Re: CONLANG Digest - 9 May 2000
| From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, May 12, 2000, 3:13 |
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John Mietus scripsit:
> How did it become {island}, anyway?
Contamination from "isle". Despite appearances, "island and "isle"
are not closely related. "Island" is native
English, "isle" is from Latin "insula" via Old French. Originally
the English word was simply "i"; when that got confusing, the
suffix "-land" was added for clarity, literally "island-land".
Then an unhistorical "s" was added to make "iland" look more like
"isle".
--
John Cowan cowan@ccil.org
I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin