E 0904          THAT, THIS, DAET, DIS

English "that, this" and Old English "daet, dis " are of Germanic origin .

H 0299            א ד

            י ד

Concept of root : that, this

Aramaic word

pronunciation

English meanings

א ד;

ך ד

d’a ;

dakh, dekh

this;

that

Related English words

that; this

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

א ד;

י ד

d’a;

di

this;

that, which, who

d (a)

d (i)

Aramaic

א ד, ה נ ד ;

ך ד, ן כ ד

-

d’a, dәnà;

dakh, dekh, dikken

this;

that

-

d (a), d n .;

d kh, d k n

-

Old English

dis ;

dæt

dis

dæt

this;

that

d(i)s;

d(a)t

Dutch

dit ;

dat, die

dit;

dat , die

this;

that

d(i)t;

d(a)t; d(i)

Dutch dialect

dinne;

da

dinne ;

da

this;

that

d(i)n .;

d(a)

 

 

Proto-Semitic *DA --- *TA , *DA Indo-European

 

 

This entry must be seen in relation with number E 0913 (Hebrew 0413).

 

We must excuse ourselves for again calling to testify Dutch, a relatively smaller language with only some 25 million speakers. But once more it is in Dutch that we find the strongest similarity with Semitic. In this case also Old English was rather near .

 

 

Note:
  • Old English did not, or no more pronounce these D’s as a normal D, but was already much nearer the modern English TH in " that" .

 

Note:
  • Aramaic and Hebrew. Aramaic, interestingly, shows as well a form "ד נ ה , dena " that is not far from Dutch dialectal forms.

     

    Especially interesting is that we find in Hebrew, besides "ד א , "da" that means " this", also the word "ד י , di" with the spelling "Daleth Yod", but the relative meaning " that ", as well as "which" and "who". The relative meaning of "that" is considered a development out of the demonstrative one.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. The pronouns of this entry have a D , that is present in Aramaic, which we compare with German and Dutch. In Hebrew there are pronouns with the same meanings, but that have a Z . That is nearer to English, that has changed over from D to TH in for example "thou", as in the article "the" that compares with Dutch "de". Obviously the form with "D" is the older one and it most probably was used in Proto-Semitic : "*ד", pronounced with a vowel " A ": " da ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. In older and newer Germanic languages we find for the word "that" an initial vowel "D", that is or was often pronounced near the "TH" of English "that". It is spelled as such also in Old Saxon "that" and Old High German "thaz", also spelled "daz". The closing consonant is "T" with the exception of German "das" and its predecessors. This is just a typical development in German. The vowel is "A", also in East Germanic (Gothic "data") but with the exception of Old Frisian "thet" Old English "dæt" and the modern English pronunciation as or near to "È". Proto-Germanic presumably had "*D.A.T-".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. The above comparison has been made with Germanic, but there are cognates in some important Indo-European languages.

     

    Old Indian "tád = this, that".

     

    Avestan "tat- = that".

     

    Slavic has a hypothesis of "to, ta, tŭ , recognizable is Russian "то; это; эт-от,-а,-и, to; èto; èt-ot,-a, -i = that; this, that; these".

     

    Latin "iste, ista, istud " for "this, that" is considered related but the reasoning has to be rather complex, as is the case with Old Indian "ētád = this" and

     

    Greek "ουτος, utos = this, that".

     

    An existing hypothesis of an Indo-European "*T O-" is not very convincing, as this "O" is seen very seldom and where it exists, it can be explained by gender. More probable is thus that so common vowel " A " , in a "*T A- or "*D A-, that received extensions for cases or possibly diversifications.

     

    The southern and eastern Indo-European languages have a consonant " T ". Germanic has " D ", becoming in English " TH ". It happens more often that Semitic has a stronger similarity with Germanic than with other Indo-European groups of languages. There is no clear explanation for this and in the actual case there remains uncertainty if the " D " or the " T " was the original consonant. We tend to prefer " D ", but have no proof for it.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 13/10/2012 at 15.59.00