# To teach, onderwijzen



## ThomasK

Both English and Dutch contain a reference to pointing: *teaching* is showing basically, _*onderwijzen*_ in D. contains _wijzen_, to point at, etc. . In German unterrichten contains a reference to a direction. 

Romanic languages refer to _sign/ signe_: _*enseigner*_, etc. . 

I wonder if other languages use other metaphors. But let us focus on teaching (a subject), not educating, training, etc. (Thanks)


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## sakvaka

... and in *Swedish*, too: _undervisa _(to under-show)

Again, *Finnish *seems to act differently. _Opettaa_ is a causative form derived from the old stem _*woppe-_ that has originally meant "to go and see (eg. animal traps)". Its modern meaning became fixed in the 16th century. (Häkkinen: Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja, 2004, s. 833)


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## Awwal12

In Russian, the verb "to teach (smb.)" is equal to the verb "to learn (smth.)": учить /uch*i*t'/. That is quite interesting, I must note.
Он *учил* мальчика плавать. - He taught (or "was teaching") the boy to swim.
Кто тебя *учил* это так делать? - Who taught you to do it this way?

and on the other hand:

В школе мы *учим* химию. - We learn chemistry in school.
Сейчас я *учу* стихотворение. - I am learning a rhyme now.

But this imperfective verb has different equivalents of perfective aspect, depending on the meaning: "научить" /nauch*i*t'/ (smb.) and "выучить" /v*y*uchit'/ (smth.).

Он *научил* меня всему, что знал. - He has taught me everything he knew.
Я *выучил* английский хорошо. - I have learned English well.

The related words are:
"обучать" /obuch*a*t'/ - to teach (smb., +dative or verbal infinitive)
"изучать" /izuch*a*t'/ - to study (some subject, or scientifically)
"выучивать" /vy*u*chivat'/ - to learn (imperf., related with perf. выучить that was mentioned above)
"поучать" /pouch*a*t'/ - to lecture
"учиться" /uch*i*tsa/ - to study (lit. "to teach oneself" - P.S.), +D or +infinitive (or just somewhere)
"учение" /uch*e*niye/ - 1. a doctrine. 2. studies
"учёность" /uch*o*nost'/ - an erudition (often with disapproval)
"учёный" /uch*o*nyi/ - 1. a scientist, a scholar. 2. learned, erudite (often with disapproval) 3. trained (about an animal)
"учитель" /uch*i*tel'/ - a teacher
"ученик" /uchen*i*k/ - a pupil, an apprentice
"наука" /na*u*ka/ - a science
...and other similar words.

They aren't related with signing in any meaning.
to sign (some feeling) - выражать /vyrazh*a*t'/ (also ="to express")
to sign (= to mark) - помечать /pomech*a*t'/, отмечать /otmech*a*t'/
to sign (= to signify) - значить /zn*a*chit'/, обозначать /oboznach*a*t'/ (also ="to mean", but not about persons)
etc.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
"To teach" is _διδάσκω_ (ðið*a*sko), a classical word with the stem δα- (ða-) which gives the stem compound διδα- (ðiða-) with a reduplication of the initial syllable of the verb stem in the present tense (by adding a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by -i-).
Its etymology is obscure, however, many philologists have provided the following explanation: 
Given the fact that in ancient Greek its aorist infinitive is *δαῆναι* (ða'ēnĕ), the word derives probably from the Homeric noun *τὰ δήνεα, ta 'ðēnea, *_neuter, plural_ (which appears also in classical and Koine Greek) and means "the counsels, the instructions". 
Therefore, the διδάσκαλος, ði'ðaskalos, _m., f._ (ancient Greek for teacher), δάσκαλος, ð*a*skalos, _m._, δασκάλα, ðask*a*la, _f._ (modern Greek for teacher) is the one who counsels and gives instructions to his/her pupils.

[ð] is a voiced dental non-sibilant fricative


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## HUMBERT0

In Spanish is “*enseñar*”, (Del lat. vulg. *insignāre*, señalar). Which means “hacer que alguien aprenda algo/make someone learn something” but enseñar also means “Indicar, dar señas de una cosa/ to indicate or signal something”. A "seña" is a signal.


