The story
- Proto-West Germanic*sprākī
- Proto-West Germanic*sprāku
- Old Englishsprǣċ
- Old Englishspǣċ
- Middle Englishspeche
- English todayspeech
From Middle English speche, from Old English spǣċ, sprǣċ (“speech, discourse, language”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprāku (“speech, language”), from Proto-Indo-European *spereg-, *spreg- (“to make a sound”). Cognate with Dutch spraak (“speech”), German Sprache (“language, speech”). More at speak.
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishspeche all →
spatchcockspitchcock
Proto-West Germanic*sprāku all →
sprachbund
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.