"hljóð" + *hljod

words to do with "sound" (but have no common kinship)
2025-12-15 14:42 // updated 2026-03-15 17:18

hljóð (Icelandic)

… meaning "sound" in the Icelandic of today and comes from

  • Old Norse hljóð ("sound")
    • Proto-Germanic *hleuþą ("hearing", "listening", "sound")
      • PIE *ḱlew- ("to hear")

*hljod (Old Chinese)

Zhengzhang (a way of spelling) has the Old Chinese word for "to say" or "to speak" in a way close to the Icelandic word for "sound":

  • Old Chinese [Zhengzhang] *hljod
  • Old Chinese [Baxter-Sagart] /*l̥ot/
    • Middle Chinese *sywet
      • Mandarin shuō ("to say")

Mandarin also has another lookalike-word:

  • 脱 tuō ("to remove [one's clothes]")
    • Proto-Sino-Tibetan *lot (Baxter-Sagart) or *hljod (Zhenzhang)

...both and seem to come from that *hljod ("to release")...

Icelandic's hljóð has to do with hearing, but the Old Chinese *hljod has to do with speaking or "releasing" so in the end it was merely a "false friend"!

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