fun fact about languages: a linguist who was studying aboriginal languages of Australia finally managed to track down a native speaker of the Mbabaram language in the 60s for his research. they talked a bit and he started by asking for the Mbabaram word for basic nouns. They went back and forth before he asked for the word for “dog” The man replied “dog” They had a bit of a “who’s on first” moment before realizing that, by complete coincidence, Mbabaram and English both have the exact same word for dog.
on a similar note, a traditional Ojibwe greeting is “Nanaboozhoo” so when the French first landed in southern Canada they thought that they were saying “Bonjour!” Which is fucking wild to think about. Imagine crossing the ocean and the first people you meet in months somehow speak French.
my favorite Accessory Fact to this is that we know more about the etymological history of the Mbabaram “dog” than the English “dog”
The etymology for Mbabaram “dog” has been reconstructed back to Proto-Pama-Nyungan, which was spoken “as recently as about 5,000 years ago”:
From *dwog(a) < *udwoga < *gudwaga < Proto-Pama-Nyungan *gudaga. Related to Dyirbal guda, Yidiny gudaga.
While the etymology for English “dog” has been reconstructed confidently only back to Olde English, which was spoken from about the 5th to the 12th centuries:
Inherited from Middle English dogge (akin to Scots dug), from Old English dogga, docga, of uncertain origin.
