by Zabaan | Jun 12, 2015 | Ancient Greek, Classical languages, Etymology, Learning and Teaching, Sanskrit
We all know that the plural of foot is not *foots but feet. This is, by the large majority of English teachers and speakers alike, dismissed as an irregular feature shared by a bunch of other equally irregular nouns, but the formation of the plural of foot actually...
by Zabaan | Jun 11, 2015 | Ancient Greek, Classical languages, Greek Mythology, Literature, Norse Mythology, Old English, Old Norse
According to Greek mythology the fate of each and every individual is determined by the cool and steady hand of three sisters, collectively known as the Μοῖραι (moirai). Their name is derived from the verb μείρομαι (mēromai), to receive as one’s lot. Each on her...
by Zabaan | Jun 10, 2015 | Ancient Greek, Classical languages, Sanskrit, Verb Conjugations
It will have escaped no one, that Germanic languages, such as English and German, have a very irregular conjugation of the verb to be. In English there is to be in the infinitive, but I am in the first person of the singular and then, out of nowhere, he/she is in the...
by Zabaan | Jun 9, 2015 | Case Systems, Classical languages, Linguistics, Old English, Old Norse
Ink, as a tool for writing, has had a profound and ever deepening influence on our perception of the nature of language. It has enabled us to make stills of fractional moments in its evolution and given an artificial solidity to something that has only a very...
by Zabaan | Jun 8, 2015 | Classical languages, Etymology
English star, German Stern, Italian and Latin stella, Greek αστηρ (astēr) and Hindi तारा (tārā), all started with an agricultural metaphor. They are derived from the Indo-European root for to strew, which is reflected in Sanskrit as स्तृ (stṛ). The use of this root in...
