Method before mythology
About this garden
One reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word each week, with selected descendants, a compact family tree, and a deliberately tiny teaching sentence.
Editorial promise
Proto-Indo-European is reconstructed, not recorded. An asterisk marks a scholarly reconstruction; forms and mini-sentences can vary by model. The diagrams show selected, defensible routes rather than claiming every lookalike is a cousin.
Each entry names its sources. Modern descendants are traced through intermediate languages where space permits. Short teaching sentences are explicitly labelled as teaching examples, not newly discovered inscriptions.
Why it looks like this
Classic word-of-the-day sites put the word, pronunciation, short meaning, example, and archive first. This version keeps that useful rhythm, then gives etymology the largest visual surface.
How publication works
Words and publication state are plain JSON in Git. A scheduled job publishes the next queued entry, commits the state change, and the deployment workflow rebuilds all four static sites. There is no production database.
Licensing
Original editorial content is CC BY-SA 4.0; code is MIT licensed. Linked sources retain their own licences and authority.