2545: glass, chlorine, & arsenic Dec 1, 2021

The word 'glass' in other languages shares a root with many color-words, but that is far from where the root *ghel- ends. Meaning 'shine', this word also led to many light-associated words like 'glaze', 'glow', 'gold', 'glimmer' 'glare' and more, but also many related to bile like 'chlorine', cholera, and 'gall'. Even 'arsenic' comes through this root, though it was adopted into English through many other languages, ultimately from Old Iranian *zarna- (golden).

2543: Etruscans Nov 29, 2021

Indigeneity of a people to a land is not an easy thing to ascertain. Before the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, there were Celtic tribes, but before then archeological evidence points to several other waves of inhabitation. Likewise, while the pre-Roman Etruscans might not have literally been the first peoples on the peninsula, they are often considered to be the indigenous people before the Romans. Indeed, they contributed much to overall linguistic development, modifying the Greek alphabet into one that would go on to be used by the Romans and spread around the world, and gave many common words to the vocabulary of Indo-European languages. That said, they didn't speak an Indo-European language, and have generally obscure origins. Some have tried to create a language family from linguistic evidence found around the Alps and Adriatic, but this is not agreed upon.

2511: Common Words with Etruscan Origins Oct 27, 2021

Just because words are basic and have cognates in other, related languages, does not make the word indigenous, though it would suggest that the term is very old. For instance, 'person', 'populous' and 'military' all came to English, and many other European languages, via Latin, but these are not native Latin words. Instead, these are generally seen as having an Etruscan root, making them pre-Indo-European. 'Persona' in Latin was an actors mask, and likewise that would be in Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu), eventually replacing the native English 'wight'. 'Populus' in Latin, was thought to relate to 'plēbs' (commoner; plebeian) but the root here means 'to fill' and an Etruscan root might make more sense. 'Milēs' has a normal construction for Latin grammar, but the perceived connection to 'mīlia' (thousand) is not a given.

2510: etruscan and tuscany Oct 26, 2021

Often, etymologies for English words list that they are from Latin, and end there, but many Latin words had relatively ancient foreign origins of their own. A number of their words entered from the pre-Roman civilization of Etruscan who spoke a totally unrelated, non-Indo-European language, most obviously name of the region of Tuscany. This is from 'Tuscus', earlier 'Truscus', and even earlier 'Etruscus', but that doesn't exactly give the etymology. Rather, this is uncertain, but some surmise it is related to the Ancient Greek Τυρρηνός (Turrhēnós), from τύρρις (túrrhis) meaning 'tower', which itself is not of Indo-European origin. Alternatively, it has been noted among pre-Indo-European groups that they gave themselves names with -sk-, also seen in 'Basque' and 'Vascones', which is believed to mean 'water' and relate to seafaring peoples. Other explanations have traced to Celtic origins, or even to compare it to 'Troy', but these do not hold up as well. It has even been suggested that this was not the endonym, but rather 𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀 (rasna) was what they called themselves, meaning 'the people'.

2476: Literacy and the Historical Record Sep 22, 2021

It would be a mistake to assume that in history is always better understood the further ahead in time one looks. For instance, in post-Roman Europe, and most extremely in Britain, literacy rates plummeted within a generation of the collapse of the empire. As a result, while archeological information is just as viable, written records which had provided detail on more particular aspects of life at that time. This was one of many ways in which the society of the Britons in many ways reverted to its pre-Roman state, but it leaves much of the history of the 5th century and onwards shrouded. In general, collapses society that lead to declines in literacy cause blank spots in an otherwise rich historical records as happened same happened with the arrival of the sea peoples at the collapse of bronze age societies around the Mediterranean.

2474: Hebrew's (Potential) Accusative Case Sep 20, 2021

Biblical Hebrew uses the suffix -ה (a-) to indicate motion-towards: a common feature of the accusative case, which otherwise is used to mark direct objects. Hebrew already has a direct object marker for definite nouns—‎‎את (es)—but no way to mark indefinite nouns. Historically however, it would seem that this suffix -ה (a-) would have, whether or not the noun was definite. This accusative form was mostly lost with this one lingering use and a few potential vestigial forms in vocabulary, but some have even suggested that on top of that an early variety of Hebrew had a nominative */-u/ ending for subjects, and genitive */-i/ ending for possessives, but there is less evidence here.

