New Anglo-Saxon treasure found

Visit the link (BBC NEWS)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/8272058.stm.

El inglés y sus palabras más antiguas

An unexpected piece of news in 20minutos punto es about English, some words and Indo-European. Click here.

A. Alcaraz

Listening to Old and Middle English

If you are interested in knowing how Old English and Middle English really sounded like, check the following link from the Norton Anthology. You can listen to excerpts from all periods, but surely the most interesting for us is "The Middle Ages". You can listen to Caedmon's Hymn, The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, among others!
Enjoy!

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/noa/audio.htm#poems

A commentary on Ana Bueno's posting

MONEY, MONEDA, MINT

I would like to expand a little on Ana Bueno’s posting on the English (Eng) and Spanish (Sp) cognate words money and moneda. First, here is a quote from Wikipedia about Juno: “As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman empire she was called Regina ("queen") and, together with Jupiter and Minerva, was worshipped as a triad on the Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome. As the Juno moneta (which either means "the one who warns" or "the one unique" or "union unique") she guarded over the finances of the empire and had a temple on the Arx (one of two Capitoline hills), close to the Royal Mint.” (Wikipedia s.v. Juno. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(mythology) [03/12/2008]). For this reason, she often appeared on coins (see photo, downloaded from Wikipedia, but ultimately from http://www.wildwinds.com/). Second, English borrowed the word money, not from Latin but from French, in Middle English (ME). According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), s.v. money (http://dictionary.oed.com [04/12/2008]), English took the word from Anglo-Norman monai, moné, monee, moneie, monoie, munee, munei and Old French monoie, monnoie, moneie, monee, monae, monaye. The French words, of course, like the Sp moneda, descend from Latin (Lat) monēta, the feminine past participle of the verb monēo “to warn”, as Ana Bueno wrote. The first citation given in the OED belongs to 1325: “þei iyef him. þrythi plates of god mone”. However, English had already borrowed the same word straight from Latin in Anglo-Saxon times and this word survives in Modern English (ModE): mint. One obvious question is why Eng money, Sp moneda, French (Fr) monnaie have the same vowel, (“o”) while mint has a different vowel (“i”), if all of them derive from Lat monēta. The answer lies in a assimilatory sound change called Palatal Umlaut, whereby a velar vowel is fronted or palatalized by an /i/ or /j/ in the following syllable. Since monēta, at the time it was borrowed by the Germanic tribes, was pronounced /munita/, the /i/ of the second syllable caused the /u/ of the first syllable to become /ü/: Lat /munita/ > OE mynt / mynet. Later, in ME, this /ü/ further palatized to /i/, whence today’s spelling and pronunciation mint /mint/. When one word -monēta- is borrowed twice (in Anglo-Saxon times -mynt- and in the 14th c. -money-), the loans constitute a doublet. Normally doublets end up meaning different, though semantically related, things. In the 15th c. mint expanded its meaning to “an establishment where money is coined, usually under the authority and direction of the state” (OED, s.v. mint 2.a http://dictionary.oed.com [04/12/2008]). This is the usual meaning it has today. The older meaning that mint had had since OE was “coin”, but this meaning was lost in the 16th c. Why should the meaning of mint change, anyway? Probably because English already possessed other words for the concept “coin”: coin (14th c.) and, yes, money, which for several centuries was also a countable noun meaning “coin” (OED, s.v. money 4 http://dictionary.oed.com [04/12/2008]). (Another similar doublet is bench and bank, but this is matter for another blog posting.)

Where do "moneda" and "money" come from?

The other day in class we were commenting on the origin of the cognate words moneda (Spanish for coin) and English money, and I suggested that they came from the Latin verb monēo "to warn". At first sight this might not make much sense: what can the relationship between money/moneda and warn be?? But I knew I had read it somewhere: you always remember things that strike you! And I have finally found it!

In his Lenguaje e historia, Salvador Núñez states that both money and moneda derive from the perfect participle of the verb monēo, namely, monēta, which was one of the epithets used for the Roman goddess Juno. This seems only logical, since she was the protector and special counselor of the state. But, again, where do moneda and money come into play? Well, curiously enough, it was in her temple in Rome were money was coined!

