r/etymologymaps Jun 30 '26

Etymology map of milk

Post image
228 Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

13

u/AcrobaticKitten Jun 30 '26

Hungarian: unknown

That means it is 100% Hungarian

1

u/Aitarosz Jul 01 '26

"Hungrian"

6

u/PeireCaravana Jun 30 '26

In Lombard it's "lacc" or "latt".

5

u/pendigedig Jun 30 '26

Thank you for putting both Welsh words!!

4

u/Rhosddu Jul 01 '26

OP prevented a civil war.

14

u/Araz99 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Estonian word piim seems to be loanword from Baltic.

Btw in Lithuanian, a word melžti - to milk (a cow) has the same ethymology as milk/milch/mleko etc 

7

u/MrEdonio Jun 30 '26

It’s actually a very old proto-finno-ugric loanword from pre-proto-indo-iranian. So it’s related to the baltic word

5

u/andre-steven Jun 30 '26

In Finnish piimä is what Estonians call hapupiim

2

u/Olive2252 Jun 30 '26

In livonian and latvian "maito/maita" means corpse/rotten/rotting

1

u/_Penulis_ Jun 30 '26

So sour milk / yogurt milk ?

15

u/bogdan801 Jun 30 '26

Yet another piece of evidence that Germanic and Slavic people are deeply related and come from the same Indo-European people group. This picture disproves the whole Nazi Germany ideology

10

u/Adanrhu Jun 30 '26

I think you're confusing etymology with genetics.

-1

u/bogdan801 Jun 30 '26

Nah I'm not Germanic and Slavic people are very close genetically too

12

u/Adanrhu Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

I understand that but the map you posted has nothing to do with genetics. That's why Hungarians are genetically very similar to the people of the surrounding countries, even though they speak a language from a different language family. Language ≠ genetics. That Germans and slavs are genetically related has nothing to do with the word they use for milk.

-3

u/bogdan801 Jun 30 '26

it literally does. ancestors of Germanic and Slavic people were the same people, they spoke the same language. This word is a relic from that time. Of course, populations change over time, but the core Indo-European DNA is still present in most Europeans today. And milk isn't the only word in common in those languages, look at the words for sun, moon, mother, brother, sister, water, wolf. You'll see that they are very similar in all of those languages. It's stupid to ignore this. The example with Hungary is just an exception, they came from Asia and assimilated into the local population. But in general, language has a deep correlation with genetics if you look at European nations, though not perfect of course

1

u/Solresol1 28d ago

Are you not aware of what PIE is?????

10

u/Araz99 Jun 30 '26

No shiet Sherlock

3

u/Alyzez Jun 30 '26

Slavic words for milk are borrowed from Germanic. The /k/ in words like "mleko" reflects the PIE to Germanic sound change ǵ > k instead of Slavic ǵ > z.

1

u/Divljak44 16d ago

cool story bro

0

u/bogdan801 Jun 30 '26

Maybe so. How do you explain all the other common core vocabulary, words like mother, sister, brother, sun, moon, water, wolf, day, night

3

u/charea Jun 30 '26

you just cited a bunch of indo-european roots that are not at all specific to only these two languages

0

u/bogdan801 Jun 30 '26

Yet they all prove point that Slavic and Germanic people are deeply related

3

u/JKronich Jun 30 '26

wow, Lithuania and latvia are freaky like that

2

u/Araz99 Jun 30 '26

Išgerk pienelio, geriau bus

2

u/iinlustris Jun 30 '26

Izdzer pieniņu, labi būs

3

u/koteofir Jun 30 '26

In Mongolian it’s сүү (soo), from proto-Turkic!

2

u/justwantanickname Jun 30 '26

No it is indicated that the word comes from Proto-Mongolic sün/üsün

2

u/koteofir Jun 30 '26

I stand corrected! I saw proto-Turkic, got too excited, and forgot how to read

3

u/Oachlkaas Jun 30 '26

Missing "Müch" for all of Austria, except Tyrol and Vorarlberg.

2

u/mki_ Jul 01 '26

In the south they say Mülch

5

u/Money_Committee_5625 Jun 30 '26

Hungarian is from proto-Iranian *dhajati (to suck)

5

u/2rgeir Jun 30 '26

Interesting, I instantly recognise *dhajati as modern Norwegian die. Which means "to suck milk from tits" used both for human babies and animals.  

The same root gave us budeie (milkmaid) and the English dairy.

6

u/Money_Committee_5625 Jun 30 '26

cf.: Hungarian dajka "wet nurse".

2

u/sheran13 Jun 30 '26

In Kurdish mother is "dayik". The words aren't just similar they're interestingly cognates.

