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 […]
Linguistics
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.
Surprising Doublets: Wheel, Cycle, and Chakra
The English words “wheel” and “cycle” are related, as is the word “chakra” (a centre of spiritual energy within the body, in Hinduism). When two words have a shared etymology within a language, we call them “doublets”. Another surprising doublet of these is “Ku Klux Klan”. The “Ku Klux” bit comes from the Greek “Kuklos”. […]
Surprising doublets: Horse, Chariots, and Car
There are several pairs of doublets (related words) in English where one is from Norman and has a ‘c’, and the the other is from Old French and has a ‘ch’.‘car’ vs ‘chariot’ is a example, and they have the bonus of also being related to “horse”.Others include ‘castle’ vs ‘chateau’, ‘cattle’ vs ‘chattel’, ‘canal’ […]
The Etymology of English Weekdays
The idea of the 7 day week was introduced to Germanic peoples by the Romans, and so Germanic speakers mostly just replaced the Latin names of these days with Germanic gods or words that seemed like the best translations of the Roman words. The 7 names the Romans gave to their weekdays coincided with the […]