Estonian, Russian and Hebrew

[belcantante]

I can't stop wondering if there is any chance of Estonian ennäe (behold) being related to Hebrew הִנֵּה
and Estonian vaata (look) being related to Russian вот?

Comments

[baron_waste]

Well, of course Estonian and Russian are related. When you can walk from one country to the other, you can figure it has happened often enough for the two languages to be related.

This, for example, is why the Hebrew Shalom Aleichem slides over into the Arabic Salaam Alaykum. Estonian and Hebrew, now, might be a different story. (That would be a long walk!)

[belcantante]

I know Estonian has borrowed some words from Russian, but while in Estonian 'vaata' is direved from 'vaatama', which means 'to look', Russian 'вот' is not related to anything. So it would be more reasonable to think that Russian has borrowed this word from Estonian, not vice versa. But of course, this is not possible.

[embryomystic]

According to Asya Pereltsvaig, Russian has influence from so-called 'Middle Finns' and their language. I don't imagine it's impossible that вот goes back to this.

[muckefuck]

What do you mean, "Russian 'вот' is not related to anything"? What about Polish oto, which is practically identical in meaning? Old Russian had (в)ото, which according to Vasmer derives from the Proto-Indo-European demonstrative *to (source of English the, Greek το, etc.).

[hkitsune]

Ennäe is en-nägema, built on the verb "to see", which is not a loan from Hebrew. Vaatama I have no idea. I'm going to assume it's a coincidence, since a lot of see/look verbs in most Indo-European languages start with a v (voir, view, etc.).

[new_etymology]

The example by belcantante is NO coincidence.

Estonian vaata (look) <-> Russian видеть, Italian vedere

Russian ВОТ [VOT!] ('here it is!', 'here you see!') - definitely FROM Estonian VAAT ! ('look!')

[spamsink]

Vasmer's etymological dictionary effectively says that вот is cognate to это (== lat. "ecce").

[new_etymology]

Estonian vaata (look) <-> Russian видеть, Italian vedere

Russian ВОТ [VOT!] ('here it is!', 'here you see!') - definitely FROM Estonian VAAT ! ('look!')

[tisoi]

Coincidences between languages will happen. Russian этo is similar to Tagalog eto (which means вот or "here is..") but the similarity is purely coincidental.

[new_etymology]

The example by belcantante is NO coincidence.

Estonian vaata (look) <-> Russian видеть, Italian vedere

Russian ВОТ [VOT!] ('here it is!', 'here you see!') - definitely FROM Estonian VAAT ! ('look!')

[new_etymology]

Estonian vaata (look) <-> Russian видеть, Italian vedere

Russian ВОТ [VOT!] ('here it is!', 'here you see!') - definitely FROM Estonian VAAT ! ('look!')