454: Teach and Dicere Mar 6, 2016

'Teach' is related to the Greek 'deiknunai', and Latin 'dicere'. Similarly, 'heart' is related to the Latin, 'cord' and Greek 'kardia', of the same meaning. The fact that these two words of Germanic origin are related to Latin or Greek ought to not be too surprising. While the Greek and Latin sound the same, English's word is more different, and the reason is: sound-shifts. Words from romance languages that have a 'c' beginning tended to keep it, while in Germanic languages it turned into an 'h', such as 'heart' or also 'house' (Eng) 'Haus' (German) and 'casa' (Spanish). Like in both 'heart' and 'teach' romantic "d's" tended to turn into "t's".