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yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

Why is 'laugh' written with -ugh while it ends with an [f] sound?

It's because the spelling 'laugh' reflects how the word was pronounced in Late Middle English, some 500 years ago.

Click the video to listen to a phonetic reconstruction of how this verb evolved from 3rd-century BC Proto-Germanic to modern-day Standard English.

The Middle English to Early Modern English stages are based on the dialect of the region of London.

video/mp4

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@faticake It shows it's an unvoiced [l] sound, so you don't use your vocal cords. Icelandic, too, has it in words starting with 'hl'.

yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

The word 'bone' has the same origin as German 'Bein', Dutch 'been', and Swedish 'ben', which mean both "bone" and "leg".

These nouns are thought to stem from an adjective meaning "straight". It lives on in Icelandic 'beinn' and Norwegian 'be(i)n' (straight; right).

Here's more:

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@tomw Interesting! In Dutch, the "bone" meaning is so rare that it never causes problems, but I suppose in Swedish it's still common?

yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

'Foreign' is etymologically related to 'door'.

'Foreign' stems from Popular Latin *forānus (outsider), a derivation of Latin 'forīs' (outside).

It got its silent G because people believed it had something to do with 'reign'.

Latin 'forīs' is a cousin of 'door'. Here's more:

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@chrpistorius Yes, *dʰu̯ went via /θu̯/. The change of /θ/ into /f/ is what many Dutch people do when trying to pronounce English th; in primary school, I had an English classmate called 'Maffew', haha. 😅

yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

The Proto-Germanic ancestor of 'thing' and its cognates 'ding', 'ting' etc. meant "folk assembly".

The Latin ancestor of French 'chose', Spanish and Italian 'cosa' etc. meant "legal case".

Both words underwent a series of meaning shifts that resulted in the meanings "matter; thing".

Here's how:

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@jonny Proto-Germanic had the word discussed in the post below, while Latin had 'res', as in 'rēs pūblica' (the public matter/thing), which became 'republic' in English.

https://toot.community/@yvanspijk/111970792138749232

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@jonny Thank you very much! In fact, what I do and love doing is communicating what scholars who have a much bigger track record than me researched. They wrote dictionaries of Old English, Middle English, Old High German and all the other Germanic languages, they wrote etymological dictionaries of all words in these languages, and made reconstructions of the language these descended from. These dictionaries show how the meanings of the words changed over the centuries, so ... 1/

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@jonny 2/ ... what I do is put this information together and show the development.
As for your second question, the phases of English shown in the graphic roughly correspond to these periods:

  • Old English 7th c. - 11th c.
  • Middle English 11th c. - 15th c.
    (- Early Modern English 15th c. - 17th c.)
    The other 'Old' and 'Middle' phases are close to these periods as well.
yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

Why is 1/60 of a minute called a 'second', just like the ordinal number that goes with 'two'?

It's because a second is the second subdivision of an hour, a minute being the first.

The word 'minute' in turn simply comes from the Latin word for "small (part)".

Here's the entire story:

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@turbobob Here are the main references:

  • Philippa et al. (2003-2009). Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands, Amsterdam.
  • Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1983–1991). Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, Madrid
  • ATILF (1971-now). Trésor de la language française informatisé.
    The rest of the works used are simple non-etymological dictionaries in which I looked up some of the daughter words.
yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

German 'Messer' and Dutch 'mes' (knife) stem from a Proto-Germanic compound meaning 'food-knife'.

As it was frequently used, the four-syllable compound eroded and was obscured.

Click the video to hear how 'Messer' and 'mes' evolved.

On my Patreon I explain how Proto-Germanic *matisahsan acquired the variant *matizahsan and how its z became an r in German.

Below there's an infographic that shows the history of the words that formed *matisahsan and *matizahsan and their Germanic relatives.

video/mp4

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

2/

Below there's an infographic that I made in August of this year. It shows the history of the words that formed *matisahsan and *matizahsan and their Germanic relatives.

yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

Dutch 'zolder' (attic) and 'solarium' (sunbed) are doublets: they both stem from Latin 'sōlārium'.

'Zolder' was inherited from an early Proto-Germanic borrowing from spoken Latin.

