@yvanspijk@toot.community

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2d ago

Op 5 november komt het uit: mijn nieuwe boek 'Winter vol woorden'! 😃 In 90 korte hoofdstukken lees je over de vele ijzige reizen die onze winterwoorden door de tijd heen hebben afgelegd. 'Winter vol woorden' is verkrijgbaar als paperback (€ 20,99) en als e-book (€ 12,99). Wil je het op 5 november in huis hebben, dan zou ik je heel dankbaar zijn als je het via deze link bestelt, want die levert mij een extra zakcentje op: https://www.boekenwereld.com/TT?tt=12322_12_481179_&r=%2Fgetbook%2Fisbn%2Faddtocart%2Fisbn-9789026375705

boekenwereld.com

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 3w ago

Why does ‘Dutch’ refer to the Low Countries, but ‘Deutsch’ to Germany? It’s because their medieval ancestor denoted any vernacular continental West Germanic language. Only later did their meanings specify, with the meaning of ‘Dutch’ evolving in a different way than that of ‘Deutsch’. Zoom in on my new infographic to read more – and to learn how ‘Teuton’, ‘Theodoric’, ‘Terry’ and ‘Derek’ are related as well. All of these stem from a word meaning “people; tribe”.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2w ago

Vorige week is het nieuwe nummer van Onze Taal uitgekomen. Voor onze rubriek 'Taal aan de wandel' hebben grafisch vormgeefster Yolanda Huntelaar en ik de reis van het woord 'eiland' in beeld gebracht. 'Eiland' is verwant aan het Latijnse 'aqua' en het Engelse 'island', maar niet aan 'isle'. 'Edam' en 'Betuwe' zitten dan wél weer in de familie. Hoe dat zit, lees je hier:

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 3w ago

RE: https://toot.community/@yvanspijk/117281092866350025 In a parallel universe, English might've had *thede instead of 'people', which is a borrowing from Old French 'pueple'. However, it could just as easily have been superseded by 'folk', which is what happened in Dutch with 'volk' and in German with 'Volk'. Both languages did away with 'diet':

Quoting

Yoïn van Spijk

@yvanspijk@toot.community

Why does ‘Dutch’ refer to the Low Countries, but ‘Deutsch’ to Germany? It’s because their medieval ancestor denoted any vernacular continental West Germanic language. Only later did their meanings specify, with the meaning of ‘Dutch’ evolving in a different way than that of ‘Deutsch’. Zoom in on my new infographic to read more – and to learn how ‘Teuton’, ‘Theodoric’, ‘Terry’ and ‘Derek’ are related as well. All of these stem from a word meaning “people; tribe”.

Open quoted post

toot.community

Yoïn van Spijk: "Why does ‘Dutch’ refer to the Low Countries, but …" - toot.community

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2w ago

The verb ‘to wait’ comes from Old French, but that language in turn borrowed it from the ancestor of Dutch ‘wachten’. These words have a big family. It includes ‘to wake’, ‘woke’, ‘to watch’, and, via Latin, ‘vigilant’, ‘vigour’, ‘vegetation’, and ‘vegetable’. Click my new infographic to learn all about this word family:

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2mo ago

It won’t be too big of a surprise that the words ‘of’ and ‘off’ come from the same Old English word: ‘of’. However, if we go further back in time, it turns out they’re part of a huge word family that includes ‘after’, ‘ebb’, German ‘von’ (“of”), ‘aber’ (“but”), and Ancient Greek ‘apó’ (“away from”). All of these words can be traced back to the same Proto-Indo-European ancestor. Click my new infographic to explore this family:

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Over the past few days, I’ve created two infographics on early Germanic loanwords from Latin: one on construction, with words such as ‘kitchen’ and ‘street’, and one on food, with ‘cheese’, ‘butter’ and others.

Today, I’m wrapping up the trilogy with an infographic on utensils. ‘Fork’, ‘pan’, ‘sack’, ‘mint’ and ‘chest’ – they were all borrowed into Proto-West Germanic, the ancestor of English, when the Romans controlled large parts of north-western Europe during the early first millennium AD.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2mo ago

The Germanic ancestor of ‘thing’ and its cognates, such as German ‘Ding’ and Swedish ‘ting’, meant “folk assembly”. The Latin ancestor of the Romance words for “thing”, such as French ‘chose’ and Spanish ‘cosa’, meant “legal case”. Both the Germanic and the Latin word underwent a long series of meaning shifts resulting in the modern meanings “matter; thing”. My infographic shows how.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2mo ago

Nu de media geen genoeg krijgen van Ceuta, is het aardig om stil te staan bij de uitspraak. De Spaanse uitspraak kun je benaderen met 'Seeuwta' en 'Theeuwta' (met de Engelse th van 'thick'). De uitspraak 'Seejoeta' die je continu hoort (laat staan 'Koejoeta'), lijkt er in de verste verte niet op.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 3mo ago

Spanish ‘usted’ and Portuguese ‘você’, words meaning “you”, don’t look much alike, but they have the same origin: Latin ‘vostram mercēdem’, literally “your mercy”. Click my new graphic to learn how ‘vostram mercēdem’, a reverential way of addressing someone indirectly, gradually became the pronouns ‘você’, ‘usted’, and Catalan ‘vostè’ – a fascinating history in which no Arabic was involved, contrary to a persistent myth.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2mo ago

Replying to

2/ Ah, yes, and I come from that 35-year old bloke from Kazachstan who has the same hair colour as me. And he's got fingers and a nose too!

