E 1027          YOU

The word " you " is of Germanic origin .

H 0475            ך- ; -כ

Concept of root : you

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ך- ; -כ

-kha; -akh, -ekh

(to) you

Related English words

you , Old English ge

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ך- ; -כ

-kha ;

-akh, -ekh

(to) you

-kh -

English

you

you

y < g

Old English

ge > ye

you

g – > y -

Dutch

gij, ge >

jij, je

ghei, ghe >

yei, ye

you

gh -

Flemish

gij, ge

ghaa, ghe

you

gh -

 

 

Hebrew *AKH, KHA --- *GHE, GHĪ GHĀ Dutch < "GHĪ Proto-Germanic

 

 

The similarity is not seen immediately, unless the reader knows that the English letter or sound Y , as in " you " , very often has developed out of a previous G.

 

In this entry once more Dutch comes near to Hebrew in these pronouns of the second person. The main difference is that these Hebrew words are not used in the first case, and the Dutch words specifically in the first case.

 

Note:
  • English. The "Y" in "you" has originally been a G or GH. This alteration is very frequent in English, also at the end of words, like in " sunny " that corresponds with German " sonnig ". This development is also common in Scandinavia.

     

    Modern English " you " in the nominative has gone through an adaptation with the dative and accusative, that in Old English were " eow " .

 

Note:
  • Dutch. The words shown here are still regularly used in the southern Netherlands and in the Flanders, that is the northern half of Belgium. In the official language and in the old Seven Provinces they have undergone a comparable development as in English. Already around 1500 e.v. in popular language the first case has become "jij" or "je", the other cases "je" or "jou". This last has nearly the same sound as found in Old English "eow".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. In older languages we see Old North Franconian "gī", Old Saxon "gi" and Old English "ge". There is a tendency to consider " G " in these forms with initial " G " as developed out of " J ", because Gothic had "jūs". But a development of " J " out of " G " is frequent and somewhat natural in Germanic. The other way around is practically unknown. Thus Proto-Germanic probably had "*GH Ī " or "*GH Ī ".

     

    Presumably Gothic has changed from " G " to " J " earlier. This does not change by the fact that an initial " J " is found in many other groups within Indo-European, such as Old Indian "yūyám", Avestan "yūžem, yūs", Baltic "jūš". Important is to know that in many cases within Indo-European only Germanic shows certain similarities with Semitic. Such a case is present here.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew and Dutch. Of the Germanic languages only Dutch uses the same consonant as Hebrew, be it not in the same grammatical case, as we remarked before. We say the same, though the spelling is not the same. We have two reasons for that.

     

    Firstly, the difference in Hebrew between the KHAF (KH) and the GHET (GH) has always been limited. Confusion has existed in some cases about which alphabetic sign was the most idoneous for some sounds, like these especially. Secondly, and this is not a valid reason in etymology, modern speakers that are not of Middle Eastern origin make no difference between the two at all. They are a vast majority in Israel.

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 27/12/2012 at 15.29.56