Comveniently for Slavic speakers, Nuristani snow is <i><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Nuristani_Swadesh_lists" rel="nofollow ugc">zima</a></i>
But why h in <i>snéha</i>? I mean, why palatalisation (*gʷʰ > gʲʰ > ǰʰ > h)?
October 20, 2026 by
I recently had the chance to see Nizhalkuthu (നിഴൽക്കുത്ത്, Shadow Kill); I think it’s my first movie in Malayalam, so I kept my linguist hat on as I watched, and one repeated word was സ്നേഹം (snēhaṁ) ‘love.’ Once the movie was over I looked it up, and was astonished to learn that its source, Sanskrit स्नेह॑ (snéha) ‘oil, grease, fat; smoothness, glossiness; moisture; tenderness, love’ is from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos ‘snow’! That’s one of the more unusual semantic transitions I’m aware of, and I thought I’d pass it along.
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