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  1. Word Family - Five

    Introduction

    I've been doing Word Families for 5 years! In that time, I have made 150 families! So this week is *pénkʷe: "five".

    The *p-kʷ sequence in *pénkʷe leads to a set highly divergent forms. *kʷ is a highly variable sound on its own, becoming /kw/, /w/, /ʍ/, /k/, /t …

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  2. Word Family - Four

    April theme: 🦠

    Introduction

    *kʷetwer- is too long for a root. The feminine root suggests that there may have been an original root of just *kʷet-. There are also several reasons to believe that none of this is the original word for four:

    • Hittite's word for "four", meyawes, is unrelated (Hittite …
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  3. Word Family - Seven

    July theme: Miscellaneous 🔨

    Introduction

    For 2017-07-07, I just had to do "seven".

    All words mean "seven" unless otherwise specified.

    It may seems strange to see the word for "seven" borrowed around between so many different language families, when the numbers 1-10 are so highly conserved in descendants of (post-Anatolian) Proto-Indo-European …

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  4. Word Family - Two

    June theme: Pride In Words 🏳️‍🌈

    Teaser

    two, neodymium, duet, biceps, bi-, biscuit, duplicate, Maldives, doppelganger, icosahedron, twin, nonbinary

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ two
      • Old Armenian երկու erku two [1]
        • Old Armenian կրկին krkin double, doubled, iterated
          • Armenian կրկին krkin double, again, once more
        • Armenian երկու erku two
      • Italic *duō two …
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