QI XL G14 - Greeks

[Yora21]

In German, pencils are called "Lead pens".

[Yora21]

I strongly assume Stephen Fry can speak German.

[MrThezho]

Stephen never heard it being called junk before??

[SchwarzundWeis]

wait, so the arabic language was influenced by the germanic use of the F??

how??

[kokoshnetuna]

@SchwarzundWeis No, not at all.

In fact, that whole remark was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard Stephen Fry say (which means it wasn’t really stupid as such, but wrong and uneducated). The f in German ‘Pfennig’, etc., did not become a p in English—quite the contrary! The original p was kept in English, but became a pf (or, non-initially, just an f) in German.

[cont.]

[SchwarzundWeis]

@kokoshnetuna mmh. makes more sense. english also evolved from german and got some heavily influenced from french (norman invasion) so it would make sense that the german and english language have influences between them. never understood how the arabs got into this XD

[kokoshnetuna]

@SchwarzundWeis Minor correction: English comes from GermanIC—not from German.

If you look at the languages like a family tree, modern-day English and German are siblings, while (Proto-)Germanic is the mother they both come from.

[SchwarzundWeis]

@kokoshnetuna sorry true. in german its called germanish (germanic) and deutsch is german (actually coming fron teutsh and tiu tish which ment from the people, that belongs to the people.) its also funny because almost everyone has a different word for german. the italian have tedesco (from a dialect which karl the great introduced in N italy), you german, the french aleman etc.

so I kinda mixed em up in the english language :)

[kokoshnetuna]

@SchwarzundWeis The Germanic tribes had many local names, and local names often ended up being used to refer to the conglomerate of tribes as a whole by their neighbours. ‘Deutsch’ and its cognates (‘tedesco’ in Italian, ‘dutch’ in English, ‘tysk’ in Scandinavian languages) is the only real endonym for the Germanic peoples as a whole, meaning just ‘the people’ (from the *þiut- root you mentioned). ‘German’ is an exonym, probably Celtic in origin, and ‘aleman’ is most likely a tribe name.

[SchwarzundWeis]

@kokoshnetuna complicated isnt it? :D

you danes arent better off either, you are also part in this mix. quite hard to determine ones genetical history isnt it? isnt it wonderful how we believe(d) we are superior to another nation or better than them, even though we may be more closely related to our neighboring country, than to our own people (north germans and danes are more closely related than probably bavarians and north germans)

btw: lived in kopenhagen. beautiful city

[kokoshnetuna]

[cont.]

It’s quite common for p’s to turn into f’s in languages. It’s done it in Arabic; it also did it in Proto-Germanic (hence why Latin ‘pisces’ = Germanic ‘fiskaz’ = English ‘fish’), and in both Japanese and Proto-Celtic, it went even further: in Japanese, it became an h, and in Proto-Celtic, it first became an h and then disappeared altogether.

[CasperRomkes]

Loving that anekdote about that film IQ. 27:42

[tommybwilson379]

...i have had many "tactical chunders" haha

[aarrum]

This is quite possibly the greatest form of entertainment I have ever seen. How have I gone my life without this? A show that promotes intelligence and knowledge, and yet still embraces comedy. The two are not opposite, the jester need not discard his wit in lieu of slapstick. And the scholar need not frown. Bless humanity if this exists.

[HeadHunterCG1]

My learnerd friend, this is possibly the greatest youtube comment of all time.

[JossJossJoss1]

@aarrum Stephen, is that you?

[mrpolaroid123]

Clive Anderson always seems to have that shell shocked look about him, like he never quite got over the Bee Gees walking out on him and he might just do it again.

[prieto21]

clive anderson's 'we're descended from poo?'

ahahahahahahahaahhah 30:12

[muqaasid]

where is the evidence for there ever having been a 'p' in Arabic?

[Bamonstertje]

@muqaasid Texts in ancient Arabic or the language it was derived from (probably Indo-European).

[mhc4444]

im glad to hear that gymnasium means a place to be naked, because here in denmark i am going to a school called a gymnasium~

[Annurgaia]

Finland \o/

[naryanr]

Oh not Clive Anderson...

[LeBubblesSan]

That is some fierce facial hair. :D

[LanceDirk]

It seems like Alan comes in last 2/3 of the time and first 1/3 of the time but never second or third.

[AaaaghJOE]

Wiki-ed Island of Yap, because i didn't believe rich at all.

[Hargiwald]

@AaaaghJOE Yeah, me neither. Somehow I'm not sure Steven did either, or I'm sure Rich would have gotten some points right there.

