DJO-in ['dʑowɪn]
Historisch taalkundige, schrijver van 'Die goeie ouwe taal' en 'Woord voor woord, en vaste auteur bij Onze Taal
Historical linguist, writer
photo: Dirk-Jan van Dijk
| Linktree | https://www.linktr.ee/yvanspijk |
| All my infographics on Tumblr | https://www.tumblr.com/yvanspijk |
| Support me on Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/yvanspijk |
3/
... was angry for he also coude speak no frenshe, but wolde have hadde egges and she understode hym not. And thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wolde have eyren; then the good wyf sayd that she understood hym wel.
Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte: egges or eyren? Certaynly it is harde to playse every man bycause of dyversite & chaunge of langage.”
(And one of them, named Sheffeld, a mercer, entered a house and asked for food, and specifically he asked for eggs. ... 3/
2/
In 1490, William Caxton wrote an anecdote on ‘eggs’ and ‘eyren’. Commenting on the linguistic diversity of English, which made creating a standardised English hard, he told the story of a group of northern merchants asking a southern lady for eggs:
“And one of them, named Sheffelde, a mercer, cam in to an hows and axed for mete, and specyally he axyd after eggys. And the goode wyf answerde that she coude speke no frenshe. And the marchaunt ... 2/
Eggs are oval. The word ‘egg’ is even etymologically related to ‘oval’.
‘Oval’ comes from Latin ‘ōvālis’ (egg-shaped), a derivative of ‘ōvum’ (egg), the ancestor of Spanish ‘huevo’, French ‘œuf’ and others.
Latin ‘ōvum’, in turn, was a distant cousin of Germanic *ajjan, the ancestor of Old Norse ‘egg’. This word was borrowed into Middle English and gradually displaced the native word ‘ey’.
Click my new infographic graphic to learn more.
See post 2 for an anecdote on ‘eggs’ and ‘eyren’.
The geat were eating nit under the each.
‘Geat’, ‘nit’, ‘each’– this is what the original plural forms of ‘goat’, ‘nut’, and ‘oak’ would’ve looked like if they hadn’t been replaced by ‘goats’, ‘nuts’, and ‘oaks’.
How did plurals with a vowel alternation came to be, such as ‘man ~ men’ and ‘mouse ~ mice’?
What would the lost ones have sounded like if they’d been preserved?
My short video will tell you:
https://youtube.com/shorts/CTjYP8skREc
2/
If you’d like to learn all about this phenomenon – which extends way beyond plurals but has got nothing to do with vowel alternations in verbs, such as ‘ride ~ rode ~ ridden’ – I highly recommend Danny Bate’s article:
https://dannybate.com/2022/03/17/of-mouses-and-mans-the-origins-of-englishs-vowel-swapping-nouns-and-verbs/
The geat were eating nit under the each.
‘Geat’, ‘nit’, ‘each’– this is what the original plural forms of ‘goat’, ‘nut’, and ‘oak’ would’ve looked like if they hadn’t been replaced by ‘goats’, ‘nuts’, and ‘oaks’.
How did plurals with a vowel alternation came to be, such as ‘man ~ men’ and ‘mouse ~ mice’?
What would the lost ones have sounded like if they’d been preserved?
My short video will tell you:
https://youtube.com/shorts/CTjYP8skREc
Waarom heeft 'zoeken' de vreemde verleden tijd 'zocht'?
Je ontdekt het in mijn nieuwe artikel - met uitstapjes naar het Engels, Duits, Brabants, Limburgs en Nedersaksisch.
Tussendoor kun je luisteren naar de gereconstrueerde uitspraak van historische woorden.
https://taalaandewandel.com/2026/03/29/zoeken-zocht-to-search/
Waarom heeft 'zoeken' de vreemde verleden tijd 'zocht'?
Je ontdekt het in mijn nieuwe artikel - met uitstapjes naar het Engels, Duits, Brabants, Limburgs en Nedersaksisch.
Tussendoor kun je luisteren naar de gereconstrueerde uitspraak van historische woorden.
https://taalaandewandel.com/2026/03/29/zoeken-zocht-to-search/
Provincie Overijssel