Language constantly changes. The English language in particular has undergone several transitions throughout history. From its origins as a Germanic language through the Medieval period and the Renaissance, and well into Modern and Contemporary times. But it's interesting to note that there is a word in English that has not changed its meaning or pronunciation after 8,000 years.
“The pronunciation in the Proto-Indo-European was probably ‘lox,’ and that’s exactly how it is pronounced in modern English,” he says. “Then, it meant salmon, and now it specifically means ‘smoked salmon.’ It’s really cool that that word hasn’t changed its pronunciation at all in 8,000 years and still refers to a particular fish.”
How scholars have traced the word’s pronunciation over thousands of years is also really cool. The story goes back to Thomas Young, also known as “The Last Person Who Knew Everything.” Like some people before him, Young noticed eerie similarities between Indic and European languages.
After doing an extensive research on these uncanny resemblances between languages, Young had finally named them "Indo-European" languages. One can perhaps trace the origins of the word lox through this family tree of languages. From there, it is possible to identify who spoke these languages and to learn more about their culture.
-via The Daily Grail
(Image credit: Caroline Attwood/Unsplash)
In my experience the word lox is uncommon in English outside North America. North American English is definitively not 8,000 years old.
Apart from that the article was really good.