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## Favara

In *Catalan* it's_:
Ensenyar_ - Also means to show; might have something to do with _seny_, meaning "common sense".
_Ensinistrar_ - Related to _sinistre/a_ ("left", as in the left hand; a synonim of "_esquerre/a_", used in the expression _tindre mà esquerra_ -> lit. "to have left hand"-> to have "good hand", to be very skilled)._
Ensinistrar_ tends to be used with more practical teachings (such as first aids, gymnastics, driving etc), while _ensenyar_ tends to be used with subjects more theoretical in nature.
Maybe _ensinistrar_ originally meant only to train, I'm not sure, but nowadays both terms are somewhat interchangeable (one might be _ensenyat_ in martial arts, and _ensinistrat_ in chemistry; it's a bit uncommon but correct)


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## ThomasK

This is all very interesting: teaching as
  - *going and seeing* (contact with reality as the basis of teaching, pointing?)
  - *showing* is very common, I think (even in 'signum)
  - the idea of *counseling*
  - the interchangeability of *learning and teaching* (Russian and to some extent German: _lehren/ lernen_)
   - learning *skills* (though strangely enough sinister/left is generally associated with bad things, I thought...)


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## Favara

ThomasK said:


> *[...]* (though strangely enough sinister/left is generally associated with bad things, I thought...)


That's the weird thing about Catalan... AFAIK, the other romance languages use "right" instead, like the Spanish _adiestrar_. Still, we use "right"-related words for "dexterity" and "dextrous" (_destresa_, _destre_, both somewhat uncommon words). I wonder when did this change happen in Catalan.


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## Encolpius

In Hungarian to teach is said *oktat *and there is no reference to any other verb but teach, so it is actually to make somebody teach. Sorry, it does not work in Hungarian.


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## ThomasK

Maybe one more question, Encolpius: how can you use _*oktat*_? Can you oktat a child (bring it up), or is it education in general? I read something about the stem 'hu' referring to education, that is why...


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## Encolpius

ThomasK said:


> Maybe one more question, Encolpius: how can you use _*oktat*_? Can you oktat a child (bring it up), or is it education in general? I read something about the stem 'hu' referring to education, that is why...



No, if you bring up a child, you use another word, *nevel*, and its origin is from *nő *(grow), so *nevel *means make somebody grow. Oktat in formal Hungarian and simply tanít in spoken Hungarian are both used only in sense of teaching.


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## ThomasK

In the meantime I had had a look at Webster's on-line dictionary, which indeed refered to _tanit_ as well. Is it correct that _*tanit*_ is narrower than _*oktat*_? And do you have any clue as to the root of any of those words, or the underlying metapher ?


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## ThomasK

Encolpius said:


> In Hungarian to teach is said *oktat *and there is no reference to any other verb but teach, so it is actually to make somebody teach. Sorry, it does not work in Hungarian.


 
Shouldn't it be 'to make somebody learn' ? Are you perhaps suggesting that learning and teaching have the same root, as in Russian ? (#3)


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## jazyk

In Portuguese: ensinar.


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## filoutjie

In Afrikaans a teacher is a "onderwyser", and the Dept. of Education is the "Onderwysdepartement" but "onderwys" is not used as a verb. You can say "onderrig" but we just use "leer" (lernen/lehren).
Hy leer my Engels. (He teaches me English.)
Ek leer Engels. (I learn English.) - very confusing!
We have the same problem with borrow/lend. We only use "leen".


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## ElFrikiChino

Italian: insegnare. The blue part means to point out, indicate etc


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## bibax

Czech:

to teach = učiti, perf. naučiti;
to learn = učiti se, perf. naučiti se; (always with reflexive "se")

the root is -uk-, učiti is related to the verb zvykati (root -yk-)

zvykati = to accustom a p. to a t.
zvykati si (reflexive) = to get into

postverbalia:

vý-uk-a = teaching
zv-yk = custom, habit


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## Equinozio

Interesting discussion.

