2971: Religious Split in German's Words for 'Goat' Feb 8, 2025

The German terms Geiß and Ziege both mean "goat," but the latter is now far more popular. Geiß is cognate with the English ‘goat’—words ending in [t] in English often have German equivalents with [s]. By the 15th century, Ziege, originally from Western German Franconian dialects, related to the now obsolete English ‘tick’, began to be used more in Central and Eastern dialects. This change for such a basic word was able to take place in the Middle Low German sēge in part due to limited domestic goat populations, and especially helped by its use in Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible Geiß persists in dialects of Southern and especially historically Catholic parts of Germany like Bavarian, Swabian, and Austrian.