• barsoap@lemm.ee
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    6 hours ago

    Speaking of clocks, let me congratulate you on being one of the Germanic languages where “clock” and “bell” are the same word, as is proper.

    In Low Saxon nobody really knows the gender of anything any more because gender markers are basically extinct, noun gender is ever so subtly different from Standard German, and native proficiency jumped a generation. I’d really rather mark the objective case everywhere than make a distinction that only masculine nouns are marked. Having a similar evolutionary trajectory as English is all fine and good, they’re closely related languages, but forgetting about “whom”? Gods no.

    • lime!@feddit.nu
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      6 hours ago

      i mean we did also import “ur” from german so that we don’t have to wear wristbandbells.

      speaking of, it just hit me than i have no idea where the convention of saying “Uhr” or “o’clock” after the time comes from. need to do some reading on that.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        5 hours ago

        No idea about Uhr but clock most likely dates back to the great wave of clocktower building, 14th century, when timekeeping became mainstream. In Low Saxon “[It is] one o’clock” is “[Dat is] Klock een”, also klock == bell as well as clock, “Uhr” and “hour” both come from French, ultimately PIE *yōr-ā which is also responsible for year. Clock apparently comes from Celtic, onomatopoetic formation.