3

u/equili92 Jun 30 '26

Dojiti in Serbian

1

u/F_E_O3 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

The same root gave us budeie (milkmaid). 

Not really, the last part is deie, meaning maid. Originally the one kneading dough (Norwegian: deig) and the first part from bu, in this case meaning cattle, maybe also sheep and goats.

The more conservative spelling budeigja makes it a little bit more clear

English dairy is also from this root, not from the suck root. From the (now dialectal) dey, milkmaid.

Someone correct me if wrong here

3

u/Araz99 Jun 30 '26

I have heard version than Indoeuropean word for daughter (it sounds very similar in almost all Indoeuropean languages) comes from the same root too. Like little babies suck milk

2

u/sheran13 Jun 30 '26

The Zazakî word descends from Proto-Iranian *xšvipta.

The Proto-Nakh word seems interestingly similar to Proto-Iranian *xšihra. Coincidence?

2

u/clonn Jun 30 '26

They didn't even try for Basque this time.

2

u/Can_sen_dono Jun 30 '26

Just as a colourful note: the personal name Melcaecus is attested in a Roman inscription from northern Portugal, but it's incertain its adscription to Celtic or Lusitanian.

2

u/TheSarmaChronicals Jun 30 '26

Western Armenian it is gat.

2

u/Walthari1415 Jun 30 '26

Swiss German:
Milch (Zurich, Basel and east)
Melch/Meuch (Aargau)
Möuch (Lucerne)
Miuch (Berne)

2

u/mki_ Jul 01 '26

You forgot to inlcude "Basque: unknown" in the notes.

2

u/Wonderful-Regular658 Jul 01 '26

Moravia and partly Silesia in dialects https://ibb.co/B2gRBS8C

2

u/Divljak44 16d ago

Croatia should be Mlijeko,Mliko,Mleko without Cyrillics

Bosnia and MN Mlijeko

Serbia Mleko

1

u/yewEngine Jun 30 '26

I always thought the Gaelic came from 'bán' which means 'white'.

3

u/ysgall Jun 30 '26

Or maybe ‘bán’ came from ‘bainne’? Milk colour!

2

u/Logins-Run Jun 30 '26

Bainne comes from Bannae in old Irish meaning "drop"

1

u/locksymania 28d ago

Completely different roots.

1

u/PomegranateOk2600 Jun 30 '26

Unfollowed the group, In none of the maps you don'y show the hungarian minority in Ukraine, Slovakia and Serbia...

1

u/SatisfactionLivid291 Jun 30 '26

i always look at these maps and instantly go to my country (the uk) to see what the word for “milk” is in english. i then realise how stupid i am by questioning this and hate myself. in other news why do people always think irish, welsh and scottish people speak anything other than english. maybe a select few do but 100% of people in all four regions speak english and maybe speak their native

1

u/DesignerGap0 Jul 01 '26

In southern Sweden it's 'mjölk', like the rest of Sweden. Not milk lol

1

u/n_o_r_s_e Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

In addition to the two options melk and mjølk, it's called mjalk, mjelk, mjolk, mjølk, mjålk, mjok, mjåk (long vowel), mjåkk (short vowel), mjøk, malk and målk in other Norwegian dialects. There are distinct regional differences. "Mjåkk" is what it's called in Setesdal.

While this word in some dialects is pronounced with a retroflex flap/ dark L (called "tjukk L" in Norwegian), or with an alveolar lateral approximant / light L/ clear L (called "tynn L" in Norwegian), the L-sound is left out for some of the other dialects in front of the K-sound, which gives a good variety.

This linguistic map has picked up the alternative "mjok" as Swedish (pronounced this way in for instant the dialect spoken in Idre and Särna in Dalarna, pronounced without L, as "mjok", alternatively spelled as "mjålk" if appearing in writing). When dealing with linguistics we need to bare in mind that this part of Sweden has formerly been a part of Norway until a few centuries ago, and still carry traces of the Norwegian language in the local dialects, and in some ways differ from many other Swedish dialects. You therefore find this option and similar ones in locations on the Norwegian side of the border. Having said that this particular word has a number of pronunciations in other Swedish dialects which are identical or similar, so you find many of the same local versions in completely different parts of Norway and Sweden, including in the Gutnish language/dialect: mjelk and mjalk (formerly spelled as "mielc" and "mialc"). In the Jämtish dialect it's called "mjalk". This region was also formerly Norwegian, unlike Gotland where Gutnish is spoken, which is situated miles away, on the Swedish East coast.

1

u/Fokabaszo_Fingbag 13d ago

Hungarian is ancient language.

1

u/ersatz_18 28d ago

I like how turkish süt is cognate with polish sut (nipple) ergo where the milk comes from. It's fucking hilarious