly sensitive matters about vulnerable populations unless you have something constructive to contribute. I just don't see any reason to make negative comments about an issue that doesn't concern you.
Caturday, somehow I must have missed all this uproar here. But no, I don't practice 'hate speech' as KK or Echo would have you believe. I view homosexuality and transexuality as a genetic and biological issue, rather than a political one. To me, all people are equal before our Creator and the law. I also sympathize with their plight, but constantly beating any drum loudly and continuously gets to be irritating with the overwhelming majority. It is as though some are determined to shove something down everyone's throats, come hell or high water. And that is self-defeating in the long run. All I did was express my criticism about the constant drumbeat of something that the overwhelming majority of BP followers really don't wish to have thrust upon them from a political standpoint. And no, I don't have an agenda, am not "old racist Grandpa", or harbor ill on those who are not like me. Sorry.
It's much more complicated. Thanks to Ancient DNA, we have been able to figure out that the original Indo-Europeans indeed lived north of the Black Sea and were rather swarthy, like Southern Europeans today. However, in Central Europe, they assimilated the much paler locals around 3000 BC, resulting in the Indo-European Corded Ware culture. This culture seems to be at least the origin of the Germanic and Balto-Slavic branches (and maybe others) and via the Sintashta culture, apparently the Indo-Iranian branch too, surprisingly. So the pale skin and light hair and eyes of the Northern Europeans does not come from the original Indo-Europeans, but from the indigenous Northern Europeans who were there before the IE expansion. The Indo-Iranians, however, mixed with local populations in Asia, explaining why apart from (in part) some isolated populations mainly in Afghanistan, they don't look Northern European anymore. So the dark skin is due to admixture with natives; India is a melting pot.
Biggest disappointment is not showing Tamil in this. One of the TOP 10 oldest language.
Being a passionate of anthropology never made anyone an anthropologist. You've got quite a few things wrong, but hey this is Bored Panda, I guess it's alright.
If You Ask Me, The Only "White" People Are Albinos.
White people are the real people of colour if you think about it. Who has all the hair and eye colours? Who can even have changes of skin colour based on mood? Who has freckles? White people have. The other races come in shades of brown, no other colours.
And Britain was separated from the Continent at the same time. The whole lot seems to have occurred quite quickly (geologically) when the Ice Dam holding the vast wasters of Lake Agassis (the black land prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan) broke, and let it flood out through Hudson's Strait. To this day, one can see, flying over the prairies in the right light conditions, the ripples that were the bottom of the lake, left high and dry - kilometer after kilometer of them through all the post-settlement farming. How far south into the USA that lake stretched, I couldn't say, but that land must have been severely depressed, like the High Coast area of Sweden, which is still recov ering at the rate of a centimetre a year.
John, I am astounded that you know so much about science and also usually have very kind opinions, but still decide to post links to hatesites against LGTB folks on other topics. I still have the screenshots here. I am carefully observing you. Don't think you're off the hook. And don't come with your usual "projection" reply. If you decide to work against my family and anyone that is not in a heterosexual monogamous relationship, really, I will fight you.
KK, by your own admission you are stalking this person. Just because they have a different opinion than you doesn't make it okay. You are a creep and potentially a criminal. Plus, don't you have better things to do with your time?
KK: you sound like Big Brother in action. Chill!
It's funny you say this. I noticed this about John as well. He does post great comments sometimes, and others are like a different uneducated person. I have decided to label him as my old racist Grandpa. I enjoy the good stories and ignore the times he uses the N word. I would suggest you do the same. There is no reason to track anyone's movements. We all have our thoughts and options. I read, I learn, I ignore. Very simple.
I didn't know that! Has John been posting these links on certain threads on BoredPanda?
Black Dahlia I am on a public site and I am paying attention to what people post. This is no crime. Screenshotting a comment is no crime. I am also not the only one pointing out John's comments, other pandas do that too.