[FaroeMusic]

Stephan Fry Has the entomology of -Ship backwards, Its not English that hat its Fs turn into Ps but High German(normal German) that had its Ps evolve into Fs. it is wrong to say English changed when in truth it was German.

German has went trough as many changes from Germanic as English I'd say; with examples of Germanic Ds becoming German Ts, Germanic Ts becoming German Zs and S'es

[chisheen]

Does anyone know how to spell "Guergel", the logician/mathematician's surname?

[IncurablePessimist]

@chisheen Gödel

[skumkakan]

but? what did the audience shout??

[Hargiwald]

@skumkakan Think it was that the word Odeon came from the initials of Oscar Deutsch, which according to wikipedia isn't true, apparently. Or was that the episode before this? Not sure.

[Kathryn87]

NNNOOOO!!! Mine stops at 04:29 :'(

[kittyburger000]

@Kathryn87 aliens

[IzaFaqat]

Stephen Fry is oh so wrong. "Shareep become Shareef" ?? Shareef as a word/name has been around for well over a thousand years and is based on Arabics trilateral root system. It's a Semitic word as far back as history can take us, is he insinuating that arabic took words from more modern germanic languages?

[Solario392]

@IzaFaqat I think he's saying that, while Shareef existed as a word/name beforehand, Shareep also existed as a word/name but it was assimilated into "Shareef".

[Hargiwald]

@IzaFaqat The way I understood it was that, just as English had shifted from F to P in many words of germanic origin, arabic had for some reason shifted from P to F in many words. What he meant was that in arabic the word Shareef had once been Shareep.

[fromthenightbefore]

Well I actually used to live in Yap. win.

[hawkins1905]

gotta love the tactical chunders

[TheDruganaut]

Isn't there an episode where they say, it's more likely to get killed by an asteroid than by lightning?

[BalmafulaLanando]

@TheDruganaut Yeah, way back in the Birds episode.

[DutchDread]

@TheDruganaut If I remember correctly, wasn't that because a big meteor would wipe everyone out like the dinosaurs? So you were more likely to get killed by one because if one would fall, there would be 7 billion deaths. Which is way more than ever have been killed by lightning. And it is likely that one will happen before lightning ever kills that much, so even though no one has been killed by one yet, the chance is still higher.

[TheDruganaut]

@DutchDread

k i get that point, but still i doubt this statement is scientific correct...

cause according to that logic... you could say to HIV-infected, it's more likely for him to die by starvation, than of AIDS...^^

[IanSaysWhat]

I actually have a friend from Yap, and she says her family have some of those massive ass stones.

[GiratinaofFury]

Love Stephen dropping in the Trek reference and Alan dropping in a Dalek reference.

[GiratinaofFury]

Love Stephen dropping in the Trek reference and Alan dropping in a Dalek reference.

[higfny]

Clive Anderson Is brilliant

[kuckles30]

The island of yap things is right :P

[kurisensei]

'Bothered' - lolled my nipples off

[PollyBreedDumb]

13:10 Stephen Fry is such a cock-tease.

[njdevil281]

There actually is island called Yap and they do have the huge stones he described lol.

[FearlessSpinner]

Green lantern t shirt?

[gfrantic87]

hah, at 10:10 clive anderson tries to make a stupid joke about france and literally no one laughs in the whole place and he looks at the audience for a minute like "where's the laugh guys?"

[Cleo4696]

@gfrantic87 yeah, i really can't stick him- i often try and avoid watching episodes with him.

[IWannaBeTheUser]

I thought they'd start singing "They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is"

[ftlouim]

If gymnasium means 'a place to be naked', why is it in Germany some kind of a grammar school? Oo

[Tapiola666]

@ftlouim Also in the glorious country The Netherlands.

[HomicidalDwarf]

@ftlouim Because they sort of did everything at the same place. Young men and boys were educated there to be kaloi k'agathoi, beautiful and good. To make a long story short, the meaning has sort of shifted during two thousand fivehundred years.

[cogidubnus1953]

Rich Hall is a true star...I'd love to see his stand up act...

[324wilson]

My god, Stephen Fry is a genius! I learned so much from him in first 5 minutes... I think we should all write to the Queen and ask her to declare him a "national treasure."

[JSCwrd]

@324wilson Oh dear.

[LoonShia]

The starting infodump about "the great fricative shift" is the most interesting thing about this show.

[Zakerandsaisu]

That was great, after the "I can say Alan is coming last-" "One of my best features" joke, how we see all the faces of each panelist as they respond to the joke. Great expressions.

[beheerowner]

Who else went to the wikipedia page of the Island of Yap?

[JimmySteller]

@beheerowner

I was surprised at how much Rich Hall was saying was actually true.

[MrDagren]

@beheerowner Guilty.