The melodious origin of ‘swan’ and ‘sonata’
How is a swan like a sonata? This sounds like the setup for a joke, but it’s more of an etymological riddle. These words are – they share a common ancestor, but took very different paths on their journey into English. Both are derived from, a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root meaning “to sound.” English is full of doublets, because of the Norman Conquest of 1066 and because of the alacrity with which the language continues to adopt words from other tongues.
