Yoïn van SpijkMar 10

Despite its looks, the English word ‘heart’ is etymologically related to ‘cardio’, ‘cordial’, ‘to record’, ‘courage’, and even Spanish ‘corazón’.

Through Germanic, Greek, and Latin, these words all derive from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “heart”.

In Germanic, sound changes that are called Grimm’s Law radically changed its consonants.

Click my new infographic to learn how:

Show threadnojhan, Cassandre de l’analyse systémique
@yvanspijk Would you know a good introduction about how to read those stars, subscripts and various diacritics for reconstructed languages?
Mar 11 at 9:02amWeb
Show threadYoïn van SpijkMar 11

@nojhan
This Wikipedia page explains a lot, but it's quite technical:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_phonology

In short:
- The star indicates that the word isn't attested but is reconstructed: it's hypothetical.
- The *h's with the three numbers represent three consonants that we know were different from each other, but we have a very hard time reconstructing their exact nature.
- The circle under the r is used when this r occupies the position of a vowel, in between two consonants. It must have ... 1/

Proto-Indo-European phonology - Wikipedia

Show threadYoïn van SpijkMar 11
@nojhan 2/ ... sounded like the r in the geographical name 'Krk'. There's also an l with a circle, which must have sounded a bit like the English l in 'bottle' pronounced as 'botl'.
- Small flying h's indicate aspirated consonants. For instance, *dʰ must have sounded a bit like in 'roaDHouse', while *tʰ represented what you hear in 'boaTHouse'.
- The accent on the k is explained in the graphic.
Show threadnojhan, Cassandre de l’analyse systémiqueMar 11
@yvanspijk Awesome, thanks.