Tag Archives: Proto-Indo-European

Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina: Why do so many women’s names end in A?

There’s a certain air of femininity around the letter A. For one reason, it brings a great number of modern female first names to a close. A sample of famous names, especially if skewed towards the West, will typically include a fair few examples. Among the female winners of a Nobel Prize, we find Claudia, Bertha,Continue reading “Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina: Why do so many women’s names end in A?”

PIE was not SOV

Reading time: quite a while Having dedicated over four years of my life to the subject, I have one or two thoughts about the word order of Proto-Indo-European. Somebody somewhere had to have them. This reconstructed language – the ‘lost’ common ancestor proposed to explain the countless similarities across the Indo-European languages – has nowadaysContinue reading “PIE was not SOV”