THREE TIMES NINE

May, mother, midwife

Linguistics

| 27-05-2021

The name of the month of May – like the names of all months – comes from the time of the Romans, who in turn were strongly influenced by the Greeks. The Greek word μαια (maia) originally meant mother and later midwife (μαιεια-maieia). A logical name, then, for a mother goddess, whom the Romans worshiped in imitation of the Greeks, in the hope that she would make the things of nature grow. And that of course happens especially in the spring, which makes it logical that the month of May is named after Maia.

THREE TIMES NINE
Originally there were three Germanic language families: North, East and West Germanic. Unfortunately, all East Germanic languages have died out, but fortunately North and West Germanic languages are still there. In the section THREE TIMES NINE, every month on the 27th, I put three words in nine of those languages next to each other. In contrast to the series WEST GERMANIC, in this case, I leave the comparison to you. Have fun comparing!

Sources

All translations: Google Translate.
Information based on: Wikipedia.
Images: own edits with image from Wikipedia: By Bartholomeus Spranger - Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Bilddatenbank, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5134717.