Thanks for a fascinating historical insight. The linguistic breakdown below is AI-assisted, but I couldn't improve on it — the English sentence is mine.
Because the sentence deals with abstract ideas like interesting and similarities — which often lean on borrowed Latin roots in modern European languages — taking it into both Nynorn and Afrikaans reveals a fascinating split in how Germanic languages choose their words.
The side-by-side comparison
- English: “This is really interesting, I can almost understand Norn due to similarities in Afrikaans.”
- Nynorn: “Þetta er virðiliga áhugavert, eg kann næstan skilja norn vegna líkleika í afrikaans.”
- Afrikaans: “Dit is regtig interessant, ek kan amper Norn verstaan as gevolg van ooreenkomste in Afrikaans.”
Where they match, and where they split
The shared core: “This is” — Nynorn Þetta er sounds almost identical to Afrikaans Dit is. “I can” — Nynorn eg kann matches Afrikaans ek kan perfectly. “Almost” — Nynorn næstan connects deeply to the Dutch/Afrikaans root naas (near / next to), though Afrikaans prefers amper.
The split on “understand”: Nynorn uses skilja (the root of the English word skill — originally meaning to separate or discern), while Afrikaans uses verstaan (related to English understand).
The split on “interesting”: Afrikaans borrowed interessant from French/Latin, while Nynorn keeps a pure, poetic Germanic compound — áhugavert, literally “worth-mind” or “worthy of attention.”
This piece was first shared as a note on my Substack.