2453: Secunda Aug 29, 2021

One of the best ways that Biblical Hebrew phonology is understood is from the Secunda, of the Hexapla. This is part of a 6-level interlinear translation into Greek of which the Secunda is a Greek-alphabet transliteration of the Hebrew text, written in about AD 3rd century. Obviously this has its own issues for basing one's understanding of the sounds of Biblical Hebrew, but it does lend some insight. Certain sounds represented in the Greek lettering are significantly different to the modern or modern liturgical varieties of Hebrew, each having their own differences anyway. This is especially useful to glean from local place names, but again, is limited insofar as any writing system will be when used by foreigners for a language with no major similarity.

2245: sneeze Feb 6, 2021

There is an Proto-Indo-European root *snu- that has led to a number of semantically related words including just in English ‘nose’, ‘snot’, and ‘snout’. In that, ‘sneeze’ should not be included, though its association would be obvious on first glance. Consider that the word in Middle English was ‘fnese’ from the earlier Old English ‘fnēosan’, related to a number of other Germanic words like the Dutch ‘fniezen’. Many sources will say this change over time is due to a misprint, but people don’t often cause change of common words in their own language for this sort of thing, and the change is historically attested from [f] to [s] in other words too, including ‘snore’ with all word-initial [fn] falling out of use by the 15th century. That said, once [fn] had been lost, it could certainly have been influenced both by other semantically related word (even if not etymologically related) and indeed spelling.

2207: nurse and nutrition Dec 30, 2020

'Nurse' and 'nourish' related based off of a common Latin root meaning 'suckle', as discussed yesterday. These words are also related to 'nutrition' and 'natal', though less directly. All of these words are understood to come from the Proto-Indo-European root *sna- meaning 'to swim; flow'. This is the root of 'natant' and 'natal' (in reference to a child in the womb) but also with reference to the flow of milk and hence 'nurs[ing]' and of course its connotations to nourishment. The link between 'nurse' and 'nutrition' are less clear cut than between 'nurse' and 'nourish', though even those come from the Latin root 'nūtriō' and most people would acknowledge the Proto-Indo-European connection.

2168: *Ghos-ti-: guest and host Nov 21, 2020

There is a theorized root *ghos-ti-which is the origin of 'stranger; guest', (but not 'ghost') and illustrates a pattern of relation between being a guest and being a host. Indeed, 'guest', 'host' and even 'xeno-' (as in 'xenophobia') all come from the same root. This Proto-Indo-European root, like with the relation between words mean 'give' and 'take', leads to words meaning both 'host' and 'guest' and it is estimated that the original root of the word would have referred to someone with whom one has reciprocal roles in hospitality. In the case of the Greek 'xeno-', this was extended beyond 'guest' to 'stranger' and then now 'foreigner'.

2144: black, bleach, bleak, blank... Oct 28, 2020

The word 'black' and the word 'blank', going way back are related, and while the base assumption might be that they are both void, this is not the source. Indeed, 'blanch', 'bleak', and 'bleach' which actually means 'make white' comes from the same root. There is a presumed Proto-Indo-European root *bʰleg- relating to fire, and drawing from the sense both of darkness from soot and other combustion, but also radiance—such as the Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga) 'radiance'—relating to white light and also probably ashes. This is relates the French and Spanish 'blanc/o' to 'black', all of which have a Germanic root; that said, the Modern German 'schwartz' is obviously not related, and instead shares a root with 'swarthy' meaning 'dark; dirty'.

2133: The Basics of 'Basis' Oct 17, 2020

A lot of basics principles (and quirks) of English language history can be seen through the word 'basis'. First off, although the Greek is βάσις (básis) the root first entered English as 'base', and 'basis' entered via a more direct etymological path a few centuries later. Moreover, although it looks completely different, the word is related to 'come'. In Greek, the word means 'step' as in a stair, and likewise even 'step' in English means in a basic sense 'platform' or a measure of walking. Both 'basis' and 'come' are traced back to a Proto-Indo-European root *gʷem-.

