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 […]
Languages
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Surprising Doublets: brother, friar, and pal
When several words in the same language share an origin, they are called “doublets”.Because English has words from so many different Indo-European sources, it is full of examples like these.