March theme: Horses 🐎

Introduction

On St. Patrick's Day, I reveal the secret reason I did horses in March.

Also, this one is really cool and just might go back all the way to the original domestication of horses in Central Asia. Maybe—just maybe—the Thai word for the knight piece in chess and the Welsh word for the knight piece in chess might be cognates 5500 years separated.

Teaser

marshal, mare

Full Text

• Botai?

  • Sino-Tibetan *k-m-raŋ

    • Old Chinese *mrāʔ

      • Middle Chinese

        • Mandarin 馬 mǎ horse also the chess piece
      • Taiwanese 馬 bé horse
      • Tai *maːᶜ horse

        • Thai ม้า máa horse also the chess piece
        • Lao ມ້າ mā horse
    • Tibeto-Burman *mrāŋ horse

      • Tibetan རྨང rmang horse archaic
  • Korean 말 mal horse

    • Japanese うま uma horse also a shogi piece

      • Ainu ウンマ umma horse
  • Mongolic

    • Mongolian морь morʹ horse also the chess piece
  • Tungusic

    • Northern Tungusic

      • Evenki мурин murin horse
    • Southern Tungusic

      • Manchu ᠮᠣᡵᡳᠨ morin horse
  • Celtic *markos horse

    • Brythonic *marx horse

      • Welsh march horse
    • Gaulish markos horse

      • Galatian μάρκαν márkan
    • Old Irish

      • Irish marc horse archaic, replaced by capall
    • Celtic *markākos horseman

      • Brythonic

        • Welsh marchog horseman, knight also the chess piece
      • Old Irish

        • Irish marcach horseman, cavalry
    • Germanic *marhaz horse

      • East Germanic

        • Gothic *marhs

          • ?

            • Albanian magar donkey
            • Romanian măgar donkey
      • North Germanic

        • Old Norse marr horse replaced by hestr in descendants
      • West Germanic

        • Frankish *marh horse

          • Frankish *marhskalk horse-servant, stable boy

            • Italian maniscalco farrier, blacksmith
            • Old French marescal person in charge of an army's horses, marshal

              • French maréchal marshal
              • French maréchal-ferrant farrier
              • English marshal
              • Spanish mariscal marshal
            • Dutch maarschalk marshal meaning changed by influence from French
        • Lombardic marah horse

          • Lombardic marah-hemma horse-pen

            • Italian Maremma
      • Germanic *marhijō mare, female horse

        • North Germanic

          • Old Norse merr mare

            • Danish mær
            • Icelandic meri mare
        • West Germanic

          • Old English mīere mare

            • English mare
          • Frankish *meria

            • Dutch merrie mare
          • Old High German meriha

            • German Mähre
  • Indo-Iranian

    • Indo-Aryan

      • Sanskrit मृग mṛga hoofed animal, deer, antelope

Visual

Collected English words

marshal, mare