This word for "moon" is wide spread through Afro-Asiatic and specifically Semitic languages. The one exception is Arabic which uses قمر qamar for moon, instead of the expected *war(i)ḵ. The origin of qamar is unsolved.
Though Arabic may have borrowed the word tārīk: "date, time, time-keeping" from …
read moreIn which linguistics should probably be *dinguistics.
Armenian լեզու lezu, Lithuanian liežùvis, and Latin lingua (all "tongue") are modified from their expected reflexes of *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s by association with *leyǵʰ-: "to lick". The expected words would be Armenian *tezu, Lithuanian *iežùvis, and Latin dingua (attested in Old Latin).
Though …
read morewolf, wolframite, Ralph, Raoul, lycanthrope, lupus
now, Naples, supernova, novel, announce, novice, Nobel Prize, new, innovate
work, wrought, boulevard, energy, argon, allergy, Demiurge, liturgy, metallurgy, surgeon, organic organize
Bangalore, Pavuluri Ganitamu, beryl, brilliant
Both Classical Sanskrit 𑀫𑀭𑀓𑀢 marakata: "emerald" and Classical Greek μᾰ́ραγδος máragdos: "emerald" appear to be borrowed from a source like *maraktV.
This is presumably a form closely related to the Phoenician brqt and Hebrew baréket: "emerald", from *b-r-ḳ: "shining, sparkling". Akkadian cognate baraqu: "shine" instead might have had …
read morefermentation, thermos, warm, petit four, furnace, gore, frantic, adrenaline
One final "turtle" word: "honu"
It is very tempting to unify *pəñu: "sea turtle" with *pəNuʔ: "to fill, full, container". And *pəNuʔ: "full" has potential cognates in the possible Sino-Austronesian macrofamily/Southeast Asian historic sprachbund.
And then at that point you're speculating a link between "green sea turtles" and …
read moreTurtledoves are not named after turtles, in fact "turtle" has meant the bird for longer than it meant the reptile.
In Middle English tortu meant "turtle" (from Latin tortuca) and turtel mean "turtledove" (from Latin turtur), then they collapsed into "turtle". The modern meaning of "turtle" won out, and …
read moreA whole pile of words for things with shells and exoskeletons built on something like *kar-
Some of these are probably each of
In which we go from Latin ūrō: "I burn" to English bust: "upper torso", with very little semantic or phonological similarity.
Latin ūrō: "I burn" picks up an extra b- in many inflected forms based on re-analysis of amb-ūrō, leading to Latin bustum: "place for fires".
Then semantically Latin …
read moreA Mediterranean/Caucasian substrate word approximately like *wion: "violet (flower)", was borrowed into Hellenic, Iranian, and Italic.
Greek Ionia is probably not related, since the Mycenaean shows 𐀂𐀊𐀺𐀚 i-ja-wo-ne for "Ionians" with digamma in a different position than the *wion expected for "violet" , and Egyptian 𓇌𓅱𓈖𓏭𓉻𓂝𓏛 ywnj-ꜥꜣ supports that …
read moreHere I'm following Blažek's compelling argument (2017) to derive *h₂ŕ̥Tḱos from *h₂r̥dh₂éḱh₃-s: "bee-eater", similar to many later words for bear that mean things like "honey eater", "honey pig", "thief of bees", "bee bear", "bee wolf", … . This instead of the traditional connection to Sanskrit 𑀭𑀓𑁆𑀱𑀲𑁆 rákṣas and …
read moreI'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 …
read moreIn which yes- and -day in yesterday are the same root.
"The day that’s the other day"
Germanic *dagaz is often explained as being from *dʰegʷʰ-: "to burn", but the loss of labialization would be irregular, and the semantic …
read morenephology, Niflheim, Nibelungenlied, nebula
Love, compassion, and pity to Tonga and the city of Nuku'alofa.
MLK is King
(Martin Luther King Jr. Day Holiday Bonus)
Godiva, gift, gable, cephalopod, exhibit, habeas corpus, able, ability, habitat, gaffer tape, javelin
subtle, text, technology, dachshund, city, haunt, position