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  1. Word Family - Five

    Introduction

    I've been doing Word Families for 5 years! In that time, I have made 150 families! So this week is *pénkʷe: "five".

    The *p-kʷ sequence in *pénkʷe leads to a set highly divergent forms. *kʷ is a highly variable sound on its own, becoming /kw/, /w/, /ʍ/, /k/, /t …

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  2. Word Family - Four

    April theme: 🦠

    Introduction

    *kʷetwer- is too long for a root. The feminine root suggests that there may have been an original root of just *kʷet-. There are also several reasons to believe that none of this is the original word for four:

    • Hittite's word for "four", meyawes, is unrelated (Hittite …
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  3. Word Family - Seven

    July theme: Miscellaneous 🔨

    Introduction

    For 2017-07-07, I just had to do "seven".

    It may seems strange to see the word for "seven" borrowed around between so many different language families, when the numbers 1-10 are so highly conserved in descendants of (post-Anatolian) Proto-Indo-European. But 10-based number systems seem to not …

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  4. Word Family - Two

    June theme: Pride In Words 🏳️‍🌈

    Teaser

    two, neodymium, duet, biceps, bi-, biscuit, duplicate, Maldives, doppelganger, icosahedron, twin, nonbinary

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ two
      • Old Armenian երկու erku two [1]
        • Old Armenian կրկին krkin double, doubled, iterated
          • Armenian կրկին krkin double, again, once more
        • Armenian երկու erku two
      • Italic *duō two …
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