China’s endonym, Zhongguo, or 中国, means something close to “central state” or “middle state”. I’ve heard that the meaning behind the name is that the Chinese viewed themselves as the center of civilization, with barbarians surrounding them the further you went from the center. Because of this, the name Zhongguo has the implied meaning of “most civilized state”.
Is this true, or is it just a myth?
I’ve read that some people hypothesize that PGmc *h (reconstructed as /x/) had [h] as its word initial allophone. This is because every single Germanic language has word initial /h/ where other PIE languages have /k/, which suggests that rather than being a post-PGmc innovation, it was a sound that existed during the PGmc era.
Is this plausible, or did PGmc have word initial /x/ and it turning to [h] was a later change?
Hello everyone.
Back with another linguistic hypothetical. This time, rather than creating a new English word from a PIE word, this time I’m going to show an alternate version of an already existing word in English.
The PIE word is *goltós, modern English cold. Let’s first show its evolution from PIE to pre-Old English:
*goltós [ɡoltós]
Grimm’s law ([ɡ] > [k], [t] > [θ])
*kolþós [kolθós]
Verner’s law ([θ] > [d], [s] > [z])
*koldóz [koldóz]
Pitch to stress regularization
*koldoz [ˈkoldoz]
[o] > [ɑ]
*kaldaz [ˈkɑldɑz]
Loss of final z
*kalda [ˈkɑldɑ]
Final reduction
*kald [kɑld]
Anglo Frisian Brightening ([ɑ] > [æ])
*kæld [kæld]
——
Now it’s at this point that I should explain the divergent sound shifts in Old English dialects: In pre-Old English, if a front vowel came before /w/, /x/, or /rC, lC/, it would undergo changes. In West Saxon Old English, the prestige dialect where most of modern English comes from, it would undergo breaking, where the vowel became a front-back diphthong (for example: [æ] > [æɑ]). However, in Anglian Old English, it would simply become a back vowel, which is where modern English cold comes from, the [æ] becoming [ɑ] and through evolution becoming cold.
But what would happen if the West Saxon form of the word ended up in Modern English? Let’s resume with the evolution:
——
*keald [kæɑld]
Palatalization ([k] > [tʃ])
ċeald [tʃæɑld]
Homorganic lengthening
ċēald [tʃæɑːld]
Dipthong smoothing ([æɑː] > [æː])
chǣld [tʃæːld]
[æː] > [ɛː]
cheeld [tʃɛːld]
——
Now it’s at this point that the word could have undergone various different paths. The easiest would be to say the Great Vowel Shift turned [ɛː] to [eː], then to [iː], getting us cheald, pronounced [tʃiːld].
However, the vowel could have also shortened either pre or post GVS, to get us [tʃɛld] (eg: Middle English deeth to modern English death) or [tʃɪld] (eg: early modern English grete to modern English grit).
They would all be spelled the same though, and thus we end with cheald, pronounced as either [tʃiːld], [tʃɛld], or [tʃɪld].
Hello everyone.
Not really a humor post, but I thought I’d show off an interesting hypothetical: taking a Proto-Indo-European word that didn’t get passed down to English and seeing what it would become if it did.
The word I’m doing is *ǵénh₁tōr, which means parent. So let’s see how it would evolve:
*ǵénh₁tōr [ˈɡʲenʔtoːr]
Centumization ([ɡʲ] > [ɡ])
*génh₁tōr [ˈɡenʔtoːr]
Laryngeal loss
*génətōr [ˈɡenətoːr]
Grimm’s law ([ɡ] > [k], [t] > [θ])
*kénəþōr [ˈkenəθoːr]
Stress regularization (simply a change in notation since the stress was already on the first syllable)
*kenəþōr [ˈkenəθoːr]
[o] > [ɑ]
*kenəþār [ˈkenəθɑːr]
Loss of [ə]
*kenþār [ˈkenθɑːr]
[ɑː] > [ɔː]
*kenþōr [ˈkenθɔːr]
Nasal raising ([e] > [i])
*kinþōr [ˈkinθɔːr]
[ɔː] > [ɑ]
*kinþar [ˈkinθɑr]
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law
*kį̄þar [ˈkĩːθɑr]
Denazalization
*kīþar [ˈkiːθɑr]
Anglo Frisian Brightening ([ɑ] > [æ])
*kīþær [ˈkiːθær]
[θ] > [ð]
*kīþær [ˈkiːðær]
Palatalization ([k] > [tʃ])
*ċīþær [ˈtʃiːðær]
[æ] > [e]
ċīþer [ˈtʃiːðer]
[e] > [ɛ] > [ə]
chither [ˈtʃiːðər]
Great Vowel Shift ([iː] > [aɪ])
chither [ˈtʃaɪðər]
[r] > [ɹ̠]
chither [ˈtʃaɪðəɹ̠]
———
And thus, our final outcome is chither, pronounced [ˈtʃaɪðəɹ̠].
Also before anyone says anything, yes I know both aren’t exactly the same. The “a” sounds are different and PG had a intervocalic [β] allophone for /b/. Still, it’s a really funny coincidence.