4 ms·

Soften the R-phoneme into an L-ish one, or harsh the L into an R, and maybe pronounce it a bit more Russian than Czech: 'Robot' is not a Slavonic root, it is a

Soften the R-phoneme into an L-ish one, or harsh the L into an R, and maybe pronounce it a bit more Russian than Czech: 'Robot' is not a Slavonic root, it is a close cousin of the Latin 'labor'. Swap vowel and consonant in the first syllable: See, that's German 'arbeit' ('work'). A robot is a worker, the word is ancient and Indoeuropean. Also: I am clearly not a linguist.

stevula 10y ago
I don't think there is good evidence to suggest a connection between English robot and Latin labor (earlier labos), but robot is cognate with German Arbeit [1]. All the sources I normally use say labor is of uncertain etymology. It is not enough to just rationalize a possible set of sound changes that would lead to a transformation; you need to also prove that such sound changes are consistent with sound changes that normally occur in the divergence of two related languages. 1. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=robot http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=robot
- interfixus 10y ago
  Actually, looking up the Sanskrit for 'work' suggests to me that I am on fairly solid ground: '√अरर्य'. transcribed as 'ararya'.
  - stevula 10y ago
    That word is actually from the word for "awl" and means "to (work with) awl". There are lots of phonological coincidences in languages, which is why the methodology I was hinting at is so important.
    - interfixus 10y ago
      I know there are. But listen, we agree on the relatedness of Slav 'rabo/robo' and Germanic 'Arbeit' (same in all Scandinavian languages), right? That relatedness very clearly suggests a very old, common Indoeuropean ancestor. Latin 'labor' really doesn't sound like an all to unikely cousin, then.
natoliniak 10y ago
I am also not a linguist, but at least in Polish, the term "robot" or its derivatives are used as a root of other words: Robotnik - construction worker Robota - Work/labor and sometimes Job Robocizna - Billable work Robic - to do something and there might be others i cant think of right now
Asooka 10y ago
Yes, they come from the same proto-indo-european root! The word is still slavic, since that's how the proto-indo-european root changed in the territories inhabited by slavic people, as opposed to the changes that happened in latin. Same how "arbeit" is germanic. If you go back long enough, German, Italian and Czech are the same language, but that doesn't mean that modern classification of differences isn't relevant.
- interfixus 10y ago
  I didn't mean to imply that they were. Just pointing out the kinship.

stevula 10y ago

I don't think there is good evidence to suggest a connection between English robot and Latin labor (earlier labos), but robot is cognate with German Arbeit [1]. All the sources I normally use say labor is of uncertain etymology. It is not enough to just rationalize a possible set of sound changes that would lead to a transformation; you need to also prove that such sound changes are consistent with sound changes that normally occur in the divergence of two related languages. 1. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=robot http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=robot

interfixus 10y ago
Actually, looking up the Sanskrit for 'work' suggests to me that I am on fairly solid ground: '√अरर्य'. transcribed as 'ararya'.
- stevula 10y ago
  That word is actually from the word for "awl" and means "to (work with) awl". There are lots of phonological coincidences in languages, which is why the methodology I was hinting at is so important.
  - interfixus 10y ago
    I know there are. But listen, we agree on the relatedness of Slav 'rabo/robo' and Germanic 'Arbeit' (same in all Scandinavian languages), right? That relatedness very clearly suggests a very old, common Indoeuropean ancestor. Latin 'labor' really doesn't sound like an all to unikely cousin, then.

natoliniak 10y ago

I am also not a linguist, but at least in Polish, the term "robot" or its derivatives are used as a root of other words: Robotnik - construction worker Robota - Work/labor and sometimes Job Robocizna - Billable work Robic - to do something and there might be others i cant think of right now

Asooka 10y ago

Yes, they come from the same proto-indo-european root! The word is still slavic, since that's how the proto-indo-european root changed in the territories inhabited by slavic people, as opposed to the changes that happened in latin. Same how "arbeit" is germanic. If you go back long enough, German, Italian and Czech are the same language, but that doesn't mean that modern classification of differences isn't relevant.

interfixus 10y ago
I didn't mean to imply that they were. Just pointing out the kinship.