PECULIARITIES OF LANGUAGES

Finnish

The negation is done using a negative verb e-, whose present indicative active is en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät (originally evät). Some Uralic languages also have the past tense of this verb. The imperative in Finnish is elä/ellös, elköön, elkäämme, elkää, elkööt; but the first e- has changed to ä in modern Finnish. The present participle of this verb is epä, which is now used only as a prefix with the same meaning as the English prefix un-.

English

Good bye < God b'uy < God buy'ye < God be wy ye < God be with ye

Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciaefolia, a plant used as fodder) < Saint Foine < Neo-Latin sanctum foenum 'holy hay' < sanum foenum 'wholesome hay' < herba mĕdica 'healing plant' < herba Mēdica 'Median grass' < Greek Μηδικὴ πόα 'Median grass'

The country name Hungary << a Turkish tribe name (via the Slavonic languages) *ongur < *on-ogur 'ten arrows'. This also gave into Russian the word for Hungary: Ugrin, which gave the English word Ugric.

Latin

Consertis digitis amplexatus sum genu 'I was embraced at my knee by conjoined fingers' = I squeezed my knee (Augustine, Confessiones, 8.8.20)

Naturae debitum reddere 'pay one's debt to nature' = die

Aea = the name of the island where Circe lived. Aeaeus is an adjective derived of it, or an inhabitant of the island. Circe was also calles Aeaea (female inhabitant of Aea). This word has a genitive (which is also the genitive singular and nominative plural of the adjective) Aeaeae (pronounced [ɑiˈɑiɑi] or [eːˈeːeː]). Aeaeae artes, or 'the skills of Aea' means witchcraft.

Domiporta 'gastropod' is literally 'home carrier'.

Classical Greek

The supreme god Zeus can be used as the modal subject in natural phenomena: Ζεὺς ὕει [ˈdzeus ˈhyei] 'Zeus rains'

καταμύω [kɑtɑˈmyoː] 'close one's eyes' = to die

Ancient Egyptian

(nty.w im) 'the ones who are there' = the dead

(t3 ^cwt špst) 'the noble cattle' = people

Maori

New Zealand = Whenua o aotearoa 'The Land of the Long White Cloud'. Whenua = 'land', o = genitive (cf. English of), ao = 'cloud', tea = 'white', roa = 'long'.