Funnily enough, in Tagalog, we use the same word for _to teach_ and _to point_. Which one is meant depends on the context.

*Ituro mo ang leksyon.* - _Teach the lesson._
*Ituro mo ang lalaki.* - _Point to the man._

Sometimes it can be ambiguous.

*Ituro mo ang tama.* - _Teach the correct one. / Point to the correct one._


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## ThomasK

Well, it need not be that strange really: in Dutch we use 'onderwijzen' to refer to teaching, which is 'wijzen' (to point) plus 'onder' (under). The only thing I wonder about is: could it be that teaching is only a secondary meaning ? I could imagine there was no word for formal teaching at first...


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## Equinozio

You're right, ThomasK. I was just surprised as it never crossed my mind that they're exactly the same, and these are words we use every day. Yes, I agree that teaching is most probably a secondary meaning.


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## ThomasK

You know, that is the whole issue and what is so interesting to me: that so many of our words are metaphors (fossilised, but still). Just look at _inter-est,_ _meta-phor_. Come to think of it: see the _touché/ ému_ thread. 
.


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## ThomasK

Offer: anyone who is interested in it, can get a well-structured survey of these contributions, along with Roget's collection of words concerning the concept of teaching. 

Just send me a PM including your e-mail address - or can I post it here somewhere? I am willing to.


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## Rallino

In Turkish, we differ "to train" and "to teach".

*To train = eğitmek *

This can also be used as _to bring up a child._

Education, is *eğitim*. It is from the same root.


*To teach = öğretmek*

*Learning = öğrenim*
*Teacher = öğretmen*
*Student = öğrenci*


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## merquiades

One thing peculiar about French is that "apprendre" means both learn and teach

J'apprends à danser -  I learn to dance
Mon ami m'apprend à danser -  My friend teaches me to dance

Technically enseigner should be teach, but it seems relegated more often than not to only formal classroom settings.  
In other Romance languages like Spanish, enseñar is not formal at all and seems to have gained in meaning to become also just to show, indicate, point out.


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## ger4

bibax said:


> Czech:
> 
> to teach = učiti, perf. naučiti;
> to learn = učiti se, perf. naučiti se; (always with reflexive "se")
> 
> the root is -uk-, učiti is related to the verb zvykati (root -yk-)
> 
> zvykati = to accustom a p. to a t.
> zvykati si (reflexive) = to get into
> 
> postverbalia:
> 
> vý-uk-a = teaching
> zv-yk = custom, habit



Similar to Latvian:
mâcît = to teach
mâcîties = to learn (i.e. to teach oneself, -ies being the reflexive ending)


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## marrish

In Urdu it's different. It's the same with two main verbs سیکھنا and پڑھنا . The former is pronounced _siikhnaa_ (to learn) and the latter _paRhnaa_ - to read and by extension to learn by reading while _siikhnaa_ can go from learning by reading, listening or doing to martial techniques.

Now it's the same case with both of them because we have so called 'causative' verb forms so from siikhnaa we get sikhaanaa=to teach, to make someone learn and paRhaanaa= to make someone learn, to cause someone to read (learn).


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## ThomasK

@ Marrish: your causative is a lengthened form, is it?
@ Holger: is there no separate word for 'learn' (not implying being taught)??? But I noticed something similar in Slavic languages above...  That seems amazing to me, but OK. 

I could imagine for example: "to learn by living", but of course one can say that life teaches you a lot again. Yet, spontaneously (naively ?) I would think that teaching is secondary with respect to teaching.


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## bazq

In Hebrew the root l-m-d refers to learning and teaching, so we just use it in the active verbal pattern to mean "learned" למד "lamad".
"tought" is simply the same root in a causative verbal pattern לימד "limed".

