Yoïn van Spijk

2026 is een feestjaar, want we bestaan 95 jaar! Om dit te vieren organiseren we in de loop van het jaar diverse evenementen. Op 22 maart beginnen we met het eerste, waarmee we ook meteen de Boekenweek afsluiten. Meer info: onzetaalwebwinkel.nl/divers...

Portret Yoïn van Spijk: Jan van Dijk

The graphic has been updated. Some minor errors had to be corrected.

I've also added the German numeral 'zig' (umpteen), which, like Dutch 'tig', was extracted from numerals such as 'vierzig' rather recently.

You can always find the latest versions of my graphics on tumblr.com/yvanspijk!

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The graphic has been updated. Some minor errors had to be corrected.

I've also added the German numeral 'zig' (umpteen), which, like Dutch 'tig', was extracted from numerals such as 'vierzig' rather recently.

You can always find the latest versions of my graphics on tumblr.com/yvanspijk!

The other way around - if there was any influence at all.

'Ump' was a nickname for the dash in morse code. :)

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The graphic has been updated. Some minor errors had to be corrected.

I've also added the German numeral 'zig' (umpteen), which, like Dutch 'tig', was extracted from numerals such as 'vierzig' rather recently.

You can always find the latest versions of my graphics on tumblr.com/yvanspijk!

The graphic has been updated. Some minor errors had to be corrected.

I've also added the German numeral 'zig' (umpteen), which, like Dutch 'tig', was extracted from numerals such as 'vierzig' rather recently.

You can always find the latest versions of my graphics on tumblr.com/yvanspijk!

It's slightly different though: 'pedwar deg' is literally "four ten", while '-ty' was historically a noun meaning "decade".

Yes, '-teen' is the same as 'ten' (which used to be pronounced with a long vowel), but different from '-ty'.

The numbers ‘twenty’ to ‘ninety’ end in ‘-ty’.
Where does this part come from?

While it’s now a suffix, ‘-ty’ stems from a Proto-Germanic noun meaning “decade, a (group of) ten”.

For example, ‘forty’ comes from *fedwōr tegiwiz, literally “four tens”.

Click my new graphic to learn all about it:

The parts -'nte' and '-nta' are very distantly related to 'diez', but they weren't originally nouns.

Yes and no: interestingly, the part '-tyve' is the same word as 'tyve' ("twenty"), from Old Norse 'tuttugu', from Proto-Germanic *twai tegiwiz.

The numbers ‘twenty’ to ‘ninety’ end in ‘-ty’.
Where does this part come from?

While it’s now a suffix, ‘-ty’ stems from a Proto-Germanic noun meaning “decade, a (group of) ten”.

For example, ‘forty’ comes from *fedwōr tegiwiz, literally “four tens”.

Click my new graphic to learn all about it:

The verb ‘to see’ is very distantly related to ‘to sue’ – and also to ‘segue’, ‘second’ and ‘sequence’.

They all come from a Proto-Indo-European root whose meaning can be reconstructed as “to follow”. In Germanic, it shifted to “to follow with the eyes”.

Click my new graphic to learn more:

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Yes, certainly! :)

My pleasure!

It was *weid-. It became Latin 'vidēre', whence French 'voir', Spanish 'ver' etc.

Its perfect tense, based on the root variants *woid- and *wid-, became Proto-Germanic *witanan, whose meaning became "to know". Its English descendant is 'to wit'.

You didn't miss them: they're unrelated. :)

'To seek' comes from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g-, while 'to search' comes from Latin 'circāre' ("to circle around").

Ah, yes, 'non sequitur' would've been a nice one to mention in the graphic.

Seeing & suing | Taal aan de wandel - Yoïn van Spijk Get more from Taal aan de wandel - Yoïn van Spijk on Patreon

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www.patreon.com/posts/seeing...

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The Dutch verb ‘zien’ has a weird past tense: ‘zag’. Where does that g come from? Dutch has preserved a very old Germanic trait, which has been lost in most other languages. On my Patreon (tier 1), I tell all about the interesting evolution of these verbs and their past tense (550 words).

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Perhaps the most interesting descendant in the light of today’s graphic is Lithuanian ‘sèkti’: this verb has both the original sense “to follow” and the newer “to observe”, which also arose on the way from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.

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In the Indo-European daughter languages, we can find many more descendants of *sekʷ-, such as Ancient Greek ἕπομαι (‘hépomai’, “to follow; to support; to pursue”), Sanskrit सच॑ते (‘sácate’, “to be associated with; to be connected with; to follow”), and Old Irish ‘seichithir’ (“to follow”).

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As the graphic shows, the Proto-Indo-European root that’s at the basis of these words is *sekʷ- (“to follow”). Through derivatives of its Latin descendant ‘sequī’, English words such as ‘prosecute’, ‘consequence’, ‘pursue’, ‘sequel’, and ‘execution’ are related to ‘to see’ and ‘to sue’ as well.

The verb ‘to see’ is very distantly related to ‘to sue’ – and also to ‘segue’, ‘second’ and ‘sequence’.

They all come from a Proto-Indo-European root whose meaning can be reconstructed as “to follow”. In Germanic, it shifted to “to follow with the eyes”.

Click my new graphic to learn more:

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Nice thread by the way! :)

In this case, Wiktionary is telling nonsense. 'Oma' comes from 'ootema', a children's form of 'grootma(ma)', just like 'opa' comes from 'grootpa(pa)'.

*Ammǭ could never become 'oma'; moreover, this wouldn't explain 'ootema' and 'opa'.

Have you ever noticed how many Irish surnames start with O'? O'Connor or O'Malley, for example? You might have assumed that it was just an abbreviation of "of" as in "o'clock". But you'd be wrong!

It's actually another form of the archaic Irish word ó, meaning "grandson" or "descendant".