Re:Ask HN: Teach me something new
by schoen on Sunday May 01, 2022 @10:27PM
(#31230796)
For some reason German sometimes drops the i in "-isch" (cognate with English "-ish"). But the only reasonably common examples I can think of are Deutsch (etymologically definitely with -isch/-isk) and Kölsch ('pertaining to Cologne'). I don't know if this is somehow an example of a more widespread phonological process in German.
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In Swedish, "isk" endings are sometimes contracted to "sk" such as "polsk"="polish" and the only way to say "pertaining to Köln" would be "kölsk" (unless specifically the beer.)
But "människa" is a noun. It's pronounced "menisha" but it doesn't mean "manish". In Norwegian, the word for humane is spelled "menneskelig" literally "menneske-like". (In Norwegian the 'k' is hard.)
As I can gather, the literal meaning in sanskrit of "manusha" = "born of Manu" = human. Manu is a god.
Wiktionary claims that "människa" does mean "manish" (and that it's a direct cognate with "mensch"):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic...
It's just that that etymology has become opaque to modern-day Germanic language speakers.