However, some words relating to teaching use the root y-r-y or y-r-h which revolves around "to signal/to order/show the path or way(?)":
מורה more (male teacher) mora (female teacher)
הורה hore (parent)
הוראות hora'ot (instructions/orders)
תורה tora (the Torah)
יורה yore (the first rain of the year)


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## ger4

ThomasK said:


> @ Marrish: your causative is a lengthened form, is it?
> @ Holger: is there no separate word for 'learn' (not implying being taught)??? But I noticed something similar in Slavic languages above...  That seems amazing to me, but OK.
> 
> I could imagine for example: "to learn by living", but of course one can say that life teaches you a lot again. Yet, spontaneously (naively ?) I would think that teaching is secondary with respect to teaching.



Yes, I think apart from Czech (mentioned by bibax), some other Slavic languages have this feature as well, i.e. "to learn = to teach oneself". Polish adds the reflexive form in the same manner as Czech, turning "to teach" into "to teach oneself", and so does Swedish (well, not a Slavic language, but a geographical neighbour, anyway): "lära" = "to teach", "lära sig" = "to teach oneself" - apart from the other form "undervisa" = "to teach". 

Danish, by the way, which of course is closely related to Swedish, has "undervise" for "to teach" and "laere" for "to learn", similar to German "unterrichten" = "to teach" and "lernen" = "to learn".


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## ThomasK

Thanks, Holger, excellent information. In the meantime I have focused on learning in a separate thread. Maybe you can paste your information into that thread. Thanks in advance...


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## ThomasK

bazq said:


> In Hebrew the root l-m-d refers to learning and teaching, so we just use it in the active verbal pattern to mean "learned" למד "lamad".
> "tought" is simply the same root in a causative verbal pattern לימד "limed".
> 
> However, some words relating to teaching use the root y-r-y or y-r-h which revolves around "to signal/to order/show the path or way(?)":
> מורה more (male teacher) mora (female teacher)
> הורה hore (parent)
> הוראות hora'ot (instructions/orders)
> תורה tora (the Torah)
> יורה yore (the first rain of the year)


I should have reacted earlier but this *yore*... Can the first rain teach us something? And can you use *tora *in other, non-religious contexts?

*Hore/ more*: is that like teaching vs. bringing up? Can you use a direct object or an infinitive with both? (I teach a child this/ to ride on a bike)


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## bazq

ThomasK said:


> I should have reacted earlier but this *yore*... Can the first rain teach us something? And can you use *tora *in other, non-religious contexts?
> 
> *Hore/ more*: is that like teaching vs. bringing up? Can you use a direct object or an infinitive with both? (I teach a child this/ to ride on a bike)



The yore indicates (instructs) the coming of winter.

Yes, we use "tora" for doctrines, and sometimes as an equivelant of "-logy":
Phonology = תורת ההגה (torat hahege) "the study of the phone".
Game Theory = תורת המשחקים (torat hamisxakim) "the study of the games". 

Regarding "hore" and "more", these are nouns, not verbs, so we can't use direct objects after them (again, we use the root l-m-d when speaking about the verb "to teach"). Technically "more" is a participle, so we can say המורה מורה לי (hamore more li) which literally means "the teacher instructs to me..."/"the teacher is (an) instructor to me...". In this example an infinitive can follow. 
Historically, this root y-r-h has two meanings: "to instruct" and "to shoot (an arrow in biblical times)/"to throw in a certain direction". It's unclear whether this is the merger of two seperate roots, or a semantic divergence, in which case perhaps the historic meaning denotes some sort of "direction oriented action". Like a bowman who chooses the direction in which to send the arrow, and the man who gives orders, instructions, in order to send someone else in a certain direction (a real direction, or a figurative one - like a teacher).


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## ThomasK

Great, amazing even...


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## ThomasK

This teaching/ learning turns out to be a key topic in Amoz Oz and Fania Oz-Salzbergen's book: _jewsandwords_... I'll be in touch soon and tell you more...


