In Episode #34, Tim takes a deep look at a single Proto-Indo-European root, BL, which is found in words like BALL, BELLY, BALLOON and BELLOWS. Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was a language first spoken around 6500 years before present in what is now Ukraine. Learning many words with the same root helps you make connections between words so you remember them better.
You can remember the words in today’s episode even better with this handy PDF:
English Words With the PIE root BL
Tim also discussed ancient PIE roots in two episodes earlier in 2023:
Episode #15: Ancient word roots. Plus horror stories. – English with Tim
Episode #19: Learn D1 English with ancient word roots. – English with Tim
I almost forgot the word “boulder”, which is a very large, round stone; “boulder” also contains the BL root.
Hey, Tim! That was enlightening, the Russian word yabloko came to my mind immediately. And one more thing: let’s normalize bulging bellies, especially during that festive season we’re in, stuffing our faces with delicious food) Kudos for the handout.
I also realized that the German word for blister, like a blister you get on your foot from walking too much in uncomfortable shoes, is also Blase.
As for bulging bellies- yes, absolutely! I’ve been trying with mixed results to hit the gym- with family in town for only a few days at a time, that is not always easy to do! So may the bellies bulge.
I’m glad you liked the handout, and hope it sees some classroom use at some point!
There are two additional words related to food that have the BL root: bolus (medical term for a ball of chewed up food inside someone’s mouth/ that has fallen into the stomach’s acid pit), and belch! (Note that I have presented these words in what I hope is chronological order.)
As for h₂ébōl, the theoretical PIE word that became Apfel/ apple/ яблоко, and so on Wiktionary says that it probably does not belong to the oldest layer of PIE, because it’s found only in Western PIE languages.
Tangentially, apparently IE speakers lived as far east as what is now western China- archeologists have discovered there tall bodies with red hair and dressed in Celtic-looking kilts!
Well, I thought of two more BL words: “blast”, which means explosion, and “blob”, which refers to any piece of material that is three dimensional and holds its (irregular but roughly ball-like) shape while being somewhere between a liquid and a solid. For example, you could have a blob of jam, a blob of partially dried blood, a blob of grease, a blob of olive oil (if it’s been in the fridge long enough to make the oil more solid), a blob of mayonnaise, a blob of snot.
You seem to be really into that stuff!) Well, what about блин then? I’m too lazy to check that out. Oh блять – also an interesting one as all swear words.
Great recording, Tim, thanks! I once read about the PIE root of the word ‘bear,’ which primarily means ‘to carry’ or ‘to bear.’ We have words such as ‘barge,’ ‘burden’ (something that is carried), and ‘bearer.’ I’m not sure, though, why an animal is named like this. Maybe it’s because it has the burden of staying without food for six months during hibernation?!
P.S. thank you for the exercises in the PDF file, it was fun to do them.
Hi Rushad,
Thanks for the kind words, I am happy that you enjoyed this episode!
It so happens that I talked with the PIE root BR in Episode 19:
https://englishwithtim.com/2023/08/episode-19-learn-d1-english-with-ancient-word-roots/
If you want to know just some words with that root, here they are (take into account the sound change /b/ <-> /p/ <-> /f/):
burden, born, pregnant, embarrassed, freight, freighter, porter.
I was surprised by the word barge- it totally makes sense, as a barge is
a very long, open-topped boat with a shallow draft that carries cargo on rivers, usually things like coal and wood. However I looked up the etymology and found that “barge” actually comes from Coptic, which did not descend from PIE, but rather from Afro-Asiatic, the language family that includes Semitic languages like Hebrew and all the Arabic “dialects” (although Coptic is not in the Semitic subgroup of Afro-Asiatic).
Nonetheless, if I ever create a book or other resource on PIE roots, I will include “barge” and point out that it does fit in with the other BR words in a mnemonic sense, but that it is actually a “red herring”.
As for bear (animal), it apparently comes from PIE for “brown”!
Tim
Hi Tim, very interesting indeed and it reminds me the noun “able” (to be able to). Apart from BL roots, there are are many words that come from Persian language to Turkish language but I can see them also in English.
Brother: Birader
Perish: Perishan
Shire: Chayir (green grass field, usually for yor ships to eat)
Lip: Leb (The transformation of ba, va and pa case)
Vater: Peder
Daughter: Daughter (Not in Turkish, but directly from Persian)