Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #indoeuropean

Most recents (7)

#ADDER in #IndoEuropean: #Latin natrix, gen. sg. natrĭcis f. ‘water snake’, #OldIrish nathair, gen. sg. nathrach, #Welsh neidr, pl. nadredd, #OldCornish nader ‘snake’, #OldBreton natrolion pl. ‘basilisks’, #MiddleBreton nazr, azr, #ModernBreton naer ‘snake’, …
1/14 https://commons.wikimedia.o...
#ProtoGermanic *nadraz m. (#Gothic nadrs, #OldNorse naðr, #Icelandic naður), *nēdrōn- f. (#OldEnglish nǣdre, #OldHighGerman nātara, #WestFrisian njirre), *nadrōn- f. (#MiddleEnglish nadder, adder, #OldNorse naðra, #MiddleDutch nadre, adre, #Dutch adder, #German Natter, Otter)
2 https://commons.wikimedia.o...
What do an adder, an apron, and an orange have in common?

If it weren’t for the phenomenon of “rebracketing”, they would all three still be known as nadder, napron (cf. #French napperon), and norange (cf. #Spanish naranja).
3/14
Read 14 tweets
OX in #IndoEuropean: #Vedic ukṣā́, #Avestan uxšā, #ProtoGermanic *uhsô (#Gothic auhsa, #Old Norse oxi, #OldEnglish oxa, #OldHighGerman ohso, #German Ochse, #Durch os), #Welsh ych, #OldIrish oss, #Tocharian B okso, A pl. opsi.
1/16
This word, my friends, is so fascinating that one could write a whole PhD thesis about it (trust me, I know). The immediate reconstruction for all items in 1/ is a masculine n-stem with a nom. sg. *hₓuksō(n). For such a stem we would expect a nom. pl. *hₓuksō̆nes.
2/16
However, just as all languages point to or are consistent with an “amphikinetic” nom. sg. *hₓuksō(n), the evidence of three separate and independent branches unequivocally supports reconstructing a “hysterokinetic” nom. pl. *hₓuksénes.
3/16
Read 16 tweets
#Hydronomastics is the study of #hydronyms, the proper names of bodies of water.

It's a branch of #toponomastics, the study of #toponyms (the proper names of places), which in turn is a branch of #onomastics, the study of #orthonyms (proper names).

French / Luxembourghish sign: The River Sauer in Martelan...
#Hydronym and #hydronomastics both derive from Ancient #Greek ὕδωρ / húdōr (water) + ὄνομα / ónoma (name). The Greek island of Skiatho...
#Hydronyms tend to outlast other #toponyms, even when new #languages and cultures displace earlier ones.

#England, #EastAnglia, #Essex, and #Sussex are named for the #Angles and #Saxons; but #Trent, #Ouse, #Thames, #Severn, and #Avon are older #Celtic and #RomanoBritish names. A map showing the main rive...
Read 173 tweets
Been down the rabbit-hole of #Croatian #folklore - here's a #thread of what I found:

'#VAMPIRES IN DALMATIA: THE EXAMPLE OF THE VILLAGE OF ŽRNOVO ON THE ISLAND OF #KORČULA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY' hrcak.srce.hr/138625

This one is especially close as its my family island.
'From #Folklore to Fiction: Early Literary Manifestations of the #Vampire Motif' hrcak.srce.hr/200179

Fun fact: the term 'vampyr' first appeared in an 11th century Slavic manuscript vilifying #Bogomils, a #Gnostic dualist heresy that was endemic to the #Balkans
'#Witches' Zoopsychonavigations and the Astral Broom in the Worlds of #Croatian Legends as (Possible) Aspects of #Shamanistic Techniques of Ecstasy (and Trance)' researchgate.net/publication/33…
Read 64 tweets
Around 3000 BCE in eastern #Europe, a Proto-Balto-Slavic #language started to diverge from #ProtoIndoEuropean.

The #Slavic branch of the #IndoEuropean #languages began about 2,000 years later when Proto-Slavic deviated from Proto-Balto-Slavic.

[Image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balt…] Source: The Indo-European L...
As the #Slavic-speaking area expanded during the first millennium CE (striped area on map), Proto-Slavic transitioned to Common Slavic. The #language underwent minor changes that occurred mostly uniformly across eastern #Europe, thereby maintaining mutual intelligibility. A map of eastern Europe sho...
Around the year 1000 CE #CommonSlavic began to split into the South, West, and East branches to which all modern #Slavic #languages belong.

Roughly 315m people speak a Slavic #language, mostly in Eastern #Europe (including the #Balkan peninsula), #CentralAsia, and #Siberia. A map of Europe highlightin...
Read 359 tweets
In the early part of the first millennium CE, the #IndoEuropean language known as Proto-#Germanic diverged into an East branch (which included #Gothic) and a Northwest branch.

Northwest then split into West and North branches when Proto-#Norse developed in #Scandinavia. Image
Until the 8th century, #Germanic #languages, including Proto-#Norse, were written in Elder Futhark, the earliest #runic #alphabet.

The name #Futhark comes from the initial phonemes in the names of the first six #runes:
ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ
F U Þ A R K

By the beginning of the #Viking Age around 800 CE, Proto-#Norse had evolved into Old Norse, and #Scandinavia's writing system transitioned from the 24 #runes of Elder #Futhark to Younger Futhark's 16 runes.

The #Swedish #Sparlösa #Runestone from ~800 CE features both #alphabets. Image
Read 92 tweets
Let's talk a little about #history, #language, and #languagechange. Many of the world's languages evolved from historical #protolanguages and have sister and cousin languages in their family, similar to how animals are classified.
For example, #English is a #WestGermanic language within the #IndoEuropean family.

Meanwhile, languages like #Basque are #isolates, meaning they have no known language relatives. There are some fringe theories about Basque, but none that are widely-accepted.
Take a look at your #language or languages you like on ethnologue.com. Comment below on any surprising facts you find or any questions that come up!
Read 3 tweets

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