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r and z keep swapping?

  On the Relationship Between R, Z and S Across Languages While listening to discussions of historical linguistics, I was struck by a recurring pattern involving the sounds R, Z and S across several unrelated languages. At first glance these may appear to be distinct consonants, but historical evidence suggests that transitions between them are neither unusual nor isolated. One example comes from the Germanic languages. In Gothic, an East Germanic language preserved in fourth-century texts, forms often end in -s , such as Tīwaz (the god Týr). In Old Norse and Icelandic, the corresponding form became Týr . This reflects a well-known sound change whereby an earlier z ultimately developed into r in North Germanic. Linguists refer to such processes as rhotacism . A comparable pattern is found in Latin. Many masculine nouns end in -us , such as dominus or Julius . Elsewhere in Indo-European languages, similar grammatical endings appear with s , z or r depending on the language and...
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Drink/Drank, Sink/Sank, Think/... thank?

English thank and think are cognate and come from the same Proto-Germanic root: Proto-Germanic: þank- = thought, gratitude, mental consideration Old English: þencan = to think þanc = thought, goodwill, gratitude Originally, “thanks” was essentially “good thoughts” or “favourable remembrance”. So when you thanked someone, the underlying idea was roughly: “I will think well of you” or “I hold your deed in grateful thought” My intuition: “I recognise you thought of me” And so, the vowel alternation is related to the same Germanic ablaut patterns seen in: sing / sang drink / drank think / thought Though thank is not literally the past tense of think , they are historically sibling forms produced by the same root-and-vowel-change system in Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic. Related words: German Dank = thanks German denken = think Dutch danken / denken So the cognitive link between thought and gratitude is ancient and deeply embedded...
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why spider? why not spinner?

Why is it 'spider' in english, not 'spinner' like in other Germanic languages? English spider comes from Old English spīþra / spīdre (forms vary by dialect/manuscript), from a Proto-Germanic root related to spinning/thread-making. Cognates include: German: Spinne Dutch: spin Icelandic: spiða / related forms Old Norse: spinnari (“spinner”) So the semantic origin is “spinner”. The interesting part is the intrusive or epenthetic consonant — the d in spider . English does this fairly often historically: thunder ← Proto-Germanic þunraz (cf. German Donner ) spindle ← related to spin sound shifts involving n+r , ð+r , or l+r clusters often developed stop consonants in English In spider , linguists generally think the d developed between consonants as a phonetic transition sound, something like: spi-r → spid-r → spider Similar to how: Old English thunor became thunder empty gained a /p/ sound from earlier forms without it
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fun table of idiosyncratic frenchisms in english

  Type Example What’s odd (by English standards) Post-posed adjective attorney general → attorneys-general Adjective follows noun; plural on head noun Post-posed adjective court martial → courts martial Same pattern Post-posed adjective heir apparent → heirs apparent Looks like two nouns, isn’t Post-posed adjective secretary general → secretaries-general Office titles preserve French syntax Fixed phrase body politic Adjective after noun, no plural logic Legal noun phrase fee simple Adjective order frozen Adjective stack letters patent Plural noun + singular adjective Noun–noun compound notary public Adjective behaves like a noun Plural irregularity barracks / headquarters Singular/plural identical (French influence + usage) Gender fossil blond / blonde Gender marking retained in spelling Register split ask vs inquire Germanic plain vs French formal Verb pair buy vs purchase Same meaning, different social register Doublet aid / help , cease / stop Parallel vocab layers Stress ...
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Comparing Sturluson, Tolkien, Rowling

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 Fun video that shows the similarities between Potter and Tolkien:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KmXPcSxz2g  And here's Theoden's Helm's Deep speech:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JjuK1rmmG6E  Tolkien did not merely borrow themes from Old Norse material; he reused names, roles, and mythic structures, often with only minimal adaptation. Below is a non-exhaustive but solidly attested list of Middle-earth characters and places that appear in name or recognisable form in Old Norse sources, especially those attributed to Snorri Sturluson. Core textual source Prose Edda (c. 1220), especially Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál Supplemented by the Poetic Edda (Codex Regius) Tolkien explicitly acknowledged these texts and taught them professionally. Direct name borrowings (near-identical) Dwarves (this is the big one) Almost all of Tolkien’s dwarf-names come directly from the Völuspá dwarf-catalogue. Tolkien Old Norse source Gimli Gimli – a heavenly hall in Gylfa...
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A theory that 'seven' isn't PIE but semitic. Interesting.

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 The video is at:  https://youtube.com/shorts/VMp8uLXpnk8
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Horse, Car, Cursor, Courier... same thing

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The primary sense of all these words (horse, car, cursor, etc) is to run. HRS/KRS. Latin: curro, I run. Cursor: one who runs. Cursive: running writing. Courier: person who runs with something. Car: a thing that runs. Once it goes north the K becomes an H as per Grimm's law, e.g. Lating Cardio (heart), Canem (Hound), Cent (Hundred), etc. So, Hrs is from Krs, ie Horse is from Curs* (to run). 
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