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frogulis 5 hours ago

Boy that unc/uncer looks tantalisingly close to modern German uns/unser. Wiktionary seems to have it descending from a different PIE root, n̥s vs n̥h -- I'm not at all familiar with PIE though.

shakna 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

n̥ is just the "not" prefix. The "ero" is the real root. The prefix applies to the root first, and then the other pieces have their meanings, usually. (Its a reconstructed language. There are both exceptions and things we don't know.)

"n̥-s-ero-" is sort of < "not" next-is-plural "mine" >.

So, plural-(invert mine). Or roughly close to "we".

"n̥-h-ero-" is sort of < "not" next-is-inclusive-plural "mine" >.

So, plural-(group (invert mine)). Or roughly close to "us".

But both are pretty close to the same meaning. High German maintained a lot of PIE, and is very close in a lot of ways. Though... Welsh is closer.

z500 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I've never heard of it being based on that root before. Do you have a source?

4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]
[deleted]
eigenspace 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That was my first thought too! So many things in old-english are very very close to modern German, so it's sometimes surprising to see these false-friends.

stvltvs an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Contrary to what GP said, they're not false friends. They're a (lost) part of English's Germanic roots, shared with modern German.

Edit: Check out the Proto-Germanic personal pronouns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Proto-Germanic_person...

shermantanktop an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Oh, you mean “Falsche Freunde”?

I have no idea how to say that idiomatically in German, but it struck me that those are both “true” friends.

pantalaimon an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Same with Ic - Ich