I had been taking lessons in French from Richard, a colleague in my institute. I noticed that many words in French have counterparts in English. This is not surprising, because both English and French are European languages and have Latin influences, and the similarities may have derived from a common Latin root. French, Italian and Spanish are much closer to Latin than English (which is a Germanic language). (I am not much well-informed about these classifications. Any comments and corrections are welcome.) I find tracing the origin of words an interesting game. The French lessons gave me a chance to find out some similarities on my own. The French words I will mention are of common usage in the language. (That's why I encountered them in my elementary course.) This is not the case with their English counterparts. Some of them are rarely used. The English and French words are not exactly similar, but can be understood to have come from the same source. Sometimes the meanings are also diffenent, though a connection can be imagined. I will give a few examples below.
marine: When we speak of something related to the sea, we use the word 'marine'. However, the noun 'sea' and its adjective 'marine' sound very different. In French, the word for 'sea' is 'mer', which I think comes from the same source as 'marine' in English. Also, 'sea' is 'mare' in Italian and 'mar' in Spanish.
travail: 'Travail' in English means arduous work. The French word for 'work' is also exactly the same. (The spelling is same. The pronunciation, of course, is different.)
tragic: The French word for 'sad' is 'triste'. 'Tragic' and 'triste' both start with the same consonants, which may have come from a common origin.
chivalry: The word refers to the qualities possessed by a knight, and I first read this word in a school history textbook. I found that in French 'cheval' means horse, and the connection to knight seemed clear.
eternal: For this example I will make a guess. I think it is related with 'été', which in French means 'summer'. Summer has the connotation of a pleasant time. 'Eternal' in English and 'été' in French possibly share a similar root.
parley: I didn't know that such a word existed in English, until I read Sophocles' play 'Electra' in an English translation. From the context it was clear that 'parley' meant a discussion. This can be identified with the French word 'parler', which means 'to speak'. This must also be the origin of 'parliament'.
My interest about finding the roots of words arose from the readings of Indian history. Certain similarities between Sanskrit, Greek and Latin have been important clues about the migration of people in ancient times. There are common features (anecdotes and the names of characters and places) in the ancient texts of India and Iran. In Indian mythology, Indra defeated the demon Vritra and has an epithet 'Vritraghna'. Once I was reading a National Geographic article about an archaeological excavation site in Central Asia. I was surprised when I saw mentioned the name of the ancient Iranian god of war - 'Veretraghan'.
The last anecdote is related to food. There is a cuisine very popular in Bengal called the 'dolma'. It is made from 'potol' ('pointed gourd' in English, 'parwal' in Hindi) - with a stuffing of fish inside. During a visit to Turkey, I had a food item over there which is a stuffing of rice and meat inside capsicum. The striking thing was its name - it is also called 'dolma'! I learnt that 'dolma' is a Turkish word, meaning 'filled'. I had no idea that the name of the Bengali cuisine I liked so much had a distant origin.
Cooperation and development
4 weeks ago
9 comments:
Some observations.
"mer" for sea: now the origin of "mermaid" becomes clear to me. "maid" is also a valid french word, I believe.
parley: it is possible that "parlour" is from the same source, perhaps originally meaning a place where people gathered to chat. Also, "parlance" is pretty surely related to this.
cheval: I think the word "chevalier" with the meaning "horse-rider" or "warrior" is still there in the English dictionary.
The connection between Vritranghna and Veretraghan is interesting. I remember reading Kosambi recently where he suggests, following the literal meaning of "vritraghna" and the associated myth, that it depicts an event where perhaps the clan-leader of an Aryan tribe attacks and destroys a dam built by the Indus people. But if there is an etymological connection here with the Iranian god, then I guess things become more complicated.
I have not heard the word 'maid' being used in French. I have a small French-English dictionary, which I checked after reading your comment, and 'maid' is not listed there. The French words that mean 'maid' do not sound similar to it. I was checking Google Translator after reading your post. The German word for 'girl' is 'mädchen'. Also, it turns out that the German word for 'sea' is 'meer'! Languages are very deep-rooted indeed... The word in Latin is 'mari'.
The French for 'mermaid' in the dictionary is 'sirène'. This is clearly related to the Greek legend of Ulysses, This legend mentions the 'sirens', who inhabited an island in the Mediterranean and enchanted sailors with their songs. The Latin for mermaid is 'syreni'. (Once again, thanks to Google!)
