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1. Word Family - Hawaii

   Introduction

   Dr. Melenaite Taumoefolau makes a compelling and intriguing argument: that Nuclear Polynesian *sawaiki: "traditional/mythological homeland"—whence Hawaii—may be a cognate of *sau ʔariki borrowed from the Tongic branch into Nuclear Polynesian. (Note that *sawaiki can only be reconstructed to NP, it is not present in Tongic or …

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2. Word Family - Fee

   Introduction

   Peculiar fellow, that cyclops.

   Teaser

   fee, feudal, peculiar, fellow, cyclops, fight, Shadowfax

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- wool, livestock, wealth

     • Proto-Indo-European *péḱu

       • Old Armenian ասու asu fleece, wool

         • Armenian ասր asr fine fleece
       • Balto-Slavic *péku

         • East Baltic

           • Lithuanian pekus
         • West Baltic

           • Old Prussian pecku cattle
       • Germanic *fehu wealth, cattle, the …

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3. Word Family - Arbiter

   December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝

   Teaser

   Europe, Maghreb, Arabia, Erebus

   Full Text

   • Semitic *ʿrb *ġrb to depart, to set ^[1]

     • Central Semitic

       • Arabic غ ر ب ġ r b

         • Arabic غرب ġaraba to depart, to withdraw, to set
         • Arabic غرب ġaruba to be a stranger, to be strange, to be difficult …

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4. Word Family - Egypt

   December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝

   Introduction

   Tying Minoan (Cretan) Phaistos and Greek Hephaestus in to this family is speculative, but not as wild a reach as it first looks like.

   Hephaestus and Phaistos, Crete:

   We usually represent the name as Hephaestus in the Roman alphabet, after Roman transliteration traditions, but (as …

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5. Word Family - Witch

   Introduction

   Bonus word family for Halloween by special request from my 4 year old: witch from *weyk-: "to separate, to choose, to consecrate".

   *weyk- looks like an extended root implying *wey-, but I can't find any clear evidence for that root. If it is an extension of *wey-, a zero-grade …

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6. Word Family - Sleep

   October theme: Nighttime 🌃

   Teaser

   sleep, avalanche, avalanche, lip, lobe, lick, lichen

   Full Text

   • ?

     • Proto-Indo-European *sleh₂b- *leh₂b- to hang loosely, to be weak, lip, to lick

       • Proto-Indo-European *sleh₂beti *leh₂beti to fall down? to relax? primary verb

         • Germanic *slēpaną to sleep

           • East Germanic

             • Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌴𐍀𐌰𐌽 slēpan to sleep
             • Crimean Gothic schlipen to …

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7. Word Family - Celts

   June theme: Celtic Iron Age

   Introduction

   June's theme is linguistic influence early Iron Age Celtic. The rest of the month will focus on words that were borrowed from Gaulish into Latin (more things like the aside in today's families that the very iconic Latin word gladius being borrowed from Gaulish …

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