Ælfric's Colloquy, Latin-OE

Aelfric is one of the most prominent figures in OE and the greatest prose writer of his time. His Colloquy of the Occupations is one of the most significant works in the history of the language. It's full of information about Anglo-Saxon occupations and livelihoods but the most interesting thing is the relation that exists in this work between Latin and OE and how we can compare both languages. It was written in the late 10th century, at the time of the Benedictine reform when latin was absolutely established. He wrote his Colloquy in Latin, but then it was supplied by an OE version -an interlinear gloss- so it's actually written in both languages. In the Fisherman's part we can observe, for example, this sentence:

Latin - Quia periculosa res est capere cetum

OE - Forþam plyhtlic þingc hit ys gefon hwæl

English - Because dangerous thing it is to catch a whale.

Periculosa: Periculosus adj. (fem. periculosa, neuter periculosum). It means "dangerous" or "full of peril", from periculum n. (pericula), Latin.

To listen to a snatch of the Colloquy and appreciate what English in Anglo-Saxon times may have sounded like, here is link to a passage describing the baker's job: http://wwwbbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/storysofar/ramfiles/aelfric.ram

FOUL, DEFILE, PUTRID, SUPPURATE

LUIS FERNANDO

According to the Indo-European roots Index of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. www.bartleby.com/61/. [05/11/08], all these words, whole or just a part of them ultimately derive from the IE root “* PU-”, meaning “ to rot or decay”. According to Grimm´s Law 1 , voiceless plosives became voiceless fricatives, /p/ > /f/.

“FOUL” derives from OE word “*ful”, which means “unclean, rotten”. On the other hand, “DEFILE” derives from OE word “*fylan”, which means “to sully” and it must have been borrowed from the old French word “defouler”. The word “PUTRID” derives from the Classical Latin word “putere” which means “to be rotten”. Finally, the word “SUPPURATE” derives from Classical Latin verb “suppurare”, which means “to produce or leak pus”.

Other words containing the IE root “*PU-” are putrefy, purulent, pus… etc.

Work, worker and wright

Sorry for my lateness but I have had problems with my computer.
Indoeuropean Root, Germanic, Old English and Modern English.

If we research about these three words we can find that "work", "worker" and "wright" are related with the word " werg"according to the Indoeuropean Roots Index of the American Heritage Dictionary of English Language.

WORK
In "work" it is necessary to differenciate work as a noun, and work as a verb because each one of them have changed through the history in different ways.

"Work" as a noun comes from the Indouropean root "werg" as I said before it means "to do". In Germanic, "werg" changed to "werc" because of the Grimm´s law " where voiced plosives change to voiceless plosives (g >k)
Thus, "werc" changed to "weorc" in Old English because of an assimilation whereby the epenthetic vowel adjust to the imputted vowel in height and change to dipthong "eo"; and finally this word changed to "work" in Modern English.
This word has had a lot of meaning for example some of them: at the beginning it means "physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something; then " a job, an employment", "the part of a day devoted to an occupation or undetaking", "the manner, style or quality of working or treatment", etc.

Work as a verb it comes from "werg" but it becomes in Old English in "wyrcan" and then it changes to "worch" and finally it becomes "work" because of the substitution of k for ch.
Thank to "work" a a noun we can see the following word "wright".

WRIGHT
It comes from the same root "werg" , then "wurhtjo" in Germanic and later in Old English is "wryhta". It means " a workman, one who does or performs something, a doer or worker". Finally it becomes "wright"in modern English.
This type of work is use in compouns like " playwright"("worker in plays)
Another word is related with "work" and "wright" and this is "worker".

WORKER
It comes from "werg" that changed into werker in germanic "werk + suffix -er".This is because of the Grimm´s Law 2 where voiced plosives changed into voiceless plosives (g > k).
It means " one who makes, creates, produces something"; it is also applied to God as maker or creator but it is also used to refer to an author, producer or doer (similar to wright)

Note
It is curious but this word has not any root in latin to express "work" because this in latin is "tripaliare" and nowadays we can not find any word with this root.

Finally, we can conclude that these three words are related with the Indoeuropean Root "werg".

