‘Child ~ children’ means the same as German ‘Kind ~ Kinder’ and Dutch ‘kind ~ kinderen’, and they look alike too. However, it’s not etymologically related to them in any way. ‘Kind’ is distantly related to Greek ‘génesis’ (creation) and Italian ‘gente’ (people). ‘Child’ has a different origin: - ThreadSky

yvanspijk.bsky.social • 7 days ago

‘Child ~ children’ means the same as German ‘Kind ~ Kinder’ and Dutch ‘kind ~ kinderen’, and they look alike too.

However, it’s not etymologically related to them in any way.

‘Kind’ is distantly related to Greek ‘génesis’ (creation) and Italian ‘gente’ (people).

‘Child’ has a different origin:

Comments

ee1.nl•7 days ago

Wow, that is fascinating. No but really ;) Does bairn/barn/bern fit anywhere in there? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bairn

yvanspijk.bsky.social•7 days ago

'Bairn' and its family are unrelated. Here's a graphic I made about them:

laurenbajek.bsky.social•6 days ago

Very cool! Just the other day I was wondering about the German Kind and the english meanings of "kind"-- as in "type" or as in "nice, generous"

yvanspijk.bsky.social•7 days ago

2/

If you're subscribed to tier 2 of my Patreon, you can download an audio file of the reconstructed pronunciation of the historical Germanic words featured in the infographic (1:28, 44 forms) - plus the hypothetical English words *ċīþ and *chithe. Link in bio.

ervinsperla.bsky.social•6 days ago

The plurals are related though, aren't they. And they create the sense of similarity. Only looking at the words in singular, child vs kind, they're not similar.

yvanspijk.bsky.social•6 days ago

Yes, the plural endings are related (as they stem from Proto-Germanic *-izō) but that goes for the plural endings of 'cats' and 'dogs' too.

ervinsperla.bsky.social•6 days ago

Thank you. What I was trying to say is that in singular they don't look/sound similar at all, so their different origin is not surprising.

yvanspijk.bsky.social•6 days ago

Certainly, and I agree that they don't look and sound similar at all. However, many people do think so - in fact, I got quite some comments from people on my other platforms who always thought 'child' and 'kind' were related.