@It's Caturday Yeah, Bored Panda had a couple of weeks where five or six LGTB related articles had been featured on the site ~ a cute Pixar-style animation about two boys falling in love, a series of photos about a transgender woman raising kids, a series of photos of transgender ppl before and after transition (that has been taken down due to copyright reasons)... John commented especially negativle on the transgender issues, posting a link to a websites that paints transition in a very biased negative light + wants to deny medical help. He also said that he has science behind him because he worked in some medical field in the 70s (*cough* 50 years ago). He also commented on a photodocumentary about a chinese nightclub and claimed that sexual freedom and openness towards alternative lifestyles breaks down society.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
@Echo Good input, thank you :). I hope I can be as relaxed as you in the future. A year ago I would've leaned back and chuckled about all of this, too. But with current political events I see so much tension and fear in my community. I feel that the hate against minority groups is at a peak height. Even former safe havens like this cute little site don't seem to be safe anymore. Of course I know that John is only one guy. But he is well-liked and educated, his opinion weights far different than Cat Person's undiplomatic comment down there. These call-out posts happen regularly not just by me. I think it's good to remind people to stay critical. Especially when John posts a spot-on good scientific comment here but lateron plays up to be an expert on how messing with chromosomes (????) make transgender people suicidal.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Every. Time. Republicans and other homophobes talk about things being shoved down their throats every damn time the issue cums up. I mean "comes".
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
-466 is quite a huge amount of dislikes, cat person. Wonder where they come from ;).
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I am not here to discuss by the way, it is your duty to inform yourself outside of that conspiracy-mongering forum you hang out in. I am here to warn other users to review your posts critically.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Go fuck yourself "KK". Everyone is allowed to have an opinion. You are actually in the wrong here. You're getting all aggressive and "observing" people like some kind of cop? Umm no you aren't anything
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Also, I don't care if gay people live their lives and get married but I hate all their stupid flags and opinions and stories and media being shoved down my throat. They think they are raising awareness? They've already got their rights! All it's doing now is pissing people off! But transgender a whole different story. It's scum. It's fucking disgusting. And it is DEFINITELY a mental illness!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
"Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, around 5,600BC" Ridiculous. The diaspora occurred a lot longer ago than 5,600 BC. Flooding of the Bosporus would in no way affect Scandinavia or the British Isles. Please cite some authority.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
John L is no anthropologist, and he can't even see the difference between language and ancestry. Prior to spread of the spread of Indo-European languages, Europeans spoke other languages, such as Basque. One example is are the British people. 75% of their ancestors lived on the British isles already more than 7500 years ago - it makes no sense to call such people "Indo-Europeans". John, you probably knew all of this, and lie on some freaky purpose.
This tree is really a nice summary, particularly as it shows how close some languages are, how far away others are. For example, it is always impressive to see how far away the Skandinavian languages are from Finnish – although if you hear these you can tell that they have nothing to do with each other. However, if would be great to have another figure to show language influence. If you think of English for instance, it has this Germanic origin, but in many areas latinized words are used. Often, you even have a word of Germanic origin and one of Latin origin to express the same thing, just either of the two is archaic and not widely used. Languages are a fascinating topic...
That's true. I'm Danish and have tutored Danish to two Fins. In Finland, they learn Swedish in primary school, but my students considered that torture and did their best to actually not learn it. If Fins study hard and keep repeating what they have already learned, then they can learn Danish relatively fast. Not as fast as English speakers, but still, quite fast. However, if they let their guard down, and decide they don't need to repeat what they learned months ago, they forget every rule (or rather the exceptions to the rules, which is the worst things about learning Danish). It's not that way with English speakers (English is actually closer to Danish than to German). Finnish has 15 (that's right, FIFTEEN) kasus, whereas Danish has 3, which I guess would make it very difficult for a Scandinavian or English speaker to learn. I know, that I don't have the guts to try.
