Biography
As you can find you ancestor it is often possible to find the
ancestor of a word applying some simple rules how the pronunciation
changed during times. You will detect, that the work in one language is
often a sibling
of a word in another language, which does not appear evident at all on
the first glance. Let's take the French word EVÊQUE (Bishop)
and the German word BISCHOFF which means Bishop as well. First of all lets write phonetically and apply the first rule which
says that F / V id equal to B / P (as in Father = Père, or Brother = Frère).
| Original |
EVÊQUE |
BISCHOFF |
| Rule 1 |
EPÊK |
PISCHOP |
Let's exam the accent circumflex which was pronounced like a S and the German SCH pronounced as SK like in English school.
| Original |
EVÊQUE |
BISCHOFF |
| Rule 1 |
EPÊK |
PISCHOP |
| Rule 2 |
EPESK |
PISKOP |
French cuts usually the last syllable of a word and German cuts rather at the beginning.
| Original |
EVÊQUE |
BISCHOFF |
| Rule 1 |
EPÊK |
PISCHOP |
| Rule 2 |
EPESK |
PISKOP |
| Rule 3 |
EPESKOP |
EPISKOP |
| Ancestor |
EPI-SKOPOS |
Here we are, the ancestor is Greek and does still exist in words like Episcopal. Epi will say "over, on" and SKOPOS watch, see
(microscope, telescope, horoscope). The ancestor of the word had the meaning of Supervisor.
Johannes Waldispuhl
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