Post #1437699
2026-04-15 11:18 UTC
𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗘𝘁𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘆, 𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀
The word "khaki" is a loan from Urdu خاکی xākī, a loan from Persian, from خاک xâk "earth", from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂s [ħaχs], something like this (listen):
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/khaki-from-PIE-h2eh2s.wav
English "ash" (the grey-coloured burnt substance) also descends from *h₂eh₂s:
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/ash-from-PIE-h2eh2s.wav
In most Indo-European languages, *h₂ usually developed into [a], but in Iranian it's sometimes [x]. If you want a more detailed but much more technical explanation of the Proto-Indo-European "laryngeals" and how they were possibly or probably pronounced, try this: https://www.ancientsounds.net/laryngeals.html
(The image used below is from an Iranian wood industry supplier's site, venonwood.biz, which currently seems to be still working in spite of the general internet blackout in Iran right now.)
@linguistics #linguistics #etymology #englishlanguage #acousticphonetics #phonetics #ProtoIndoEuropean #Iranian #Persian #Urdu
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