But the Danish numbers... they make no sense at all!! :-)
Diana: The numbers actually do make sense, but they are not based on 10, they are based on a snes. A snes was a thin stick, that was used in the middle ages to skewer fish and carry them to market on. There would be 20 fish on a stick, and slowly the number twenty would become synonymous with a snes, and it would be used when selling eggs and other things as well. From 0-49 the numbers are relatively easy, it's from 50-99 that it becomes different. Let's take the easy ones first: Tres=3(tre)*20(snes)=60 - Firs=4(fire)*20(snes)=80. Those were the easy ones. Halvtreds is half a snes from 60, so 3*20-10=50 - Halvfjers (fjers/firs) is 4*20-10=70 - and 90 (halvfems) is a little more tricky, in that we don't use fems (fem snese) for 100 but we still use the snese for creating 90. "Fems" would be "fem snese" or five snes, so halvfems is 5*20-10=90 ...As it is, though, most Danes have no clue why the numbers are called what they are called.
Does Danish Really Sound I Like A Guy With A Potato In Their Mouth? (I Would Guess It Does At Least If Someone Is Speaking Danish With A Potato In Their Mouth :>)
Yup. Hated swedish then hate it now. English, japanese, love them. And yes finnish is quite difficult with language cases. Real problem is that fins have 8 main dialects and understanding them is even hard for a native speaker sometimes.
Thank you for your explanation :) Those grammar quirks are difficult to understand without a proper teacher, and I don't think there's one place in my city where they teach Danish, so I'm trying to learn by myself. My biggest hope is to go on Erasmus to Denmark next year, but for now I surely will be using that side you've recommended :)
a think you mean "Cases" ? not kasus?
Thanks for explaining the numerals. Makes more sense now! :-)
Sorry, I don't know what just happened with the repeated answer.
I've fallen in love with Danish language and I must say many words really resemble those in English (and I'm having so much fun with pronouncing them). At first Danish words looked german-ish for me but they really aren't that similiar.
There are some verbs that for me, are oddly constructed and I wonder about their etymology, for exaple "at kunne lide - jeg kan godt lide x" or when you say "jeg kunne godt taenke mig..." :)
No, that's true. To me, as a Dane, learning German was a lot harder, than learning English. I think, that primarily falls down to German having 4 kasus and 3 genders. Similarities to German are actually to be found in some words though (eg blive=bleiben, mølle=muehle). A lot of Danish words are borrowed from German and French, because these languages were considered nobler, and was spoken by the nobility. It was said that you should speak French to your peer, German to your waiter and Danish to your dog. We actually had a king at one time who didn't speak or understand Danish at all. Many of the words in Danish that resemble those in English are actually from Norse/ early Danish from the time of Danelaw: Man, sand, cat, ombudsman, bylaw, hat, king, knife, egg etc. To that, a lot of English words are borrowed from French as they have been in Danish, so again, more words become similar (same goes for Roman and Greek too).
'Godt or god' and nok has many uses and is really some of those words that have to be read and written over and over, in order to learn them. God/godt has 12 uses. 'Nok' has 11 (most of these are easily understood by English speakers). These two words, and how perfectum and pluskvamperfektum are used to describe possible -, impossible - and wished-for futures ( as in "jeg kunne godt tænke mig en gave i morgen") are possibly the rules of which I've spent the most time, teaching people. In the case of "Jeg kunne godt tænke mig...", 'godt' is simply a mild intensifier of your wish, comparable to, but slightly less pronounced, in the use of 'actually' in "I would actually like". 'Godt' and 'nok' are more or less used the same ways in Norwegian and Swedish, so I would say, they probably have their origin in Old Norse. Perhaps even older than that? ordnet.dk is, in my opinion, the best Danish vocabulary on the net, and lists all the uses of both words.
Why is it more impressive than the "distance" of the Hungarian language from the neighbor countries? Which is anyway, one of the most difficult language, in the World. Nobody can even understand, if you don't study it. And we have "something" to do with each other.
True !! ^^
Hans are you possibly finnish?
