April theme: Miscellaneous light and cat words 🦁

Teaser

helium, solar, sun, south

Full Text

• Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ sun

  • Balto-Slavic *saul sun

    • Lithuanian sáulė sun
    • Slavic *sъlnьce sun

      • East Slavic

        • Russian со́лнце sólnce sun
      • South Slavic

        • Serbo-Croatian су̑нце sȗnce sun
      • West Slavic

        • Polish słońce sun
  • Celtic *sāwol

    • Brythonic heol

      • Welsh haul sun
    • Old Irish súil eye from the sun as the "eye of the sky"

      • Irish súil eye
  • Germanic *sōwulō sun, the rune ᛊ

    • East Germanic

      • Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌹𐌻 sáuil sun, the letter 𐍃
    • North Germanic

      • Old Norse sól sun, the rune ᛋ

        • Danish sol sun
        • Icelandic sól sun
    • West Germanic

      • Old English sōl sun
    • English Sowilo the rune ᛊ/ᛋ
    • Germanic *swagilaz sunny, solar

      • West Germanic

        • Old English sweġl the sky, Heaven, sun, the rune ᛋ
  • Hellenic *hāwélios

    • Ancient Greek ἥλιος hḗlios sun, God of the Sun

      • Greek ήλιος ílios sun
      • New Latin helium noble gas with atomic number 2, helium ^[1]

        • English helium
        • Translingual He
  • Italic *swōl sun

    • Latin sōl sun

      • Sardinian sole sun
      • Eastern Romance

        • Romanian soare sun
      • Western Romance

        • Italian sole sun
        • Spanish sol sun
      • Vulgar Latin *soliculus sun

        • French soleil sun
      • Latin sōlāris related to the sun, sunny

        • English solar
        • Latin sōlārium sundial, sunny terrace "sun-place"

          • English solarium
          • Dutch zolder attic
  • Indo-Iranian *súHar sun

    • Iranian

      • Avestan 𐬵𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬭𐬇 huuarə̄ sun
      • Western Iranian

        • Persian خور xōr sun

          • Persian خورشیدی Xoršidi sunlight, male given name

            • Turkish Hurşit
            • English Khorshid
    • Indo-Aryan

      • Mitanni Aryan *šuwar

        • Mitanni Aryan Šuwardata Sun-Given (personal name)
      • Sanskrit 𑀲𑁆𑀯𑀭𑁆 svàr sun

        • Sanskrit 𑀲𑀽𑀭𑁆𑀬 sū́rya sun, God of the Sun

          • Elu

            • Sinhala ඉර ira sun
            • Dhivehi އިރު iru sun, time
          • Pali surya

            • Malay suria sun
            • Thai สุริยา sù-rí-yá sun rare, used in names and compounds

              • Thai สุริยคราส sù-rí-yá-krâat solar eclipse
          • Sauraseni

            • Madhya

              • Hindi सूरज sūraj sun
          • Bengali সূর্য
          • Punjabi ਸੂਰਜ
          • Telugu సూర్యుడు sūryuḍu sun
          • Sanskrit 𑀲𑀽𑀭𑁆𑀬 𑀦𑀫𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀸𑀭 sū́rya namaskāra sun salutation

            • English Surya Namaskara
  • Proto-Indo-European *sh̥₂wén oblique form ^[2]

    • Celtic *sawenos sun

      • Brythonic

        • Welsh huan sun rare
    • Germanic *sunnȭ sun

      • West Germanic

        • Old English sunne sun

          • English sun

            • English sunglasses

              • Japanese サングラス sangurasu sunglasses
        • Frankish sunna sun

          • Dutch zon sun
        • Old High German sunna sun

          • German Sonne sun
          • Yiddish זון zun sun
      • Germanic sunþraz south, sunward

        • North Germanic

          • Old Norse suðr south

            • Danish syd south
            • Icelandic suður south
        • West Germanic

          • Old English sūþ south

            • English south
            • Old French sud ^[3]

              • French sud ^[3]
              • Italian sud ^[3]
              • Spanish sur ^[3]
          • Frankish

            • Dutch zuid south
        • Germanic *sunþanē sunwardly, southerly adverb

          • North Germanic

            • Old Norse sunnan southern

              • Danish sønden
              • Icelandic sunnan southern
          • West Germanic

            • Frankish *sūthan

              • Dutch zuiden south, southern
              • German Süden south
    • Indo-Iranian

      • Iranian

        • Avestan 𐬓𐬀𐬥 xᵛan sun

Visual

Collected English words

Sowilo, helium, He, solar, solarium, Khorshid, Surya Namaskara, sun, sunglasses, south

Footnotes

1. ^

   Helium is named after the sun, because it was first identified in the spectral emission lines of light from the Sun, 13 years before it was ever identified on Earth. As a noble gas, helium is both rare on Earth, and the second least reactive of any element, leaving it hidden from the early chemical discovery processes.

2. ^

   *sóh₂wl̥/*sh̥₂wén is the only known case of a heteroclitic l/n stem, but it behaves identically to the larger group of r/n stems, just with *l instead of *r

   The l/n alternation paradigm was levelled independently in different language families. Sometimes it was changed to use *-l- in both forms, in others to use *-n- in both forms

   The "oblique form" shown here is a theoretical nominative declension back-formed from genitive *sh₂wéns as if the stem did not alternate between *-l- and *-n-. But in reality, this form probably never occured, as the levellings happened much later. For example in Germanic the levelling appears to happen after the split between North and West Germanic, perhaps around the 3rd century CE

3. ^

   Latin words for cardinal directions, in this case auster/meridies, were replaced or supplemented in most Romance languages by borrowings from Old English. Weird.