Regarding 'Veretraghan', I initially had the same doubt as you have said. But I am sure Kosambi must have known about the Iranian connection. In the absence of any other material, I turned to Wikipedia. 'Veretraghan', in the Avestan language, means 'the destroyer of blockades'. There is no evidence that the legend of Indra and Veretraghan are the same in ancient Iran. 'Vritraghna' has the same meaning as its Avestan counterpart, but it may have been bestowed upon Indra at a later period. In Kosambi's argument, what is important is the description of Indra's slaying of Vritra, that resembles the destruction of a dam. I do not know if an analogous description exists in Avestan literature as well. A similarity in name does not imply that the myth of Vrithraghna is identical in India and Iran.
missed out on a French word that may have some similarity to 'maid'... it is 'mademoiselle'
I like the article a lot...
Having been here in France for quite some time now, I have observed numerous such connections...from various sources....
one observation...
Été ->> it is the French word for "has been" ....comes from the French verb "être"...I guess the connection to being forever (eternal) is closer to this usage of the word.
Recently I read the book by Purnendu Potri "Purano Kolkatar Kathchitro"....The way he described the origin of all those words that we use in Bengali is amazingly wonderful...
I am sure you can cite plenty of examples from your experience of staying in France. The observation about 'été' is interesting. I was unaware of this particular usage, which does seem closer in meaning to 'eternal'. You can see that my elementary knowledge of French verbs doesn't go much beyond the present tense!
I am well and truly scared to enter the realm of language relations and word etymology, yet, your article tempted me to be a little self-indulgent in recalling some of my experiences about 15 years back. That was the time I was working with a Japanese group and had a tough time communicating whenever the interpreter was away. But following the soft-spoken Japanese friends was often quite fun.
Following them I understood that the Japanese ‘chhotto’ (used often as ‘chhotto up’ or ‘chhotto down’) exactly means ‘a little’. That was illuminating. But no, languages are far more complex and fun. A little inquiry made me understand that it is also used as in ‘a little time’ (sorry I can’t recall the exact Japanese phrase, it was difficult to remember after so many days without use). In request the same chhotto may be used to mean ‘just’ as in ‘Can I just share your screwdriver?’ (I memorized it, but again sorry could not recall). Does it sound almost like similar use of the word chhoto or ektu in Bengali? I felt so. Let me know what you feel and so do experts if anybody is listening. I expect matches in Indo-European language group, but, these matches left me surprised what could be the possible link between Bengali and Japanese?
Another incident left deep impression on me. I was working in a planetarium installation project and as a natural question I asked them through the interpreter ‘Don’t you have an eclipse projector?’ and the interpreter asked them ‘Ecripse (all ‘l’s in Japanese are replaced by ‘r’) projector ga nai?’ and the person addressed to replied ‘Ecripse projector ga nai’ (That’s the assertive form). I felt sorry for me, I could have asked perhaps “Eclipse projector ta nai (nei)?” As an afterthought I felt they would have understood.
good post gamma. rekindled my love for languages. merci beacoup.
i agree with suman: chevalier, i believe, means 'knight', of the shining armour type.
here is an interesting example: the french word for "two" is deux, and is pronounced, i believe, more or less like "the". the hindi word for "two" is "do".
another example: the latin word for "god" is "deus" (which is why mozart's middle name means "one who is loved by god"). now, one form of the word "god" in sanskrit is "deva" or "devas".
i had worked out quite a few such interesting examples, but sadly rust and erosion have taken their toll over the years. all i can is that i read a recent article (probably in the hindu) that all languages originated from a unique core language developed in africa. maybe that is one reason why these amazing similarities keep cropping up.
P.S. i am desperately looking for a copy of steven pinker's "the language instinct". might be good read for language enthusiasts.
Gama: Very nice post.
Suman: Why the undue interest in French Maids? :)
Back to Gama: I think that the common "tr" in tristis (which comes from the Indo European root for bad mood etc) and tragedy (which come from the Greek word for goats and satyrs), is perhaps accidental.
Gama: If you had watched the critically acclaimed (well the critically part is true!) Pirates of the Caribbean series, you would have caught the much loved (or is it hated?) Captain Jack Sparrow saying "parley" whenever he gets into trouble.
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