1732: firth and fjord Sep 11, 2019

The landscape of Great Britain is not so similar to the far more rugged Scandinavian coast, which is why when describing long narrow inlets between cliffs, the usual word is the Norwegian 'fjord', even for places in, even for in the Americas. Nonetheless, English already had a word for that, sort of: 'firth'. Such as in the 'Strait of Firth' or the 'Solway Firth', there are physical features in Britain with this name. As it happens, this word too ultimately comes from Old Norse, same as 'fjord', but it entered Middle English through Scotts, which should not be so surprising considering that these firths are mostly in the North of England or in Scotland. 
Watch the most recent video here: https://youtu.be/kA7mMfX3Bh0

1731: C vs. K (& Q vs. G) Sep 10, 2019

In very old Latin writings, C, K, and Q were all used to represent the sounds /k/ and /g/, those two not yet distinguished in writing. This is mostly the same as in English now, and similarly certain variants were prefered in certain contexts, such as Q before a rounded vowel (hence Qu-). C eventually replaced K in most words, one exception being 'Kalend' (calend), and G was invented off of C—that's why they look so similar—and in places where the Latin alphabet was adopted, like Roman England or places where the Romance languages are spoken today. Elsewhere, like in Germanic areas or Eastern Europe, this was not so, and they kept K. This was influenced also by runic letters, but only so far.

For more on English spelling, watch the newest video here, or for the history of letters, click here.

1730: Sounds Change in English: Lancaster

The name of 'Lancaster' in England now might sound a bit abstract: not so in Chaucer's time. As late as the writing as Chaucer, the city would have been called 'Loncastel' or even 'Longcastel', such as in Chaucer's "Deeth of Blauche the Dutchess". It is called 'Loncastre' in the Doomsday Book, and while the latter element means 'fort; castle', the former is not 'long', but 'Lune', denoting the local river. Moreover, it shows that the '-st-' of 'castle' was pronounced once as the spelling indicated. To see more about why English spelling no longer reflects pronunciation, and to hear more from Chaucer, watch the new video: https://youtu.be/kA7mMfX3Bh0

1729: Esperanto in Brand Names Sep 8, 2019

Esperanto was originally meant to be a language for business and politics. This never manifested itself, but there are a few times brands have given a sort of wink to the language. The formerly Swiss, presently American watch company Movado (always in motion) takes approximately half of its watches' names from Esperanto, including Belamodo (beautiful fashion), Fiero ("pride"), and Verto ("head top"). Other brands have done this as well on a smaller scale, though usually only as a nod to the original goal, with no real success.

Make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel for the video out tomorrow: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNofHfYEoM2l7fu2340gsDQ

1728: The Most Widely-Spoken Unofficial Language Sep 7, 2019

Javanese is the most widely spoken language that is not an official language. With around 100 million speakers—roughly 42% of Indonesia's population—this language could have been a suitable choice for Indonesia's national language, or even just one of them, but since the only official language for whole country is Bahasa Indonesia (there are certainly regionally official languages), it can be argued that Javanese is the most widely spoken language not official recognized by any country. The reason for this was to avoid favoritization of one language over the rest; since around 700 languages are spoken in the immense nation, Bahasa Indonesia was in some respects fabricated in order to be more nationalistic.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNofHfYEoM2l7fu2340gsDQ

1727: Captain, or Post-Captain Cook? Sep 6, 2019

Some have said that Captain James Cook was not a captain, pointing to the fact that he was a lieutenant, a commander, and post-captain. Those other facts are true, technically, but it shows a misunderstanding of what a post-captain is. First, there is no longer a position called 'post-captain', which nowadays is just called 'commander' or usually 'captain' depending upon the ship. Even so, and more importantly, at the time, a post-captain was an officer promoted from commander to captain, and moreover one who had seniority and whose name was publicly 'posted'. It also it signified that he commanded a rated ship, i.e. having three or more masts. The descriptor 'post-captain' has never been a title though, so even for the time he was addressed as 'Capt. Cook'. That is to say, in short, that Capt. Cook was not only a captain, but also of the the highest rank one could be.

