Cáisc, Modern Irish for 'Easter', at first looks unrelated to other Easter-words, beyond Scots Gaelic (Càisg) and Manx (Caisht). It goes back to the time when Irish had no /p/ sound – the closest it could do was /kʷ/. This is how Cáisc comes from Latin Pasca, like French Pâques and Italian Pasqua.

Just learned that French "os" (bone) is pronounced "os" in the singular and "o" in the plural and I don't know whether to love it or hate it

The geat were eating nit under the each. This is what the original plurals of ‘goat’, ‘nut’, ‘oak’ would’ve looked like. How did plurals with a vowel alternation came to be, such as ‘foot ~ feet’? What would the lost ones have sounded like? My video will tell you: youtube.com/shorts/CTjYP8skREc

🤦‍♀️ (detail from the Mathilda Cross of 1051/4, in the Domschatz in Essen)

🏛 Analysis of ash from incense burners found at Pompeii and Boscoreale has revealed that frankincense from India or sub-Saharan Africa was burned alongside wine, demonstrating the global trade networks underpinning Roman religious practice. 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/historyh...

Yesterday I was in York, and popped into Minster Gate bookshop. Scanning the British History shelves, I slowly realised that there were many books on the same themes - radicalism, Chartism, trade unionism, 19th century economy and society, clearly part of a curated collection 1/n

Okay, I get publishers affirming that the books we've produced are human-made, but have we also considered bringing back medieval book curses??? Just saying.

The word 'maudlin', meaning 'tearfully emotional' or 'sentimental', has Biblical origins – it comes from the name 'Magdalena', specifically the tearful character of Mary Magdalene. The connection is clearer in Oxford and Cambridge, where the colleges Magdalen and Magdalene are pronounced 'maudlin'.

"By the time that today’s single, primary Greek identity emerged, an identity that also overlaps with European-ness, the Greek language had already slipped the net, and been given to the world." excellent by @dannybate.bsky.social dannybate.com/2026/01/06/g...

Really sad news. Ronnie taught me at Edinburgh 1985-1989, and was one of the sharpest minds, most interesting thinkers, and kindest people I came across there. I'm very sad he's no longer with us.

Today, I've been reading a very old medical commentary from ancient Uruk, written in the Akkadian language. It's a tiny cuneiform tablet that explains words and phrases excerpted from another text - a diagnostic manual, known in antiquity as Sa-gig.

I hope it's appropriate to share that earlier this week, Professor Ronnie Cann, one of my PhD supervisors, died suddenly. I’d like to remember him publicly; he was brilliant and kind, and I will miss him.

OK, so from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, a northern-Israelite-associated site in Sinai(!), we've got some Yahwistic plaster inscriptions in Phoenician(!) script in what looks like good Judahite(!) Hebrew… how are we supposed to classify this stuff??

Currently listening to @dannybate.bsky.social 's latest book 👍 newbooksnetwork.com/why-q-needs-u

One of my favourite pseudo-Diogenes aphorisms comes from this papyrus: "Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, seeing a small town with large gates, said shut the gates in case the city escapes!"

No other ancient document holds my interest and affection quite like this one papyrus, written in Egypt in the Armenian alphabet. It's a goldmine of linguistic evidence not for the Egyptian or Armenian language, but for Greek! Here's my enthusiastic introduction to it: dannybate.com/2026/03/24/t...

Mitzrayim is the Hebrew name for 'Egypt', and its -ayim ending curiously appears to be that of the dual grammatical number, for two things. I remain delighted by the explanation that it is originally dual, referring to the two ancient regions of Upper and Lower Egypt.

American friends, lend me your eyes: 'Why Q Needs U' is due for US release later this year, available in all good bookshops. Barnes & Noble are including in their preorder offer for three days, and preorders can *really* make a difference to a book's fortunes. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/why-q-need...

#Langsky @dannybate.bsky.social @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social @ausir.bsky.social Could you please boost?

From Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans to our use of letters @dannybate.bsky.social explains the alphabet: podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/d...

how it feels to read demotic

I just finished listening and it is, as ever, a great episode! Fantastic host, fantastic guest, simple to understand yet incredibly rich content… it’s always a pleasure to learn cool things from ALILI! Also, please, fellow lovers of all things linguistics: support Danny on Patreon so we get more❣️

Today is publication day for ‘Fairies: A History’ - so I’ve written a special free post over on ‘All Old Strange Things’ to celebrate 📚🧚 open.substack.com/pub/drfranci...

