Tag: Dutch

Odd word order for German modal verbs

When I started learning German to a reasonable level, I was puzzled by 2 oddities in how modal verbs work. I’ll start by giving some background. In German main clauses, the finite verb appears in 2nd position (example 1). A finite verb is a verb form that marks the person and number of the subject—…… Continue reading Odd word order for German modal verbs

Language or dialect

Two language varieties are often regarded as separate languages if they differ greatly and if speakers of each variety cannot easily understand the other variety.  They are often viewed as dialects of a single language if they differ little and if their speakers can readily understand each other. In between those extremes, there is no clear distinction between a…… Continue reading Language or dialect

Some differences in prepositions

Prepositions are some of the trickiest things to get right when learning a language. Many languages (probably all) have prepositions that they use in some circumstances when other languages use a preposition that is not the one that most routine and obvious general translation equivalent. Here is a good example I found in Sugisaki (2016).…… Continue reading Some differences in prepositions

Where did Russian words come from (3)?

In earlier posts, I looked at 78 words that Russian inherited directly from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the presumed ancestor of the Indo-European family of languages. Those words were: 27 adjectives, 3 adverbs and 5 numerals. https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/01/where-did-russian-words-come-from/ 43 verbs https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/02/where-did-russian-words-come-from-2/ In this post, I look at 56 nouns inherited by Russian directly from PIE. In future posts,…… Continue reading Where did Russian words come from (3)?

Where did Russian words come from (2)?

In an earlier post, I looked at 35 words that Russian inherited directly from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the presumed ancestor of the Indo-European family of languages. Those words were 27 adjectives, 3 adverbs and 5 numerals. https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/01/where-did-russian-words-come-from/ In this post, I look at 43 verbs inherited by Russian directly from PIE. In future posts, I will…… Continue reading Where did Russian words come from (2)?

The future of German noun plurals

Native German nouns typically form their plurals with a variety of markers, including vowel changes (‘Umlaut’), -(e)n, -(e) and (-er). The marker -s is used for some words borrowed from other languages and for items such as acronyms, abbreviations and some proper names. Janda (2021) predicts (perhaps surprisingly) that -s will ultimately become the regular…… Continue reading The future of German noun plurals

Shaetlan—the language of Shetland

Shaetlan, the language of Shetland, has now been awarded an ISO 3-letter code: scz  https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/scz For more on ISO language codes, please see Russian: an official language at the ISO – Language Miscellany Shaetlan has sometimes been regarded as ‘just a dialect’ of English or as a ‘just a dialect’ of Scots, but the awarding…… Continue reading Shaetlan—the language of Shetland

Citation form for English verbs

The form used as the name of a noun or verb is sometimes known as the noun or verb’s citation form. In some Indo-European languages, the citation form for a verb is its infinitive. In many cases, the infinitive has an inflectional suffix, for example French infinitives generally end in -er, -ir, -re or -oir.…… Continue reading Citation form for English verbs

Where did Albanian borrow words from?

In this post, I look at 68 words that Albanian borrowed from other languages,. Most of the words were borrowed from other Indo-European languages. In a previous post, I mentioned 70 other words that Albanian inherited directly from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the presumed ancestor of the Indo-European family of languages. https://languagemiscellany.com/2025/09/where-did-albanian-words-come-from/ The information comes from the…… Continue reading Where did Albanian borrow words from?