French (at the end of the video) meanwhile is using the English meaning of "second" but not the French meaning (since in French he should have said "c'est pas une deuxième"
As someone taking French all the way through high-school, these videos actually help me learn stuff that I definitely wouldn't have been taught in class
Same for me with Spanish honestly. I got a minor in it and still never knew the colloquial meaning of "me suena" and I'll never forget "por si las moscas" either. Also the fact that handcuffs are called esposas probably won't escape me anytime soon **cue laughter**
@@guyman1570your girlfriend left you for a Hispanic dude didn't she... don't worry, Spanish nationalities have the second largest penis size among all nationalities so im sure she isn't satisfied
"In French there is a exemptions with exemptions but in those exemptions, there is more exemptions" -every French teacher guys i made this comment 2 years ago, leave it alone i beg 😭 its not even that funny yall glazing
Babylonian cuneiform used a base 60 system. That's where we get 60 seconds in a minute, also 24 hours in a day, also 360 degrees in a circle. They created a base 60 system deliberately, because it is easy to divide. With 100 seconds you can divide a minute by 2, 4, 5, 10, 20, 25, and that's it. Half a minute, quarter minute, fifth of a minute, tenth of a minute. Try to do a third of the minute and nasty fractions and decimals appear quickly. With 60 seconds in a minute we can divide a minute by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30 and still have a whole number of seconds. The real prize, of course, is 3. Dividing into thirds without creating fractions. I teach College mathematics. I try to be prepared when someone in my class asks "why"?
we never had to wonder why we pronounce and write it this way. The more you think about our language the more you feel privileged and respect people trying to learn it
Mon prof de français disait carrément "zgonde" . 2 zgondes svp ! 😂 en tout c'est déjà une règle, comme le s qui se lit z entre 2 voyelles, le c se lit comme g mais dans un seul et unique cas : seconde 😃
it's not really. it is the "second minute". cut an hour in 60 you have a minute, cut a minute in 60 you have the second minute (similar to the second derivative in maths for instance)
I think it's similar to angles and the subdivisions of degrees, as they too are divided in values different than 10. An angle can be 30° 25' 50", which is 30 degrees, 25 minutes and 50 seconds. See the resemblance? It's called seconds because it's the second subdivision, and they couldn't call it "tenths" or "hundredths" because... It isn't divided with the decimal system. You maybe have noticed that it's the same system used in coordinates, and that's because it indicates the angle you are from the Greenwich meridian and the equator, since we live on a ball :)
It comes from Latin. The first division of time: gradus minutus primus, second division of time: gradus minutus secundus. Minutus is cognate with English minute meaning small (spelled the same, pronounced differently. English is weird)
Well technically the letter G is derivative from the letter C. It makes sense to pronounce second as segond because in latin the letter C was used to express the G sound (like the letter U was actually V initially and V became another sound, only that C always had the S, K and G sound) I didn't research about this word in particular, but my guess is that in latin it was also spelt with a C and pronounced with G. The french didn't change it to G for some reason; the spanish did; and the english probably copied from the french without knowing the correct pronounciation!
From someone else: "Minute and second actually come from “parte minuta primera” and “parte minuta *secunda*” “First minuscule part” and “second minuscule part”, which are the bits you divide a degree in. Minutes and seconds."
@@israadouar2541 I ment back then the letter u was typographed as v, the sounds don't really matter, in england u is pronounced one way and in spanish another (the oo way!) The latin language evolved, I was refering to anciant latin, the one that was shared around Europe.
For those who wonder why the second (time unit) is called second, you first have to know that minute comes from latin "minuere" (to reduce). So the minute is the hour but in reduced form. And the second is reduced twice (i.e. reduced a second time).
Minute and second actually come from “parte *minuta* primera” and “parte minuta *secunda*” “First minuscule part” and “second minuscule part”, which are the bits you divide a degree in. Minutes and seconds.
I come from a hispanic background and have grown up speaking fluent spanish in my house, I have gone to French-speaking public school in Canada, but I've spoken English with most of my friends due to them growing up in English-speaking households. This video hit home so deeply.
