you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

Literally it's more like "non-speakers", though, isn't it? Nie + mowić = Not + to speak.

So, maybe in contemporary Polish the word has been polished to mean "mute", but could be that they were "those damn non-speakers [of our Polish] across that river-thing!"

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Well, the "mówić" part is not present, the root of the word is more similar to "niemy", meaning "mute"; the Polish word comes from "non-speaker", as in "not speaking at all". but that's just speculation on my part, I'm no linguist or etymologist 🤷‍♀️

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment