Home » Segments » Similar Names for “Goose”

Similar Names for “Goose”

Play episode

Brian from Edison, New Jersey, is pondering this linguistic mystery: The Mid-Atlantic convenience store chain Wawa has a goose as its logo. The Algonquin term for “goose” is wawa, and the French for “goose” is oie, pronounced “wah.” Is there a connection between the French and Native American terms? It’s probably just another example from a long list of linguistic coincidences resulting from the limited amount of vocal sounds we can make. This is part of a complete episode.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More from this show

Have a Dingle Day!

After an international team of scientists and staffers spent six months at a research station in Antarctica, their accents changed ever so slightly, according to an acoustic analysis by German researchers. The slang terms they shared include dingle...

Pirate Booty vs. Body Booty

Is the booty as in shake your booty related to a pirate’s booty? The booty that means “derriere” is an alteration of botty, which is itself an alteration of bottom. The booty that means “loot” or “plunder”...

Recent posts

Segments