For people who learn french and who wants to know why "Seconde" had several spelling in the past but most of the time it was spelled Segond. But the French Academy wanted to put more rules in the grammar and the spelling. In this case, the new spelling comes from the latin word "secundus" so Segond became Seconde. They changed the G for a C but the pronounciation never changed.
Similar things happened to english. On top of it already being mainly a mix of French (by way of the Norman's), Dutch/German (by way of the Anglo-Saxon's) and local Britain Celtic with many borrowed words from Islandic, Spanish and others. So many words have pronunciations that don't fully fit the spelling plus some words have different roots so while they sound the same they are spelt different and mean different things. And so on.
something opposite happened in english with the word sovereign. It was sovereyn in the past, from latin superanus but they added the g to make it sound like 'reign', even though etymologically it has nothing to do with reign. But semantically it does (a soveregin is a ruler after all) so they added the g. It was a sort of overcorrection.
In Greek, minutes are called (πρώτα) λεπτά and seconds are called δεύτερα λεπτά/δευτερόλεπτα. The former means "first little ones" and the latter "second little ones"
There are words in Turkish and polish which further divide the second into sixty parts. Its called a third. Even the word minute comes from prims para minute. Which is first of the (hour)
For those actually curious, the reason all three languages use a variation on "second" is that in Latin, it's called _secundus pars minuta,_ literally "second small part" (the minute, meanwhile, was the _primus pars minuta,_ or "first small part") As for why 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, the Romans adapted their timekeeping system from the Babylonians, who counted in base 60 instead of base 10.
@@carultch Zero isn't composite. Composite requires it to be able to be formed by multiplying two smaller positive integers. Also you can't "divide" zero into smaller parts. If you try to divide zero by anything you still have nothing.
For the curious, “second” is short for the phrase “second minute of an hour,” with what people normally call a “minute” being the “first minute of an hour.” The “minute” itself in these phases meaning “1/60th fraction.” Our concept of minutes and seconds was originally developed by ancient Greek astronomers, who rearranged their number system to more easily translate mathematical tables originally written in Mesopotamia, who used base 60 numbers by default. They basically kept their existing numeral system (which didn’t have any built-in numbers smaller than 1, so could only describe fractional values AS fractions, not decimals) for whole number degrees of arc (though, following Mesopotamian convention, treated a degree of arc as 1/360th of the whole circle of the heavens), but for anything smaller than a degree would enter the number into a table with a column for whole numbers, then one of first minutes denoting the count of 1/60ths, one of second minutes for 1/60ths OF 1/60ths, and of third minutes for 1/60ths of 1/60ths OF 1/60ths. Then later greek mathematicians applied the same system to dividing up the Roman hours of the day because they wanted more precise fractions but didn’t want to make up an entirely new system. And in the middle ages after mathematics got the concept of 0c people started notating them with the symbol ° to denote whole numbers (notionally, marking the end of the “zeroth” minute, and basically acting as the decimal point for this pseudo base-60 system), ’ to mark the end of the first minutes (also sometimes called the ‘primes’ from the latin word for first), ’’ to mark the end of the seconds, and ’’’ to mark the thirds.
Just to add something there, this change actually occured because earlier no. systems didn't have place value face value system, early civilisation were in trade and they shared their knowledge of mathematics with indian mathematicians, and borrowed the face value and place value systems, along with decimals and zero which caused them to change the script of mathematics into numerically and not borrowed alphabets like Roman's.
The funny thing is that in Old Latin, the letter “C” could be a /g/ or a /k/ sound. And Vulgar Latin suffered a lot of sound shifts (k to g for example) Latin - Secundus Portuguese and Spanish - Segundo Maybe it is why in French it’s pronounced with the G but didn’t change the original spelling.