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## ger4

Equinozio said:


> Interesting discussion.
> 
> Funnily enough, in Tagalog, we use the same word for _to teach_ and _to point_. Which one is meant depends on the context.
> 
> *Ituro mo ang leksyon.* - _Teach the lesson._
> *Ituro mo ang lalaki.* - _Point to the man._
> 
> Sometimes it can be ambiguous.
> 
> *Ituro mo ang tama.* - _Teach the correct one. / Point to the correct one._



This reminds me of the expression "to show someone how to do something" or "to point out something" - similar to German "jemandem etwas zeigen" (zeigen" = "to show", "to point out") 

I guess, "to teach" describes a more complex "teaching process" than "to point out".


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## ThomasK

Wait a second: _weisen _in German, _wijzen _in Dutch, pointing (at or out) is the very beginning of wisdom, I think, et least etymologically. And teaching (at school) is still onderwijzen in Dutch, and one could say that pointing shows the way, c.q. the manner. But of course teaching has developed into a lot more, I agree.


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## mataripis

Equinozio said:


> Interesting discussion.
> 
> Funnily enough, in Tagalog, we use the same word for _to teach_ and _to point_. Which one is meant depends on the context.
> 
> *Ituro mo ang leksyon.* - _Teach the lesson._
> *Ituro mo ang lalaki.* - _Point to the man._
> 
> Sometimes it can be ambiguous.
> 
> *Ituro mo ang tama.* - _Teach the correct one. / Point to the correct one._



Ituro is the common word for to teach and to pin point. It is probably came from aramaic word Torah with direct Tagalog word Katuruan(teaching). Subject is aralin, point to the direction of- nakaturo sa... or nakapaling sa ....      (      1.) Ituro ang aralin. 2.) Ituro siya.     and 3.) Ituro kung ano ang matuwid at tama .  are clear forms of Tagalog)


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## Saluton

Awwal12 said:


> In Russian, the verb "to teach (smb.)" is equal to the verb "to learn (smth.)": учить /uch*i*t'/. That is quite interesting, I must note.
> Он *учил* мальчика плавать. - He taught (or "was teaching") the boy to swim.
> Кто тебя *учил* это так делать? - Who taught you to do it this way?
> 
> and on the other hand:
> 
> В школе мы *учим* химию. - We learn chemistry in school.
> Сейчас я *учу* стихотворение. - I am learning a rhyme now.
> 
> But this imperfective verb has different equivalents of perfective aspect, depending on the meaning: "научить" /nauch*i*t'/ (smb.) and "выучить" /v*y*uchit'/ (smth.).
> 
> Он *научил* меня всему, что знал. - He has taught me everything he knew.
> Я *выучил* английский хорошо. - I have learned English well.
> 
> The related words are:
> "обучать" /obuch*a*t'/ - to teach (smb., +dative or verbal infinitive)
> "изучать" /izuch*a*t'/ - to study (some subject, or scientifically)
> "выучивать" /vy*u*chivat'/ - to learn (imperf., related with perf. выучить that was mentioned above)
> "поучать" /pouch*a*t'/ - to lecture
> "учиться" /uch*i*tsa/ - to study (lit. "to teach oneself" - P.S.), +D or +infinitive (or just somewhere)
> "учение" /uch*e*niye/ - 1. a doctrine. 2. studies
> "учёность" /uch*o*nost'/ - an erudition (often with disapproval)
> "учёный" /uch*o*nyi/ - 1. a scientist, a scholar. 2. learned, erudite (often with disapproval) 3. trained (about an animal)
> "учитель" /uch*i*tel'/ - a teacher
> "ученик" /uchen*i*k/ - a pupil, an apprentice
> "наука" /na*u*ka/ - a science
> ...and other similar words.
> 
> They aren't related with signing in any meaning.
> to sign (some feeling) - выражать /vyrazh*a*t'/ (also ="to express")
> to sign (= to mark) - помечать /pomech*a*t'/, отмечать /otmech*a*t'/
> to sign (= to signify) - значить /zn*a*chit'/, обозначать /oboznach*a*t'/ (also ="to mean", but not about persons)
> etc.


You forgot the more formal verb with a different root: преподавать (prepoda'vat), which basically means 'to serve (smth. to smb.)'.


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