[Spoiler warning for season 1 of House of the Dragon, no spoilers for season 2] I’m a huge A Song of Ice and Fire fan, but watching House of the Dragon, I sometimes find myself losing track of the various dragons and their riders, so I’ve made this helpful cheat-sheet. It shows every dragon at […]
Author: Ryan Starkey
The Etymology and Name evolution of Alston, Cumbria
Todays post is something bit different and perhaps a bit niche, but I’d like to share an image about the name evolution of my hometown, Alston. Alston has a population of only about 1000 people, and is nestled among the hills of the North Pennines in Cumbria, England. It is England’s highest town, and probably […]
Indo-European Words for ‘Tongue’
My newest image using this template, here’s the word for “tongue” in 64 living Indo-European languages, and a bunch of dead ones. If it doesn’t look HD, try clicking on it to open the image in a new window: This is my second image in this style. For the previous one, in which I go […]
Eight British and Irish Accent Maps
Eight maps to show how the differences in how vowels are pronounced in Britain and Ireland. Explanations of each map below: Map 1: Rhoticity Rhoticity in English refers to whether or not an “r” is pronounced when it isn’t before a vowel.For example, in rhotic accents, the word “arm” has a true “r” sound in […]
Indo-European Words for ‘Name’
I’ve created a huge tree to show the relationship between 64 living Indo-European languages, and many dead or extinct ones.With this template I’m planning on making a series of images to show how various words in these languages have shared etymologies. This is the first image in that series: words for “name”. If it doesn’t […]
Map of British English dialects
This map took me a long time to make, and is very detailed, but will always be incomplete and inaccurate due to the nature of language. Why this map is so detailed The diversity of English dialects in the United Kingdom is enormous. It’s common for people from either side of a river, mountain, or […]
The History of Planets in our Solar System
A brief history of the 30 or so objects in our solar system that have been considered planets at some point. While the planets themselves may seem constant and timeless, the way we define the term “planet” has changed drastically over the centuries. Here’s my timeline of all the objects considered planets in our solar […]
Flags of the Planets
I’ve adapted the astronomical symbols of the 8 planets (plus the Sun, Moon, and Pluto) into 8 flags that could be used to represent these worlds. I really enjoyed the challenge of making flags for worlds that are without the history and culture of humanity, and yet are still so fascinating and unique. This was […]
MAPPA VIAE LACTEAE
A map of the Milky Way galaxy in the style of a 16th century cartographer I was looking for maps of our galaxy, and realised I couldn’t really find any. There are plenty of diagrams and artists impressions, but all focus in showing what our galaxy would actually look like from above. All very literal, […]
Norman French Doublets in English: ‘w’ vs ‘gu’
Warranty/Guarantee, Warden/Guardian, reWard/reGuardHave you ever wondered why English has some very similar pairs of words, but with one having a ‘gu’ where the other has a ‘w’? The origin of this phenomenon turns out to be quite interesting, and requires understand a little bit of the history of the French language, and its influence on […]