After 6 years in old germanic, it's the only thing helping me understand a bit of these (Anglo-Saxon) languages! Wouldn't survive past day 2 in most places, but I would probs do alright with Latin for a short while
5*12 = 60. This used to be more logic than 10*10 because 12 is 3*4 and 6*2, it enabled farmers to share "one fourth a dozen sheep" and that is one of many examples to use this. Everyone used to think in groups of twelve because everyone sucked at math. Tbh base 12 still seems more attractive than base 10 today imo. Best is base 16 for common use: you rarely have to split in 3
Wikipedia: “The word "minute" comes from the Latin pars minuta prima, meaning "first small part". This division of the hour can be further refined with a "second small part" (Latin: pars minuta secunda), and this is where the word "second" comes from.”
That is so bonkers. If you can just pick any random word out of the order than let's make 1/60s of "pars minuta tertia" just a 'pars', because why the hell not.
@@seregruin Lol i’d imagine it was just pars minuta at first, since they didn’t need a smaller unit of time yet. So 1/60s would be teria, and 1/3600s quarta
The C made the G sound long before it made the C/K sound. The G was later invented by a Roman with C in his name who didn't like people mispronouncing it in the newfangled way.
But then it wouldn‘t be minute rice, would it? I‘ve complained about the weird 60-100 difference in time intervals and length intervals, but this explanation sounds good. I won‘t complain anymore, it makes sense. 😂👍🏻
This video had English questioning 60 seconds and longer minutes. I was surprised that it wasn't French that did that. The French revolution standardised a lot. They tried 100 seconds per minute, 100 minutes per hour, 10 hours a day (100 000 seconds per day instead of the current 86 400 seconds per day). Seconds would have been about as fast. This change did not stick around, nor did the 10 month per year calender. The Babylonian 60/60/24 is still what we use. The French 100/100/10 could have been neat. Glad that the SI stuck, though. Metre, kg etc. is very good.
Yeah, nice idea. Like in this sentence "Les fils des fils de Phil ont été coupés". S silent then L silent, i understand thanks to this kind of vidéo the difficulty i didnt notice at first.
As someone who has been talking French since I'm born, I never thought about how this language is fucking weird I just rolled with it until I see your videos lmao
In most languages, spelling *changes* over time to reflect modern pronunciation. But during a big linguistic shift the French upper class freaked out and created The Academy that dictates the Right Way to speak and spell French. But you can't freeze a language in time like that or declare the "right" way to speak and just expect everyone to follow those rules, so now there's a huuuuge gap between how people actually talk and how French is spelled
Fun fact: A day lasts 24 hours because of the counting method of the Babylonians 2,300 years BC. They used their tumb to count each finger pad on every finger. 4 fingers without the thumb and 3 on each finger gives you 12. The day lasted 12 hours and because you have the night and another hand, multiple by 2 and you get a full 24 hours in a day. This is also why a minute lasts 60 seconds. 12 as before. Multiple it by the total of 5 fingers in a hand gives you 60. -Here, there's no direct connection to the finger pads but that, I assume, goes without saying or typing (in my case).
Actually, it's because mathematically, 12 and 60 are highly composite numbers. No numbers smaller than 12 have the same or more factors (1,2,3,4,6 and 12 itself). Same goes for 60...
@@anders160196 You are correct. Their counting method sprouted from their affection to these numbers due to their qualities in comparison to others. That is why they accepted these numbers as the amount in each part of a full day. Because of that weird affection, they developed the method and love it so much, as stated before.
For anyone wondering, 60 seconds/minutes came from the Babylonians and their way of counting on one hand. They would look at the three sections of each finger (minus the thumb), which would add up to 12 on one hand. 60 is a multiple of 12 (so is 24), and that is why we use 60 and 24.
@@odysseusofegypt then edit your comment for clarity. The way it's written now, it sounds like you're trying to say that 60 is a multiple of both 12 AND 24.
All words have the same root. However, Spanish evolved "segundo" and Old French "second". Then c became g in speech but not spelling. This happens very easily. It's like maddered/ma''ered (said aloud) compared to mattered. By the time this change evolved, French has already locked in its spelling system, so it wasn't chamging at all
