Claire Xen  🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 🧙🏻‍♀️ BLM  🏴 🚩

English and German both share a common ancestor, which linguists refer to as "Proto-Germanic", spoken around 2,000 years ago in the north German plain and modern-day Denmark. Other Germanic languages include Norwegian, Dutch, Gothic, Faroese, and Afrikaans. /2

This proto-language presumably had only a single word for horse. Was it the ancestor of modern "horse" or the ancestor of "Pferd"? Which word is original and which one is an interloper? /3

We can look at other Germanic languages for guidance. For example, German for "dog" is "Hund". The Dutch word is "hond". These words bear a similarity to English "hound"! And indeed, most etymological dictionaries state that English "dog" is "of uncertain origin". /4

So at some point, "dog" replaced "hound" as the default word for canines in English. We figured this out by looking at related languages and the history of English. What about horses? The Dutch word is "paard", quite similar to German "pferd". /5

Tangent: there's a famous joke in the Netherlands that when [famous anglophone politician] met [famous Dutch politician], Anglo asked Dutchie what hobbies they enjoyed. D: I fuck horses. A (aghast): Pardon? D (smiling intently): Yes, horses! /6

(Explaining the joke: Dutch "fokk", means "to breed, to raise"; "-en" is the Dutch plural suffix. Dutchie incorrectly assumed "fokk" was the same in English, and misinterpreted "pardon" as "paarden", i.e. "horses". They were so happy the Anglo knew some Dutch!) /7

Tangent over. So maybe this horse/Pferd/paard thing is like the dog/Hund/hond thing, and English is just weird? That would be a neat solution, but unfortunately things aren't so simple once we delve deeper into other Germanic languages and varieties. /8