Dr Danny Bate @dannybate.com · 23d Now back from a few days in lovely Lübeck, the Hanseatic city that perfected beauty out of brick. There I got asked whether the Czech for 'brick', cihla, is connected to the German, Ziegel. The Czech was indeed an early acquisition from High German. Its Old English cousin is tigele – today, 'tile'.
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Finnish Tiili, with palatal lenition > elision of the g. In Fenno-Swedish dialect the word is tigẹl/tigẹL (with short vowel), but the -g- was fricative upon borrowing.
"I got asked" – I travel with a wife who regularly poses good questions to me Also, "lovely Lübeck" is etymologically harmonious; the two words share a common root, with Lübeck originally being a pleasing site for incoming Slavs dannybate.com/2026/02/14/a...