“Not without reason is it called a Russian law.” Šimon Pánek of @peopleinneed.bsky.social on why Czech NGOs are alarmed by draft plans for a foreign funding register that's straight out of the Kremlin playbook. Video and analysis: robjcameron.substack.com/p/foreign-ag...

I don’t talk about it much on here, but my full-time job is working with a Native American tribe in Louisiana called the Chitimacha to help them revitalize their language.

Maybe it works better in Japanese

Have you all listened to @dannybate.bsky.social's latest episode of A Language I Love Is..., yet? If not, why? Do you hate Dannies or language? 🤔 And Danny, please do keep on making this podcast! I have learned so much, felt so much joy and even more love for all the many languages of our world!

I loved this episode and the whole of the podcast! There are a number of great linguistics podcasts in English, but by and large they tend to discuss linguistics as it applies to English. So ALILI is a real breath of fresh air. Thank you so much for showcasing all these wonderful languages!

Just heard @dannybate.bsky.social on NPR! How cool! Have a listen and read the book! one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5732...

Good to see this but the scandal to my mind is that the government let this uncertainty and anxiety about World Service funding drag on right up to the wire. Stupid austerity posturing over what's effectively a pittance. Be serious! www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...

Series 3 of ALILI ends with this smashing episode about Chitimacha, an indigenous language of Louisiana! My guest @linguisticdiscovery.com and I discuss the language's history, revitalisation, grammar, and even the part it's played in the story of linguistics. Listen here: pod.link/1703401848/e...

FYI, Early Proto-Indo-European had two categories of nouns: animate (people, birds) & inanimate (rocks). A suffix indicated whether the animate thing was acting or being acted upon. AND THAT'S WHY WE HAVE WHO AND WHOM. Plus lots more from @dannybate.bsky.social:

There's a whole list, apparently: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

It's odd that the Hebrew word for 'horse' has two consonants, rather than the usual triradical root. Seems a bit sus.

This is the worst map I have ever seen.

For the day that's in it, here's a paper answering the question on everyone's mind: what language did St Patrick swear in? More precisely, it discusses the exclamation "mo debroth!" attributed to him, claimed by some to be of Brythonic origin, but plausibly Irish too. www.jstor.org/stable/20787...

My latest online offering presents the bloody history behind the word ‘shibboleth’, with the point to make that a story about death brings its people to life. Naturally, it accompanies that point with references to Monty Python, German accents, fossils, and Stalin. dannybate.com/2026/03/16/f...

Stumbled across this: The root of "female" has nothing to do with "male". It derives from the Mediaeval Latin femella, a diminutive of femina, a woman. It was mistakenly transcribed in Middle English as "female", perhaps creating the impression that a woman is a version/variant/ subset of a man.

The origin of the word ‘iron’ is shrouded in mystery. It comes from a Proto-Germanic word that was most probably borrowed from Proto-Celtic *īsarnom, the ancestor of Irish ‘iarann’. The Celts were skilful metal workers. However, tracing it further back is hard. My new graphic shows 4 hypotheses:

this is something I know to be absolutely true both in a mundane architectural sense and also in an inexplicable spiritual sense

This is a moving account of an adult learning his mother’s mother tongue, Welsh, which, if it hasn’t been done already, would be a great candidate for ‘A Language I Love’ @dannybate.bsky.social #langsky

This is as close as I could get on Sunday to the lonely ruins of Ostrov Monastery, on its island in the Vltava. The monastery was active between the 10th and 16th centuries, and in the 13th century produced the Ostrov Song – among the oldest texts in Czech, and likely the oldest spiritual writing.

A thousand years of Noto Sans evolution ("Phoenician" > Imperial Aramaic > Hebrew)

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

There is death and wanton violence everywhere we look, there is unimaginable loss and fear, all thanks to a handful of men at the helm who have never had to answer for a single wrong.

I've had it up to here with Czechs making everything diminutive, even 'it'. You'll get taught 'to je ono' for 'that is it', and I'm prepared for 'to je vono' in casual speech, but I've now heard a friend say 'to je vončo'.

"Gistradagis" is a Gothic word, attested once, that perfectly corresponds to English 'yesterday' –⁠ except that it means 'tomorrow'. Old Norse is flexible with this word too ('í gær' means 'yesterday/tomorrow'), perhaps due to a common stage when it came to refer to a day on either side of today.

I mean this is just generally good advice but... @dannybate.bsky.social