Steve the vagabond

How are “frog” and “spring” related?

By Steve the vagabond / August 20, 2019

Proto Indo European is the grandfather or great grandfather of English (depending on how you count). This means that we can trace elements of Modern English all the way back… Read More
Why do “busy” and “bury” have U’s in them?

By Steve the vagabond / June 29, 2019

Languages are messy. They borrow words from each other, have irregular verbs and their spelling systems can sometimes do with a bit of work. Writing is a technology. It is… Read More
Of woman, wives and werewolves

By Steve the vagabond / April 13, 2019

What does the “were” in werewolf mean? It comes from an Old English word “wer” which means “man” so it actually makes sense. A “werewolf” is a man-wolf. The word… Read More
Proto language reconstruction and vowel development

By Steve the vagabond / February 20, 2019

Once long ago there were a group of people known variously as the Saxons, Angles, Jutes and Franks. We don’t know what they called their language but we call it… Read More
The story of how the word “stone” came to be

By Steve the vagabond / August 6, 2018

A long time ago, in the Bronze Age, there were a group of people living in Scandanavia. These people would eventually become the Germanic people. The people living then didn’t… Read More
Where do words come from?

By Steve the vagabond / July 19, 2018

When you are very small you hear the words “dog”, “cat”, “house”, “car”, “mom”, “dad” and just assume that it has always been like that. As you get older you… Read More