See If You Can Find the Relationships among These Words

Tik (One) = Teacher = The Head of a Spearpoint

There is a word called “tik” that means, basically, “one.” We call it a global cognate because we think way too many languages have this term, far beyond chance. And words like that are not often borrowed. So we think it goes back to Proto-World, the first language.

Anyway, “tik” was in a language I worked with as a linguist-anthropologist for an Indian tribe. It was in an old word for “point of a spear.” I think it was a cognate. See if you can figure out how.

A lot of people think an English reflex of this term is “teacher.” That is, it’s a cognate of “tik” for “one.” See if you can figure it out.

Bel (White) = Bald = Ball

Do you know that “bald,” “ball,” and “white” are all cognates? “Bel” means white in Russian. It’s cognate with “bald” and “ball” in English. “Belorussia” = “White Russia.”

If you think a bit maybe you can see how “bald” went to “ball” (not hard to figure) and “white” (might have to think a bit).

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