Hans is martian. But don't let anyone know he is here on the planet. They might build a space wall and send him back.
I am not. :) I have a basic understanding of Scandinavian languages, but no finnish at all.
What about Chinese?? Cantonese Korean Japanese Vietnamese
Korean and Japanese are considered as "isolated languages" without clear origin. It is suspected that they come from the same language tree as Mongolian though.
Replying to the comment below by Horizon Star - sorry, Korean has been around for a long time. Like Vietnamese, they did use Chinese characters for a long time, but designed their own alphabet in the 1500s or so. You're confusing script with language. They are not the same thing.
this is article is just about Indo European language . Korean , Japanese, south Indian languages doesnt come under Indo European language tree
arabic/hebrew? altaic/turkish thank you regardless
Some South Indian are missing too. I guess it is the same reason.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
so the western guys dont know anything about east asia.Japanese charcters all come from china, you guys should read same book about the relationship between Tang dinasty and old japan, know what is "遣唐使"(students and Buddhist went to china to learn chinese culture ).also about Korean before "训民正音"（the language that today korean speak）king and other nobilities speaked and written chinese only.
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No, they are from Chinese. Korean only exist a couple hundred years, before that, they used Chinese as their language.
Was wondering the same, also where are the African languages and dialects?
They aren't Indo-European, that's why they weren't included.
This is why we anthropologists call Caucasian people "Indo-European". All Indo-Europeans are 'so called' White people, even those living in India and Pakistan. They are just highly tanned, that's all. We still haven't officially nailed down what caused this migration all over Europe and the Middle East, but it appears that the sudden and Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, around 5,600BC, was the cause of this diasporia. And the flooding happened because the melting ice from the last glaciation finally began overflowing at the Bosphorus strait, separating the Med from the Black Sea. That, in a nutshell, is probably the cause of all this migration, and why the languages are linked to each other.
I don't understand, why all "throwed dog's" on John L, he said right opinions. Indoeuropeans far time ago were all with whites ancestry, even today they bearing that race dna, but in mix with south afro, and chineses. We all have some root's from neanderthals , from atlants!
No, only I small percentage of us have (a small procent) neanderthals in our DNA.
Evidence today suggests that our derivation from Neanderthal is incorrect, and that they were a species on its own which evolved in parallel with Sapiens - they're not a link in the chain as erroneously we had believed for approximately a century.
Oh, John. I really enjoyed your comments, and I'm saddened to hear about your hate speech. I currently work in the medical field, as well. If gender dysphoria is not only an acceptable diagnosis for the medical board, but also for notoriously difficult insurance companies, it should be more than good enough for the layman. Please desist from speaking on highly sensitive matters about vulnerable populations unless you have something constructive to contribute. I just don't see any reason to make negative comments about an issue that doesn't concern you.
Caturday, somehow I must have missed all this uproar here. But no, I don't practice 'hate speech' as KK or Echo would have you believe. I view homosexuality and transexuality as a genetic and biological issue, rather than a political one. To me, all people are equal before our Creator and the law. I also sympathize with their plight, but constantly beating any drum loudly and continuously gets to be irritating with the overwhelming majority. It is as though some are determined to shove something down everyone's throats, come hell or high water. And that is self-defeating in the long run. All I did was express my criticism about the constant drumbeat of something that the overwhelming majority of BP followers really don't wish to have thrust upon them from a political standpoint. And no, I don't have an agenda, am not "old racist Grandpa", or harbor ill on those who are not like me. Sorry.
It's much more complicated. Thanks to Ancient DNA, we have been able to figure out that the original Indo-Europeans indeed lived north of the Black Sea and were rather swarthy, like Southern Europeans today. However, in Central Europe, they assimilated the much paler locals around 3000 BC, resulting in the Indo-European Corded Ware culture. This culture seems to be at least the origin of the Germanic and Balto-Slavic branches (and maybe others) and via the Sintashta culture, apparently the Indo-Iranian branch too, surprisingly. So the pale skin and light hair and eyes of the Northern Europeans does not come from the original Indo-Europeans, but from the indigenous Northern Europeans who were there before the IE expansion. The Indo-Iranians, however, mixed with local populations in Asia, explaining why apart from (in part) some isolated populations mainly in Afghanistan, they don't look Northern European anymore. So the dark skin is due to admixture with natives; India is a melting pot.