1726: same and zusammen Sep 5, 2019

German is famous for compounding things together, but its word for 'together', itself a compound, is formed of elements that can no longer be parsed. The German 'zusammen' (together) comes from 'zu-' (to) and 'sammen' (together), and like English with '-gether' coming from 'gather', the parts can no longer be separated. 'Sammen' is still part of many other compounds though, like 'sammlung' (collection; exhibition) or 'sammeln' (to collect). This is related to the English word 'same', and formerly 'sammen' (together) in Middle English, as well as many other words across Indo-European languages, including 'homos'—like 'homo-'—in Greek.

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1725: balm, embalm, and balsamic Sep 4, 2019

We probably don't think of ritual embalming when we think of lip balm, but looking at those two words together might make you think twice. The words are clearly related, but it is 'embalming' meaning 'preparing a corpse for burial' which is the divergent one. 'Balm' and 'embalm', and for that matter 'balsam' and 'balsamic' all used to mean simply 'something, usually an ointment to give a pleasing odor'; 'balm' is also just a variant of an earlier 'balsm'. However, nowadays, both 'balm' and 'embalm' have moved away from the connotation to scent and towards skin preservation, which granted was what balsamic ointments generally were for anyway, but the meaning stayed more or less in 'balsam' and 'balsamic'.

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1724: Extra Runic Letters Sep 3, 2019

Many ancient cultures used letters to represent numbers as well, but not every alphabet is equal. For instance, the runic alphabet Young Futhark formerly used in Northern Europe only had at certain points in history as few as 16 letters, and therefore numbers were limited greatly. Among other problems, their calendars, which were based off of a 19-year Metonic cycle like the Babylonians, so at times like these, special runes would be made up for specific usually calendrical purposes.

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1723: Months were Adjectives: Calends and Ides Sep 2, 2019

English is pretty good making it blurring the lines between nouns, verbs, and adjectives: not usually so much with Latin. Nevertheless, the months now spoken of as nouns began as nouns. This is because for much of Roman history, the calends were more important linguistically than the notion of the whole month together. Not only would a month be said in the form of, say “the March month”, but dates were given in reference to the calends and ides. In fact, it was the practice that dates after the ides of a month were given in reference to the next, so September 16 was expressed as "the 14th day before the October calends" (a.d. XIV Kal. Oct.). Luckily, dates have gotten a bit simpler since then, especially since the ides are not the same month-to-month.

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1722: nundinae Sep 1, 2019

Although we think of a week as 7 days, for the Romans, it was 8. This, along with their 38 weeks, left an unorganized series of 50 days in the winter—and no, the math doesn’t work out with that*. The Romans were weird—by modern standards—about time-keeping. Even with these weeks of 8 days, they were also in another sense weeks of 9, because this unorganized period of 50 days were considered, culturally speaking, to be the ninth days of the week even while they were all clustered together in the winter, hence their name ‘nundinae’. The name comes from the Latin for ‘ninth day’ (nōnus and -din-). This, along with ‘nones’ are examples of a Roman preoccupation with categorizing days by series of nines, but as explained yesterday, this was not always the same as actually counting 9.

*The nunidae was actually 50 days, meaning that the standard year was about a week and a half shy of 365 days, and this is also why February is so short. The Romans would periodically add the days in February from the 23rd; even now the leap-day is technically added as the 24th day of February, not the 29th.

1721: Inclusive Counting Aug 31, 2019

Numbers, and therefore counting, may seem to be fixed, but this is only half true. Numbers are objective, but there are multiple ways of counting, and there is evidence to suggest that inclusive reckoning (i.e. counting, usually days, including the first and/or last day) was more common in the past than the alternative. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Israelites all counted like this, which we know from written works, mostly describing time. A clear example is with the 'nones' (from the root word of 'nine') of the month being the 8th day, or that the period between Olympic games, which happen every 4 years, was called the pentaeteris, from 'pent' ('five'). This also shows up in the Bible and in musical notations, which will be explored over the next few days. If you know of any yourself, write a comment.

1720: Esperanto's Name Aug 30, 2019

Esperanto may be the most famous artificial language—it is certainly the most learnt one— but 'Esperanto' was not supposed to be its name. Many also believe it was named after the founder, but he was only nicknamed Dr. Esperanto, his real name being Dr. L.L. Zamenhof. He also intended to call the language 'Lingvo Internacia', but soon after got the name 'Esperanto' meaning 'he who is hoping'. In that regard, it is not as artificial even as it was set out.

