Linguistics
An interesting bit of etymology that I learnt recently. The English word "fencing" (as in sword fighting) comes from English "defence", from Old French "defens", from Latin "defendere", meaning "to ward off, defend". ![](https://lemm.ee/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Faussie.zone%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2F1cee1911-095b-41a8-91c7-68e3889f8a02.jpeg) The French word for fencing is "escrime". The Italian and Spanish words are also close cognates with French. "Escrime" comes from Old French "escremir", from Frankish "*skirmjan". ![](https://lemm.ee/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Faussie.zone%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2Fc42d010a-feb2-42e1-8eec-1f725a404f78.png) That means English, a Germanic language, gets its word from Latin, a Romance language. And the Romance languages of French, Spanish, and Italian get their word from Frankish, a Germanic language. Essentially, the Romance and Germanic language families did a trade.
This map shows the different French accents across western Europe (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Swiss, and smaller countries/city states) Similar color means similar accents, different colors means more distinct dialects
Very interesting take on a language made of only whistles.
Very interesting history of the singular 'they'.