Biggest disappointment is not showing Tamil in this. One of the TOP 10 oldest language.
Being a passionate of anthropology never made anyone an anthropologist. You've got quite a few things wrong, but hey this is Bored Panda, I guess it's alright.
If You Ask Me, The Only "White" People Are Albinos.
White people are the real people of colour if you think about it. Who has all the hair and eye colours? Who can even have changes of skin colour based on mood? Who has freckles? White people have. The other races come in shades of brown, no other colours.
And Britain was separated from the Continent at the same time. The whole lot seems to have occurred quite quickly (geologically) when the Ice Dam holding the vast wasters of Lake Agassis (the black land prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan) broke, and let it flood out through Hudson's Strait. To this day, one can see, flying over the prairies in the right light conditions, the ripples that were the bottom of the lake, left high and dry - kilometer after kilometer of them through all the post-settlement farming. How far south into the USA that lake stretched, I couldn't say, but that land must have been severely depressed, like the High Coast area of Sweden, which is still recov ering at the rate of a centimetre a year.
John, I am astounded that you know so much about science and also usually have very kind opinions, but still decide to post links to hatesites against LGTB folks on other topics. I still have the screenshots here. I am carefully observing you. Don't think you're off the hook. And don't come with your usual "projection" reply. If you decide to work against my family and anyone that is not in a heterosexual monogamous relationship, really, I will fight you.
KK, by your own admission you are stalking this person. Just because they have a different opinion than you doesn't make it okay. You are a creep and potentially a criminal. Plus, don't you have better things to do with your time?
KK: you sound like Big Brother in action. Chill!
It's funny you say this. I noticed this about John as well. He does post great comments sometimes, and others are like a different uneducated person. I have decided to label him as my old racist Grandpa. I enjoy the good stories and ignore the times he uses the N word. I would suggest you do the same. There is no reason to track anyone's movements. We all have our thoughts and options. I read, I learn, I ignore. Very simple.
I didn't know that! Has John been posting these links on certain threads on BoredPanda?
Black Dahlia I am on a public site and I am paying attention to what people post. This is no crime. Screenshotting a comment is no crime. I am also not the only one pointing out John's comments, other pandas do that too.
@It's Caturday Yeah, Bored Panda had a couple of weeks where five or six LGTB related articles had been featured on the site ~ a cute Pixar-style animation about two boys falling in love, a series of photos about a transgender woman raising kids, a series of photos of transgender ppl before and after transition (that has been taken down due to copyright reasons)... John commented especially negativle on the transgender issues, posting a link to a websites that paints transition in a very biased negative light + wants to deny medical help. He also said that he has science behind him because he worked in some medical field in the 70s (*cough* 50 years ago). He also commented on a photodocumentary about a chinese nightclub and claimed that sexual freedom and openness towards alternative lifestyles breaks down society.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
@Echo Good input, thank you :). I hope I can be as relaxed as you in the future. A year ago I would've leaned back and chuckled about all of this, too. But with current political events I see so much tension and fear in my community. I feel that the hate against minority groups is at a peak height. Even former safe havens like this cute little site don't seem to be safe anymore. Of course I know that John is only one guy. But he is well-liked and educated, his opinion weights far different than Cat Person's undiplomatic comment down there. These call-out posts happen regularly not just by me. I think it's good to remind people to stay critical. Especially when John posts a spot-on good scientific comment here but lateron plays up to be an expert on how messing with chromosomes (????) make transgender people suicidal.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Every. Time. Republicans and other homophobes talk about things being shoved down their throats every damn time the issue cums up. I mean "comes".