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1719: NATO Phonetic Alphabet Aug 29, 2019

There is an alphabet for speaking letters (listed below) that goes by many names including 'International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet', and 'NATO Phonetic Alphabet'. This started with the advent of phones, as many letters sound similar, such as P and B or M and N when said individually, but each country had its own set, mostly standardized by the military. However, as long-distance travel became more accessible, people from different linguistic backgrounds often had trouble understanding, so in 1947 the International Air Transport Association made a list suitable for speakers of English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, even if it mostly draws from English.

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And to see a video on globalization of English, click here.

Full alphabet as follows:

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

1718: idaho Aug 28, 2019

A lot of US states are named for Native American tribes or other native words, others come Europe, but at least one comes from nowhere. There are certainly some intriguing states-etymologies like 'California', but 'Idaho' doesn't really have one at all. A lobbyist George Willing said it was from Shoshone when he proposed the name, but later admitted he made it up, and the Shoshone etymology is likely fabricated. No one knows how he came up with 'Idaho', but many that suggest other native origins neglect the fact that we might not have really have had significant contact with tribes of the area.

Check out the latest video, about accents of English across the globe: https://youtu.be/F2tYDTiv7qQ

American vs. English R

Watch the latest video here: 

https://youtu.be/F2tYDTiv7qQ

1717: Pronunciation of ע (Accents over Time) Aug 27, 2019

It is typical for any language for some of the sounds to change over time. You can see more about this regarding English in the video released today. This is one of the reasons (among many) that the Hebrew alphabet not only multiple pairs of letters able to represent the same sounds, but also 3 letters representing no sound, sort of. One of these letters, now often mistakenly likened to a vowel in Hebrew, and acting as a vowel for Yiddish and Ladino, ע (ayin) ‎but traditionally this sound was a glottal fricative, having a similar oral posture (position of the mouth) as with [s] but produced at the back of the throat. Now it is most often a glottal stop. In Arabic, it still usually retains this pronunciation, but it varies in different regions.

1716: Esperanto Money Aug 26, 2019

Esperanto and globalism—particularly pan-Europeanism—have always gone hand in hand. While the Euro was not created for Esperanto, Esperantists have before tried to create currencies, namely the spesmilo and the stelo, the former of which was used by a real cheque bank. In 1907 the Ĉekbanko Esperantista was founded for the Spesmilo in London. Many have called the Euro 'Esperanto money', and in a way this is not so wrong.

For more thoughts on Esperanto, check out the Word Theory from yesterday.

1715: Diminutive Suffixes in German Dialect Aug 25, 2019

About 80% of Yiddish vocabulary is from German, more or less depending on dialect, but when it comes to grammar the number is harder to discern. For instance, it is common for Yiddish to have the diminutive suffix -l (ל-), even using this in place of the word for small 'kleyn' (קליין) as is the case in German. For instance, 'city' in German is 'Stadt' (pronounced like SH-t [ʃt]), and in Yiddish it's 'shtot' (שטאָט), but a town—when not a village—is sometimes 'Kleinstadt' or just 'kleine Stadt' in German but 'shtetl' (שטעטל‎) in Yiddish. However, this Yiddish feature is Germanic, not Slavic or Hebraic, and does appear infrequently in some dialects. For instance, the Austrian town Neustadtl an der Donau (literally: New Little Town on the Danube) uses this convention, which is not really standard for German.

1714: copper metal Aug 24, 2019

While 'copper' for 'policeman' might not be related to metal, the history of the term for a metal is much richer. The word may ultimately come from Latin in the form of 'cuprum', but the whole thing comes from Cyprus, insofar as that Latin was a contraction of 'Cyprium aes': Cypriot metal. In fact, the first ever man-made metal alloy, 'bronze' is made partly from copper, and was originally made in that part of the world. It was so common that the words for 'copper', 'bronze', or even metal objects— particularly cash coins—were at times indistinguishable in Latin, simply referred to as 'aes'. Eventually 'cuprum' meant the distinct copper we know today, and 'aes' became 'ore' when it entered English.