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 3mo ago

Boosted by @hypebot@goingdark.social

The Spanish words ‘primavera’ (spring) and ‘verano’ (summer) both derive from Latin ‘vēr’ (spring). Originally, ‘primavera’ was early spring, while ‘verano’ was late spring. However, their meanings shifted to later in the year, and ‘estío’, the original word for summer, was dethroned. That’s not the only interesting story the Romance words for the seasons have to tell. Click my new infographic to learn all about the four seasons in the five largest Romance languages.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2mo ago

Replying to

3/ Oh my, this one attracts a lot of mushroom smokers.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 2mo ago

The Spanish way of saying “from where” is ‘de donde’. However, to speakers living a thousand years ago, that would’ve meant “from from from where”. In Old Spanish, “from where” was simply ‘onde’, a descendant of Latin ‘unde’. However, this word would end up getting reinforced by ‘de’ (“from”) twice because of an interesting series of ambiguities. Click my new infographic to see how it happened.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 3mo ago

The word ‘quick’ has many surprising relatives. It’s related to ‘vital’, ‘vivid’, and Spanish ‘vivir’ (to live) via Latin, and to ‘bio-‘ and ‘zoo’ via Ancient Greek. Germanic relatives include Dutch ‘kweken’ (to grow; to foster) and German ‘keck’ (sassy). Zoom in on my new infographic to learn how these words are related:

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

2/ How do we know that the words featured in these infographics were borrowed? Couldn’t they just be the native Germanic cognates of the Latin words? There are several ways we can identify them as borrowings. You’ll learn all about them in the short article below. https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-latin-food-159376050

patreon.com

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Op 20 juni geef ik tijdens de Dag van Rome 2026 een lezing over het oudste taalfoutenlijstje van Italië: de Appendix Probi.

In taalfoutenlijstjes op internet worden allerlei woordvarianten aan de schandpaal genageld: ‘Je moet proprio zeggen, niet propio’, volgens Italiaanse lijstjes. Verandering wordt vaak gezien als verloedering, omdat mensen gewend zijn om normatief naar taal te kijken: ze denken in termen van ‘goed’ en ‘fout’. Zulke taalklachten zijn van alle tijden. Zo’n 1600 ... 1/

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

2/ Haplology is a so-called sporadic sound change. In the short article on my Patreon (470 words, tier 1), you'll learn all about the difference between sporadic sound changes such as haplology, and regular sound changes. https://www.patreon.com/posts/probly-haplogy-158495711

patreon.com

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

2/ How can you identify early loanwords from Latin? By analysing three aspects: stress shift, vowel reduction and certain preserved consonants. My short Patreon article (750 words, tier 1) tells you all about it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-latin-159099621

patreon.com

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 3mo ago

Naarstig op zoek naar winterse woorden die met sw- beginnen, liet ik me tegen mijn principes in verleiden om het even aan Google AI te vragen. Ach, we hebben in ieder geval weer gelachen.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@pjakobs@mastodon.green 'Dachfirst' comes from *firstiz, "ridgepole", an unrelated word. 😊

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@pjakobs@mastodon.green Their forms are incompatible: Latin t only corresponds to Germanic þ (th), not to d. 😊

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@PKYo@kind.social Oh, if time travelling were invented, that would be the first thing I'd do.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@agturcz@circumstances.run 'Guard' is unrelated; via French, it comes from the same Germanic root as German 'warten' (to wait). 'Garden' and 'ogród' are related!

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

2/ In the article on my Patreon (850 words, tier 1), I explain how the meanings of these nine words group diverged over time: https://www.patreon.com/posts/unexpected-160144841

patreon.com

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@fiee@literatur.social It's quite uncommon. I see it almost exclusively used in 'vruchtwater' (amniotic fluid) and 'vruchtje' (the earliest form of the fetus after conception).

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@ArtHarg@mastodon.nl Like 'fought', which comes from 'fuht-', which contained -uht- too. ^^

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@CafeJunkie@troet.cafe That's right. That's why I love my field so much!

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@cazabon@mindly.social 'Albeit' has parallells in other languages, but it wasn't created before English. For example, Dutch has 'zij het', literally "be it", and 'al is het', literally "even though it is".

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@macumbamacaca@mastodon.nl 'Bestraten' is later van 'straat' afgeleid: "tot straat maken".

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@jankatins@fosstodon.org 'Puddle' is unrelated. ^^ The sounds are incompatible, unlike their similarity.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@sjaakkeuvelaar@mastodon.nl Exactly. However, it turns out that the fact that Dutch calls it 'straat' is due to confusion with the original word 'straat'. Originally, Dutch used the French word that English borrowed as 'strait'.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@ancientsounds@mastodonapp.uk Hahaha, exactly! Haplogy for the win.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@anne_twain@theblower.au I think many people are done with many English spellings. 😄

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@noisytoot@berkeley.edu.pl That's a different change: the r was elided because it didn't go well with the y sound that the u makes.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@das_g@chaos.social It can technically happen with both stressed and unstressed syllables, although in 'probility' it would be unstressed 'ba' that would be dropped.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@Sfwmson@universeodon.com Who's BAB lee?

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@jargoggles@kolektiva.social I love your comment and I'm going to save it. 😁

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JensJot@mas.to It was invented as a Latin word, but indeed, the components stem from Greek.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@ancientsounds@mastodonapp.uk Thank you so much! ^^

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nojhan@social.antigene.org I'm afraid I don't understand your question. I export them as a png file in Microsoft PowerPoint.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@headword@lingo.lol Nice one!

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@groxx@hachyderm.io @epicdemiologist@wandering.shop It's certainly an example of an actual linguistic process: metathesis. Here are some more examples:

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@EregLoch@mastodon.coffee Jazeker! Het Texelse 'tuun' betekent inderdaad "afscheiding", en je vindt die betekenis ook in bepaalde Nedersaksische en Brabantse dialecten, zo uit mijn hoofd.

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Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@EF@mastodon.bsd.cafe May it be of solace that that's only human. 😊

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