6 ms·
Very interesting article with cool examples. Here are a few more: * In the "words that begin with an n" category he didn't include the most famous example: ora
by Jun8 13y ago
Very interesting article with cool examples. Here are a few more:
* In the "words that begin with an n" category he didn't include the most famous example: orange, the fruit, which has an n in Persian and Arabic from which it was borrowed but lost it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(fruit)#Etymology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(fruit)#Etymology)
* I used to think that baby was the actual word and babe was a corruption, turns out most probably it was just the reverse (baby < babe + y) (http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/44883/was-baby-originally-baby-talk http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/44883/was-baby-or...)
* Somewhat related to the last category: Have you ever wondered why the initial sound in chair and chandelier are pronounced differently in English? There was a sound change in French, chair was borrowed before that change and chandelier, like many other French word that start with ch, after that change.
* According to OED the reason that some animal names have the same singular and plural was that they originally contained a long vowel, e.g. deer, sheep, fish. Turns out, horse was also in this group but after a sound change its vowel shortened, hence the -s plural now.
- azernik 13y agoAnother example of words borrowed from French before and after the 'ch' -> 'sh' shift: chief and chef are actually derived from the same French word, but chef arrived later and was applied in English only to the cooking context.
- herge 13y agoAlso catch and chase, both from chasse.
- fauigerzigerk 13y agoInteresting. In spanish, "orange" still has the n: "naranja".
- bkurtz13 13y agoI wonder how it became "laranja" in Portuguese...
- gjm11 13y agoKinda-obvious guess: definite article "la" rather than indefinite article. Apparent counter-evidence: the relevant Portuguese definite article is "a" rather than "la" as in Spanish. Counter-counter-evidence: at least one source (W V O Quine's "Quiddities") tells me that once upon a time the Portuguese definite article was "la" rather than "a". However, Quine was a philosopher rather than a historian of language, this particular book is a fairly frivolous one, and I don't know how far I can trust him. Counter-counter-counter-evidence: A few minutes of googling haven't found me any other evidence for Portuguese, or any other language spoken in Portugal, ever having had "la" as a definite article. Make of all that what you will. I'd be very surprised if it weren't derived from a definite article prefix, but exactly how it happened I would rather not guess.
- thaumasiotes 13y agoAs to the counter-counter-counter-evidence, the development of definite articles in Romance languages is well-understood (Latin didn't have them). They come from the adjective "ille, illa (, illud)" meaning "that" (imagine pointing at "that"). So we can immediately conclude that yes, there was an L in there at some point in the history of portuguese. It seems a little more likely that the adjective became an article with the degenerate form "la" and then degenerated further than that the adjective lost its only consonant and then turned into an article.
- auxbuss 13y agoPoint of pedantry, but you never need commas at the start and end of parentheses. So, (illud) == (, illud). Also, (illud) == (illud, ), etc.
- dagurp 13y agoIt makes more sense in english where you can't hear the difference between "An orange" or "A norange".
- memsom 13y agoThis is a common phenomenon in English. The "Adder" (type of snake native to Britain) was originally "Nadder". In old/middle English, it was "a/an", "my/mine", so "mine Edward" and "my Nedward" sounded the same, hence a nickname (ironically originally "ekename", so another case) for Edward is "Ned".
- mhartl 13y agoIndeed, from the OP: Adder, apron and umpire all used to start with an "n". Constructions like "A nadder" or "Mine napron" were so common the first letter was assumed to be part of the preceding word. Linguists call this kind of thing reanalysis or rebracketing.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- darrhiggs 13y agoThe Iberian peninsular was inhabited by arabic speakers for over 700 years, there are a huge number of words in castellano (the Spanish language), directly borrowed from them.[0] In total around 8% of the spanish dictionary is derived from arabic.[1] [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_influence_on_the_Spanish_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_influence_on_th... [1] http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/asele/pdf/13/13_0697.pdf http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/asele/pdf/1...
- unhammer 13y ago> * According to OED the reason that some animal names have the same singular and plural was that they originally contained a long vowel, e.g. deer, sheep, fish. Turns out, horse was also in this group but after a sound change its vowel shortened, hence the -s plural now. I learnt that by reading The Wee Free Men by PTerry: "Aye, it's no' that good for the ship, havin' tae drink oout o' that pond after we've been bathing. It's terrible, hearin' a ship try tae spit." (When in doubt, assume the more "dialectal" pronunciation is the older one. Though I think the wee free men actually overdo it and pronounce plural ship too.)
- thaumasiotes 13y ago> When in doubt, assume the more "dialectal" pronunciation is the older one. Seriously, don't do this. There is no such phenomenon.
- gjm11 13y agoIt seems very possible to me that "babe" was the original, "baby" was derived from that, and "babe" in modern colloquial use is a shortened version of "baby" that just happens to match its predecessor.
- huxley 13y agoInterestingly, Orange as a place name (and the House of Orange) has a different derivation, it came from Arausio which was named after a Celtic water god. Latterly it came to be associated with the fruit and colour.
- moioci 13y agoNot to quibble with the OED, but who ever pronounced "fish" with a long vowel?