'Solarium' was borrowed from written Latin, via English.

Number 9 in my series: Dutch doublets from Latin.

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@word_family_friday That surprised me too when I looked them up earlier tonight!

yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

Romanian 'femeie' (woman) and 'familie' (family) are doublets: they both stem from Latin 'familiam'.

'Femeie' was inherited from spoken Latin. It underwent the sound changes that turned Latin into Romanian.

'Familie' was borrowed from written Latin.

Number 6 in my series: Romanian doublets!

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

@arcepi Just like every other Romance language, Spanish inherited most of its words from spoken Latin. That means: the words lived on in the spoken language when it evolved from Latin.

The words in the right column were borrowed during or after the Renaissance. Spanish has many of these, but so does every Romance language.

Here's a Spanish chart:
https://toot.community/@yvanspijk/111246651873867180

yvanspijk, to random
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

Yesterday I tooted about horse words.

"But what about 'horse', German 'Pferd', French 'cheval', Spanish 'caballo'?" people asked.

These words have their own histories. I'll summarise them below.

  1. 'Horse' stems from Proto-Germanic *hursan/*hrussan, which also became Dutch 'ros', German 'Ross', and Icelandic 'hross'. This Proto-Germanic word may stem from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (vehicle), which also became Latin 'currus' (chariot) and - via Proto-Celtic *karros - 'carrus', whence ... 1/
yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

2/ ... English 'car'.

  1. German 'Pferd', Dutch 'paard', Afrikaans 'perd' come from Proto-West Germanic *parafrēd, a borrowing from Latin 'paraverēdus' (extra courier horse).

This is a hybrid compound of Greek παρά (pará: "beside") and Gaulish *werēdos, from Proto-Celtic *uɸorēdos, wence 'gorwydd' in Welsh.

Old High German 'pherfrit' nicely shows an intermediate stage between reconstructed Proto-West Germanic *parafrēd and modern 'Pferd'.

The West Germanic word was borrowed into ... 2/

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

3/ ... Old French, where it became 'palefrei(d)' (modern 'palefroi'). This was borrowed into English as 'palfrey'.

A last thing about Proto-Germanic: it also had *marhaz. This word doesn't have any modern descendants, but it does survive as the first part of Dutch 'maarschalk' (marshal), from West Germanic *marhaskalkaz (horse groom).

Via the Old French borrowing 'mareschal' (now 'maréchal') it became English 'marshal'.

The female counterpart, *marhijō, became English 'mare', German ... 3/

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

4/ ... 'Mähre' (decripit old horse), and Dutch 'merrie' (mare).

  1. French 'cheval', Spanish 'caballo', Italian 'cavallo', Portuguese 'cavalo' etc. come from Latin 'caballus'.

In Classical Latin, this word meant "pack-horse", but in Popular Latin, it became the general word for a horse.

Its origin is not certain. It may have been borrowed from Gaulish *kaballos, which is related to Irish 'capall' and Welsh 'ceffyl'.

It may also have been a Wanderwort: a loanword that spread ... 4/

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

5/ ... to many different languages through trade or the adoption of cultural practices.

The same goes for Ancient Greek καβάλλης (kabállēs: "nag").

From Latin 'caballārius' (horseman), we get French 'chevalier' (knight) and Spanish 'caballero' (gentleman), and Italian 'cavallaio' (groom; horse merchant).

Lastly: 'cavalry' stems from Italian 'cavalleria' via Middle French, and 'chivalry' from its Old French counterpart 'chevalerie' (cavalry; knighthood; nobility; chivalry).

Enough horses!

yvanspijk,
@yvanspijk@toot.community avatar

6/
Argh, I forgot about Swedish 'häst', Danish and Norwegian 'hest', and Icelandic 'hestur'!

These stem from Old Norse 'hestr', from Proto-Germanic *hanhistaz (horse; stallion).

Its Verner variant *hangistaz became Dutch 'hengst', German 'Hengst', West Frysian 'hynst', whence 'hynder' (< hynst-dier: "stallion animal").

English has 'henchman', from Middle English word that meant "male attendant", from Old English *hengest-man "groom", literally "stallion man".

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