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
-466 is quite a huge amount of dislikes, cat person. Wonder where they come from ;).
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I am not here to discuss by the way, it is your duty to inform yourself outside of that conspiracy-mongering forum you hang out in. I am here to warn other users to review your posts critically.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Go fuck yourself "KK". Everyone is allowed to have an opinion. You are actually in the wrong here. You're getting all aggressive and "observing" people like some kind of cop? Umm no you aren't anything
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Also, I don't care if gay people live their lives and get married but I hate all their stupid flags and opinions and stories and media being shoved down my throat. They think they are raising awareness? They've already got their rights! All it's doing now is pissing people off! But transgender a whole different story. It's scum. It's fucking disgusting. And it is DEFINITELY a mental illness!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
"Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, around 5,600BC" Ridiculous. The diaspora occurred a lot longer ago than 5,600 BC. Flooding of the Bosporus would in no way affect Scandinavia or the British Isles. Please cite some authority.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
John L is no anthropologist, and he can't even see the difference between language and ancestry. Prior to spread of the spread of Indo-European languages, Europeans spoke other languages, such as Basque. One example is are the British people. 75% of their ancestors lived on the British isles already more than 7500 years ago - it makes no sense to call such people "Indo-Europeans". John, you probably knew all of this, and lie on some freaky purpose.
This tree is really a nice summary, particularly as it shows how close some languages are, how far away others are. For example, it is always impressive to see how far away the Skandinavian languages are from Finnish – although if you hear these you can tell that they have nothing to do with each other. However, if would be great to have another figure to show language influence. If you think of English for instance, it has this Germanic origin, but in many areas latinized words are used. Often, you even have a word of Germanic origin and one of Latin origin to express the same thing, just either of the two is archaic and not widely used. Languages are a fascinating topic...
That's true. I'm Danish and have tutored Danish to two Fins. In Finland, they learn Swedish in primary school, but my students considered that torture and did their best to actually not learn it. If Fins study hard and keep repeating what they have already learned, then they can learn Danish relatively fast. Not as fast as English speakers, but still, quite fast. However, if they let their guard down, and decide they don't need to repeat what they learned months ago, they forget every rule (or rather the exceptions to the rules, which is the worst things about learning Danish). It's not that way with English speakers (English is actually closer to Danish than to German). Finnish has 15 (that's right, FIFTEEN) kasus, whereas Danish has 3, which I guess would make it very difficult for a Scandinavian or English speaker to learn. I know, that I don't have the guts to try.
But the Danish numbers... they make no sense at all!! :-)
Diana: The numbers actually do make sense, but they are not based on 10, they are based on a snes. A snes was a thin stick, that was used in the middle ages to skewer fish and carry them to market on. There would be 20 fish on a stick, and slowly the number twenty would become synonymous with a snes, and it would be used when selling eggs and other things as well. From 0-49 the numbers are relatively easy, it's from 50-99 that it becomes different. Let's take the easy ones first: Tres=3(tre)*20(snes)=60 - Firs=4(fire)*20(snes)=80. Those were the easy ones. Halvtreds is half a snes from 60, so 3*20-10=50 - Halvfjers (fjers/firs) is 4*20-10=70 - and 90 (halvfems) is a little more tricky, in that we don't use fems (fem snese) for 100 but we still use the snese for creating 90. "Fems" would be "fem snese" or five snes, so halvfems is 5*20-10=90 ...As it is, though, most Danes have no clue why the numbers are called what they are called.
Does Danish Really Sound I Like A Guy With A Potato In Their Mouth? (I Would Guess It Does At Least If Someone Is Speaking Danish With A Potato In Their Mouth :>)
Yup. Hated swedish then hate it now. English, japanese, love them. And yes finnish is quite difficult with language cases. Real problem is that fins have 8 main dialects and understanding them is even hard for a native speaker sometimes.
