island
If two words look alike, are they family?
What do you notice?
The s is silent
island
Old English, with no s
īegland
Reconstructed
Reconstructed. We do not have a recording.
The s was added because isle looked related. It was not family.
Island looks like isle. It looks a little like “is land.”
Looks are not proof. Check the older form. The s was added later.
When two words look like cousins, try one test: can you find an older form that does not look like them? Island still has that older form: iland, hiding under the s.
You can stop here. The word already moved.
Go find a traveling word
The screen was the door.
More ways to look outside