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1282: Language Families: Altaic Jun 14, 2018

Certain terms, such as 'language family' can often be vague; it is often unclear when it refers to groups of languages as specific as West Germanic of which there are around six, and others like Indo-European, which includes scores of languages. Another proposed large family of language-families was the now-discredited Altaic languages, including Turkic, Tungusic, and Mongolic families, as well as the disputed Koreanic, Japonic, and Ainu languages, thus covering most of central and northeastern Asia. The former three families are inarguably more similar to each other than to the others, but even so, people have claimed that the similarities are only due to geographic relation and cultural contact, rather than having common origins, citing the fact that earlier forms of all the languages are quite dissimilar. Even though the theory has virtually no support from linguists today, the theory is still often cited in writings about languages such as Turkish or Mongolian by non-linguists. Nevertheless, it is sometimes hard to know where to draw distinctions among various languages and families thereof.

Make sure also to check out Word Facts' analysis of the film, Arrival.

1270: Aizkora Controversy Jun 2, 2018

The Basque language is mysterious in that no one knows its origins, and it has no relatives, but this is true of the genes of the native speakers. Studies of the DNA of Basque people show that they likely predated any other native Europeans, with signs that they mixed heavily with Neanderthal. Where this crosses over linguistically is that it was observed that there is a word family of terms deriving for the word for 'stone' that relate to different tools, leading linguists to theorize that this feature of Basque dates back to the the Stone Age. This is now very contested, but the so-called aizkora controversy which states that words including the following all go back to the word 'haitz' (stone) for prehistoric culture:

(h)aizkora (axe)

(h)aitzur (shears)

(h)aitzur (hoe)

aizto (knife)

(h)aiztur (tongs)

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1073: Origins of Language Nov 16, 2017

No one knows what the original language sounded like, or even if there ever were such a language. Really, the furthest back that people can estimate ancient languages is a few thousand years, depending upon the language family. Still, it is thought for various, mainly biological and anthropolicical reasons that language began as far back as 100,00 BCE. This is largely to do with adaptations in the brain and larynxes of early humans. It is debated whether language developed before this, but there is really no way to know, and this also raises the question of what constitutes a language. Studying other animals can lend some insights however; some believe that language wasn't created from nowhere but developed as a replacement for other forms of communication including grooming, or some form of involuntary sounds like laughter or cries, which can be supported by studying monkeys.

1019: Physical Adaptations for Speech Sep 23, 2017

Though other species do have the ability to communicate in a number of different ways, none have as sophisticated a method as human speech. This is for a number of biological reasons, including the fact that humans have such large brains, but quite importantly as well, we have a nerve in the brain that allows for much more control over the tongue as compared to other animals, and also, about 60,000 years ago, the hyoid developed which can better support the larynx, used for creating sounds. This all together allows the wide range of sounds that can be recreated that humans use, but unfortunately due to the configuration of the glottis and other parts of the throat, humans are much more likely—up to ten times more likely than other primates—to choke. Whether or not you think that is a fair trade-off, you'll still be able to voice your opinions due to a series of biological adaptations within the last few hundred-thousand years.

818: Giving and Taking in PIE (nimble and metronome) Mar 5, 2017

There are no known writings of the people who spoke Proto-Indoeuropean; in fact, there are still a number of disputes as whether they came from modern-day Ukraine or Anatolia, but through some linguistic clues, people can start to gain some idea of the culture of this people. For example, words meaning 'to take' in one language, and 'to give' in other Indo-European languages often are cognates of each other, which perhaps means that they were related culturally. This is evidenced in a somewhat surprising pair of words: 'metronome' and 'nimble'. The latter comes from the Old English 'nǣmel' meaning, ‘quick to seize or comprehend,’ and is related to 'niman' which meant ‘take’; the -B- was added to 'nimble' as it is is easier to pronounce that way. While 'niman' is related to a number of other Germanic words, it is also related to the Greek, 'nemein' meaning, 'distribute' or 'manage', and along with that, it is related to the Greek word for 'law', 'nomos'. 'Metronome', on the other hand, is an early 19th century that comes from a compound of the the Greek 'metron' meaning ‘measure’ and the aforementioned 'nomos' in the sense of "giving out". The relationship between giving and taking through this Proto-Indoeuropean root could signify their acknowledgement of that connection inherent in bartering. For more on how people can speculate on this long-dead culture, see these links:
Religion in Proto-Indoeuropean

Family in Proto-Indoeuropean