Thank you for your explanation :) Those grammar quirks are difficult to understand without a proper teacher, and I don't think there's one place in my city where they teach Danish, so I'm trying to learn by myself. My biggest hope is to go on Erasmus to Denmark next year, but for now I surely will be using that side you've recommended :)
a think you mean "Cases" ? not kasus?
Thanks for explaining the numerals. Makes more sense now! :-)
Sorry, I don't know what just happened with the repeated answer.
I've fallen in love with Danish language and I must say many words really resemble those in English (and I'm having so much fun with pronouncing them). At first Danish words looked german-ish for me but they really aren't that similiar.
There are some verbs that for me, are oddly constructed and I wonder about their etymology, for exaple "at kunne lide - jeg kan godt lide x" or when you say "jeg kunne godt taenke mig..." :)
No, that's true. To me, as a Dane, learning German was a lot harder, than learning English. I think, that primarily falls down to German having 4 kasus and 3 genders. Similarities to German are actually to be found in some words though (eg blive=bleiben, mølle=muehle). A lot of Danish words are borrowed from German and French, because these languages were considered nobler, and was spoken by the nobility. It was said that you should speak French to your peer, German to your waiter and Danish to your dog. We actually had a king at one time who didn't speak or understand Danish at all. Many of the words in Danish that resemble those in English are actually from Norse/ early Danish from the time of Danelaw: Man, sand, cat, ombudsman, bylaw, hat, king, knife, egg etc. To that, a lot of English words are borrowed from French as they have been in Danish, so again, more words become similar (same goes for Roman and Greek too).
'Godt or god' and nok has many uses and is really some of those words that have to be read and written over and over, in order to learn them. God/godt has 12 uses. 'Nok' has 11 (most of these are easily understood by English speakers). These two words, and how perfectum and pluskvamperfektum are used to describe possible -, impossible - and wished-for futures ( as in "jeg kunne godt tænke mig en gave i morgen") are possibly the rules of which I've spent the most time, teaching people. In the case of "Jeg kunne godt tænke mig...", 'godt' is simply a mild intensifier of your wish, comparable to, but slightly less pronounced, in the use of 'actually' in "I would actually like". 'Godt' and 'nok' are more or less used the same ways in Norwegian and Swedish, so I would say, they probably have their origin in Old Norse. Perhaps even older than that? ordnet.dk is, in my opinion, the best Danish vocabulary on the net, and lists all the uses of both words.
Why is it more impressive than the "distance" of the Hungarian language from the neighbor countries? Which is anyway, one of the most difficult language, in the World. Nobody can even understand, if you don't study it. And we have "something" to do with each other.
True !! ^^
Hans are you possibly finnish?
Hans is martian. But don't let anyone know he is here on the planet. They might build a space wall and send him back.
I am not. :) I have a basic understanding of Scandinavian languages, but no finnish at all.
What about Chinese?? Cantonese Korean Japanese Vietnamese
Korean and Japanese are considered as "isolated languages" without clear origin. It is suspected that they come from the same language tree as Mongolian though.
Replying to the comment below by Horizon Star - sorry, Korean has been around for a long time. Like Vietnamese, they did use Chinese characters for a long time, but designed their own alphabet in the 1500s or so. You're confusing script with language. They are not the same thing.
this is article is just about Indo European language . Korean , Japanese, south Indian languages doesnt come under Indo European language tree
arabic/hebrew? altaic/turkish thank you regardless
Some South Indian are missing too. I guess it is the same reason.
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so the western guys dont know anything about east asia.Japanese charcters all come from china, you guys should read same book about the relationship between Tang dinasty and old japan, know what is "遣唐使"(students and Buddhist went to china to learn chinese culture ).also about Korean before "训民正音"（the language that today korean speak）king and other nobilities speaked and written chinese only.
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No, they are from Chinese. Korean only exist a couple hundred years, before that, they used Chinese as their language.
Was wondering the same, also where are the African languages and dialects?
They aren't Indo-European, that's why they weren't included.