Talk:немецкий
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how come the word nemetski come from the russian word for mute? does anyone know? Mallerd 15:25, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
- немецкий < немец < немой (dumb, mute), немота (dumbness, muteness) < не + мови, cognate with мова (language), молва (rumour, talk), мол (he says), молвить (to say). When the Slavs first encountered the Germans, they discovered that the Germans did not know how to talk (could not speak an intelligible language), so they were dubbed unable to speak, or mute. That’s also where Leonard Nimoy gets his name. —Stephen 02:23, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
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nĕmъ from *mĕmъ «stammer, stutter» , cf. english mumble «stammer; babble» --Roggy 15:38, 5 January 2009 (UTC)