IS(LAND) EeY Aleph-Yod
EEY_____ אי__ _[EeY à I(S)]
ROOTS: ISLAND is from Middle English iland and Anglo-Saxon iegland. ISLAND means an “island land,” but the etymology needs something to explain the vowel-like element meaning “island.” One guess is that it is from Germanic aujo ("thing on the water"). Earlier versions of ISLAND include “isle land,” “ile land” and the mysterious “yland.”
Ey means “island” in Old Frisian and Old Icelandic, but they are too damn close to the Hebrew.
There is no reason to have an S in the spelling of island. But it recalls “isle,” and looks more Western.
אי EeY or EeJ means island (Isaiah 11:11). In Genesis 10:5 the Alep-Yod “island” word may not be limited to actual islands, as much as maritime lands, in that context of the YiVaNiM or Ionians (Greeks).
BRANCHES: Barnhart writes that even the S in ISLE is difficult. ISLE is alledgedly from Latin insula (solitary) “of uncertain origin.”
To be less uncertain, see “SOLITARY.”
Reverse EeY to yu, for a small Chinese island. Danish island is ø. Flemish island is eiland. German island is Eiland. The Norwegian is øy. The way that Germanic languages spell ICELAND, indicates that the place was once “Island.”
Many global words for island link up with words like “sole” and “insular.”
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Marf Feffer suggests suing dictionaries for purposeful coverups of Hebrew etymologies.
More likely, scholars are just Eurocentric, sloppy or both. But entries like this make one think twice. .