'Homosexual' and 'heterosexual' aren't as different as they look.
The parts 'hom-' and 'he-' stem from the same Proto-Indo-European root. It meant "one".
From this root we've also got the word 'same'.
Click my new infographic to learn all about these words and their histories.
The box on the right features additional derivatives of this root in Latin, Ancient Greek and Germanic.
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In iedere plaats is het Brabants anders.
Dialectoloog Toon Weijnen onderzocht in de jaren 30 o.a. hoe mensen 'ik doe' in hun dialect zeggen.
Hij verzamelde data uit 239 Noord-Brabantse plaatsen en wat bleek: er waren wel acht verschillende manieren!
Hier is een bewerking van zijn kaart uit 1937:
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The word 'enemy' is closely related to 'amicable', 'amorous', 'to enamour', 'amable', 'amiable', and 'amity'.
All of these words ultimately derive from Latin 'amāre' ('to love; to like').
From its derivative 'amīcus' ('friendly; friend'), the word 'inimīcus' ('unfriendly; enemy') was derived: 'in-imīcus', literally "un-friendly".
Via Old French 'enemi', this became the English word 'enemy'.
Click the graphic to learn more.
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Als je het boek via deze link bestelt, krijg ik zelfs een beetje extra royalty's. 😊
https://www.boekenwereld.com/TT?tt=12322_12_481179_&r=%2Fgetbook%2Fisbn%2Faddtocart%2Fisbn-9789026369971
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De maand waarin mijn boek 'Die goeie ouwe taal' uitkomt is begonnen.
Op woensdag 26 februari ligt het in de winkels! 😃
In 101 korte stukken neemt 'Die goeie ouwe taal' je mee naar onverwachte hoeken van de Nederlandse taal.
Alvast bestellen kan ook! Zie de link in post 2 hieronder:
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An addition to the graphic above:
Another interesting Italian word is 'codesto': "that (near you)", now archaic outside Tuscany.
It comes from Old Italian 'cotevesto'.
This word descended from Latin 'eccum tibi istum', literally something like "here's this for you".
In isolation, these words became 'ecco', 'ti', and '(qu)esto'.
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Italian 'quello', Portuguese 'aquele', and Spanish 'aquel', all demonstrative adjectives meaning "that", have an interesting origin.
The part '(a)qu-' comes from Popular Latin 'eccum', meaning "look".
This word came to be used as an intensifier of demonstratives: 'eccum ille' ('look, that') became 'quello', 'aquele', and 'aquel'.
Italian even preserves 'eccum' as a standalone word: 'Ecco la ragione!' ("That's the reason!").
Click my new graphic to learn all about Romance demonstratives.
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A popular meme says the word 'queue' is just a Q with a bunch of silent letters waiting in line.
Well, 'queue' comes from Old French, and in that language, its spelling actually made a lot of sense:
'Queue' came from Latin 'cōda' ("tail").
Click the video to hear how 'cōda' became 'queue' in French and English, step by step.
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Op 26 februari is het zover: dan komt mijn boek 'Die goeie ouwe taal' uit!
Ondertussen ben ik geboekt voor allerlei optredens in de Boekenweek, die dit jaar het thema 'Je moerstaal' heeft.
Hieronder vind je een overzicht.
Scrol op mijn site door naar 'Aankomende optredens' voor meer informatie over de optredens en om je indien mogelijk al in te schrijven:
https://taalaandewandel.com/
Daar kun je ook het boek bestellen via een link die mij extra royalty's oplevert.
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People often ask me what software I use for making my graphics.
The answer is not very exciting: PowerPoint. No fancy apps that map out data - just good old handiwork.
I gather the etymologies by consulting etymological dictionaries and other relevant literature and then start designing.
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In the article on my Patreon (tier 1, 600 words), I discuss the spelling and pronunciation of 'nevold', 'nephew', 'nipt' and 'nicht':https://www.patreon.com/posts/nieces-nephews-120759426
People subscribed to tier 2 can download an audio file (0:53, 26 forms) of the reconstructed pronunciation of the historical Latin, Romance and Germanic words in the infographic: https://www.patreon.com/posts/nieces-nephews-2-120771251
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While the words 'niece' and 'nephew' are certainly related to the German words for these family members, 'Nichte' and 'Neffe', their family relationship is more complicated than you might think.
'Niece' and 'nephew' were borrowed from French. These French words have the same Proto-Indo-European ancestors as 'Nichte' and 'Neffe', so they’re cognates, but very distant ones.
The original English words were 'nift' and 'neve', but these have become obsolete.
Click the graphic to learn more:
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There are two types of words for 9 in the Germanic languages.
Type 1 is g-less:
e.g. German 'neun', Swedish 'nio'.
Type 2 does have a g:
e.g. Dutch 'negen', Frisian 'njoggen'.
You'd think that English 'nine' is type 1, but it used to have a g too: in Old English, it was 'nigon'. It lost its g in Middle English.
So did 'neun' and 'nio' lose their g too?
No, they've never had one.
The g only evolved in the north-western branch of West Germanic.
My new graphic tells you all about it.
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American far-right plutocrats are now targeting Wikipedia because it's a platform they don't control.
The Wikimedia Foundation is an invaluable non-profit organisation that is not for sale. Please help keeping it that way by making a donation - big or small:
https://donate.wikimedia.org
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3/ ... Danish 'ikke', Swedish 'icke', Norwegian 'ikkje' - the modern words for "not".
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Many people asked if Scandinavian 'ingen' (no; not any; no one) is related to German 'kein' and Dutch 'gein', as these two come from medieval 'enkein' and 'engheen'.
No! Looks are deceiving.
'Ingen' comes from Old Norse 'e(i)nginn', from 'einn' (one) plus '-gi' (no) plus an ending, so it isdifferent from the etymology of 'kein' and 'geen', as yesterday's graphic shows. ⬆️
Old Norse 'e(i)nngi' also had a neuter form: 'e(i)kki', from *eittgi, literally "not one thing".
This became ... 2/
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Words that are etymologically related don't have to look alike.
For instance, Portuguese 'nenhum' and German 'kein' (both meaning "not any; no") have the same origin.
'Nenhum' comes from Latin 'nec ūnus', 'kein' comes from Proto-Germanic *neh ainaz. These combinations both meant "not even one" and had the same Proto-Indo-European origins.
The infographic tells you more about them.
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Interestingly, 'no' (vs. 'yes') isn't related to Spanish 'no'.
English 'no' stems from *naiwan ("never"), as shown in my graphic above.
Spanish 'no' comes from Latin 'nōn', from Old Latin 'noinom' ("not one thing").
This means Spanish 'no' is related to German 'nein', from Proto-Germanic *nainan ("not one thing"), a distant cousin of 'noinom'!
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A short article on my Patreon (440 words) tells you more about words related to the ones depicted on the left side, such as 'either', 'naught', and German 'immer' (always):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/120053621
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The English words 'no' and 'no' don't share a common ancestor. 'No', the opposite of 'yes', comes from Proto-West-Germanic *naiw (never), while 'no' as in 'no pain, no gain' comes from *nain (not any): it arose as a variant of 'none'.
'No' as opposed to 'yes' isn't related to German 'nein' and Dutch 'nee' either. Their only common part is 'n-', which comes from the Germanic negation particle *ne, also found in words such as 'not', 'neither' and 'never'.
Click the graphic to learn more:
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