Endonyms are the names countries call themselves in their own language(s), while exonyms are the names foreign languages call them. Often these are clearly related (like English “Brazil” and Portuguese “Brasil”). Other times they are clearly unrelated, like Germany and Deutschland. And sometimes they are related, but don’t really look it (like Burma and Myanmar). […]
Etymology
Austronesian words for ‘two’
The Austronesian language family is absolutely vast, including over 1200 languages; for comparison Europe has only around 200, and the whole Indo-European family adds up to around 450. I’ve only included 32 selected languages here, and for simplicity I’ve had to miss out entire branches of the family. Sorry to speakers and enthusiasts of the […]
Indo-European Words for Ten
This image shows the many cousins of the English word “ten”. Around the outside are 64 living Indo-European languages and their words for 10. Within are the words for “ten” in historic languages, going back all the way to Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥. The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language was spoken around 6000 years ago, somewhere on the border […]
The Etymology of Every Toki Pona Word
Note: This post has some pretty huge images on it, which may struggle to load. If you can’t see them, try refreshing the page. What is Toki Pona? Toki Pona is a constructed language (or ‘conlang’): a language that was invented for a specific purpose. The language’s creator, linguist Sonja Lang, constructed the language with […]
Etymonopoly: A Free Print-and-Play Game for Language Lovers
A meme I made has been turned into a playable board game! First here’s images of the board and cards. Scroll down for the printable PDFs! A bit of backstory: A while ago I had a silly idea that would leave me alone until I made it: “what if monopoly, but linguistics?”. The basic idea: […]
The Etymology of English Colours
❤️Red, 💚green, 🩶grey and 🤎brown just evolved fairly simply from Proto-Indo-European colour names, with their meanings unchanged in the last 6000 or so years of evolution. The only twist being that “green” and “grey” seem to be from the same root.. There is no clear explanation for this, although something similar seems to have happened […]
Unexpected doublets: how “merry”, “bra”, and “pretzel” are related
Did you know the word “merry” is related to the words “bra” and “pretzel”? Well now you do. A quick rundown of each of these words: ⭐Although these days its pretty localised to the holiday season, “merry” used to be a fairly general word meaning “happy” or “pleasant”. It comes from a Proto-Germanic word which […]
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 […]
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 […]