LORD, WARD, WARDEN AND GUARDIAN

MARTA CASTILLO

LORD, WARD, WARDEN AND GUARDIAN

All these words, whole or just a part of them, ultimately derive from the Indo-European (IE) root *WER- which meant “to perceive, watch out for” and *WEAR- which “The act of guarding or protecting”, according to the Indo-European Roots Index of The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. www.bartleby.com/61/. [12/11/08].

LORD

The form of lord in OE was hlāfweard, the result of hlāf “bread” + weard “keep, guard”, so that lord literally meant “the keeper or guardian of bread”. Weard can be traced back to the IE root *WER-, which meant “to perceive, watch out for” The lord was the male head of a household.

WARD

It comes from OE ward was wearda. war -, an extended form of *war- to watch, guard . Ward means “A watchman, guard, keeper, warden”.
Common in OE. It often applied to God, as in rodora weard, keeper of the skies. Later, chiefly as the second element in compounds, as bear-, gate-, hay-, mill-, woodward.. Weard can be traced back to the IE root *WER-, which meant “to perceive, watch out for”

GUARDIAN

This word comes from Old French g(u)arden and from English *warding-, f. wardâ WARD n. + -ing. Ward means “A watchman, guard, keeper, warden”. The assimilation of the ending to the suffix -ien, which has given the mod.F. gardien, while the appearance of the corresponding -ian in the Eng. In conclusion, guardian is ‘one to whom the care and preservation of any thing is committed’

WARDEN

It comes from the words in Old French wardein, north-eastern var. of guarden, -ene and the Middle English wardein, from Old North French, from warder, to guard, of Germanic origin. Ward means “A watchman, guard, keeper, warden”. Certainly, warden means “The chief administrative official of a prison”.

BLACK, BLEACH, BLEAK, Spanish BLANCO
As we can see, these words ultimately derive from the Indo- European (IE) root bhel-1 which means “to shine, flash, burn, shining white and various bright colors” according to the Indo-European Roots Index of The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. www.bartleby.com/61/. [05/11/08]. The extended root *bhle -, is contracted to *bhl -. It is also suffixed form *bhl -wo-. blue, from Old French bleu, blue, and from Germanic (Gmc) *bl waz, blue. It is also explained as the extended root *bhleg- is constracted to *bhl -.with the meaning of “to shine, flash, burn”.

The original OE form of black was blæc and this root became *blak- in Germanic (Gmc). The same root produced in OE is blac which means “white, bright”, the common notion being "lack of hue." The main OE word for black was sweart. In ME it is often doubtful whether blac, blak, blake, which means “black, dark, or pale, colourless, wan, livid”.
The corresponding OE form of bleach is bleacan which comes from the Germanic (Gmc) form *blaikjan and which means “to make white”. In ME became blechen from OE bleacan.
The word bleak became bleke, probably alteration (influenced by bleke, pale) of blay, from OE bleage. In ME it became bleik, “pale”, from Old Norse bleikr, “shinning, white”. The word comes from Germanic (Gmc) *blaikaz, “shining, white”.
Some derived forms from Germanic (Gmc) are blende, from Old Norse blanda, "to mix"; blond from Germanic *blendaz, “clouded”, and *bland-, *bland-ja-, which means “to mix, mingle” (< “make cloudy”). Or also blench from Old English blencan, meaning “to deceive”; then we have blanch, blank, blanket, blancmange, which came from Old French blanc, "white". Both blench and blanch came from Germanic *blenk-, *blank-, meaning “to shine, dazzle, blind”. So in this way we can see a little development of de word black “being of the color black, producing or reflecting comparatively little light and having no predominant hue; having little or no light: a black, moonless night”, to the other one blanco as the word blanc means “white” we know that in Spanish it means “blanco”.

Other words containing the IE root *bhe-l are beluga, from Russian bely , “white”; Beltane, from Scottish Gaelic bealltainn, from Old Irish beltaine, “fire of Bel” (ten, tene, fire; see tep-), from Bel, “name of a pagan Irish deity akin to the Gaulish divine name Beleno”, from Celtic *bel-o- ;phalarope, from Greek phalaros, meaning “having a white spot”.