Word "slave" in English should be uprooted.

Should word "slave" be uprooted?


  • Total voters
    36
The word robot comes from the Czech word for work - robota. (Exactly the same as the Polish word, but I've always been told it comes from the Czech)

wikipedia said:
The word 'robot' was first used to denote fictional humanoid in a 1921 play R.U.R. by the Czech writer, Karel Čapek.
 
Or it comes from word "robotnik", which means "worker" in Polish, but "slave" in Czech:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=robot

"robot (n.)
1923, from English translation of 1920 play "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots"), by Karel Capek (1890-1938), from Czech robotnik "slave," from robota "forced labor, compulsory service, drudgery," from robotiti "to work, drudge," from an Old Czech source akin to Old Church Slavonic rabota "servitude," from rabu "slave," from Old Slavic *orbu-, from PIE *orbh- "pass from one status to another" (see orphan). The Slavic word thus is a cousin to German Arbeit "work" (Old High German arabeit). According to Rawson the word was popularized by Karel Capek's play, "but was coined by his brother Josef (the two often collaborated), who used it initially in a short story."

the Czech word for work - robota. (Exactly the same as the Polish word

When a Czech word sounds exactly like a Polish word, then it almost always has a different meaning... :D
 
Where are Romanians in 1000: ???

8d7g.jpg


They shop in Romania 250 years later: !!!

73vp.jpg
 
Mainly other dynamics.

Indeed mountains surrounding Bohemia helped*, but there were many other reasons - e.g. one was higher population density, another one was that widespread use of Czech language in writing started already in the 1300s (by contrast of Polish only in the 1400s, of German already in the 1200s).

*By contrast Poland's location in the middle of the North European Plain wasn't good for blocking any kinds of movements.

Also religious non-conformism of Czechs played a role - already in the 1400s Protestant movements were popular among the Czechs (just to mention the Hussites) and later, when rabidly Catholic Habsburgs ruled Bohemia, the main bulwark of Czech identity also continued to be Protestantism.

Such level of non-conformism wasn't present in lands to the north of Bohemia, where there were no such religious differences between Slavic and German speakers. That difference only started to the east of Poland's border, and only in the mid-to-late-1600s, when Poland became firmly Catholic.

During the Thirty Years' War Czech Protestants were suppressed by Catholic Habsburgs, many of them fled and found refuge in Poland:

Czech_Brethren.png


Sudeten Germans were very strongly loyal to the Catholic Church. They did not flirt with Protestantism even nearly as much as Czechs.
 
Just noticed JohannaK picked 'No, because Slavs are really a race of slaves, as this word implies'.

Oh my...
 
^ Following the Reformation, Germanization (or rather Niemczenie - Deutschization) was strongly connected with Lutheranism. Luther's Bible is actually what introduced the modern Standard German (Hochdeutsch) literary language. We can say that Lutheranism also caused "Hochdeutschization" in areas in which many people had already spoken various Germanic dialects before. For example in the Hanseatic city of Gdansk (Danzig) Hochdeutsch replaced Platt (which was rather closer to modern Dutch than to High German) as official language at some point between years 1550 and 1563.
 
Just noticed JohannaK picked 'No, because Slavs are really a race of slaves, as this word implies'.

Oh my...

Jeez, when I hear "race of slaves", I'm thinking a track, carts with jockeys, appropriate implements of giddyap, cheering fans, wagering, etc. :blush:
 
IIRC slave = rob in most Slavic languages, while niewolnik (literally "non-freeman") in Polish.

Word robot comes from Slavic term for slave (rob). I hope there are no users named Rob on this forum.



Why not then replace the word "Slave" with, for example: "Freenon"?
Its easy to pronounce and much clearer to understand.

Slave is simply too closely related to Slavic, and simply quite derogatory to millions of people.

May I remind you that Slaves never participated in the most well known acts of mass slavery of the past, the enslavement of Black Africans.
 
Again, if you ever tell an American or even a black person "Hey, did you know that the word slave is related to Slavs", they'll stare at you wondering whether to punch you or laugh at you.

This odd conclusion can come only from our dear corner in Europe. Never change, East Europe! Never.
 
Coming back to the steppe:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=13843895#post13843895

Here is the list of aDNA from Bronze Age and Iron Age individuals of Indo-European steppe cultures:

Steppe_Phenotypes.png


Most of Indo-Iranians from the Eurasian steppe later either migrated south (to India, Iran, the Middle East and Asia Minor - where they established their realms) or stayed in the steppe and were eventually overwhelmed and assimilated into Turkic and Tatar peoples.

The easternmost groups which preserved their IE language until today are the Iranian-speaking Tajiks of North-Western China.

Even today these Tajiks of China are still in 45% people of R1a haplogroup (according to Wells, Spencer et al. 2001).


Link to video.


Link to video.
 
Again, if you ever tell an American or even a black person "Hey, did you know that the word slave is related to Slavs", they'll stare at you wondering whether to punch you or laugh at you.

This odd conclusion can come only from our dear corner in Europe. Never change, East Europe! Never.

Those Americans they caught on streets on camera with various questions look as if they are tranquilized.
 
Well, to be fair if a journalist suddenly comes out of the nowhere asking you something like "Hi, what is your opinion on Mitt Romney's economic politics?" you'd also have a tranquilized look.
 
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