HN Books @HNBooksMonth

The book The Unfolding of Language[1] describes the forces that shape how language evolves. One is extending the use of a pattern (e.g. "en" for plural), even in cases like this one where it wasn't technically appropriate. Another is the use of metaphor. E.g. "discover" used to mean "to remove the cover of", but now its meaning is purely metaphorical and the literal meaning has been mostly lost. Another is laziness: slurring long compound phrases together until they're effectively one word. A lot of conjugations/declentions are a result of this. I recommend this book if you're interested in how languages change over time; it's very well written.

EDIT: Another fun fact is that words sometimes begin to mean their _exact opposite_. For example, "wicked" used to mean "evil", but in England (and elsewhere, but especially England) it's started to mean "sweet".

And there's always the great consonant shift: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_law

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-Manki...

⬐ LeoPanthera

I was amazed to discover that oranges used to be called "noranges" but "a norange" was corrupted into "an orange".

⬐ cven714

Same with "a napron" -> "an apron"

⬐ Double_a_92

And "a notter" -> "an otter"

⬐ groovy2shoes

And "an ekename" -> "a nickname"

⬐ KayEss

And "an ewt" became "a newt", so it goes both ways.

⬐ carlmr

Was ewt pronounce yoot like newt being pronounced nyoot? Then at leas in modern English it would have been "a ewt" to begin with and no n for confustion.

I read up on this (rebracketing it's called), and now I understand why the snakes called Natter in German are adders in English, and that even made it back to German as ...otter (Kreuzotter for example).

⬐ pbhjpbhj

So, is naming of the natterjack toad related to adders? Do they wear "adder jack[ets]"? The skin patterning is not completely dissimilar.

⬐ carlmr

Makes sense.

⬐ hrnnnnnn

Same with "nuncle" -> "uncle".

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/nuncle

⬐ philipps

Could it be because “a norange” and “an orange” sound very similar?

⬐ febeling

and "brid" -> "bird"

⬐ yosito

Oh! That suddenly makes the Spanish "naranja" seem way more connected!

⬐ dingo_bat

I don't know the connection but it is called narangi in Hindi, which is suspiciously close to not be connected.

⬐ landtuna

Makes sense. It's borrowed from Sanskrit through Arabic: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/naranja

An interesting read on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/The-Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-In...