Can you compare a few similar words in any 2 languages?

Question

or even more than two, so long as the words are similar.

please do not use "modern" words (like 'computer' or 'telephone,' etc)

example: french "bonjour," italian: "bongiorno"

mellie - the more, the better! you've done an awesome job so far, btw. :)

taivo - a very good question. all of the above are fine, but i am mostly interested in the first (words from different languages with common origins).

Answer 1

Do you mean:

1) Words that are related to one another through regular sound changes (they come from the same word in the ancestor language):

English "do", French "faire"
English "hand", German "Hand"
English "brother", Sanskrit "bhrater"
Shoshoni "aikkwe", Timbisha "enngwün" (both mean "squirrel")

OR

2) Words that look alike in unrelated languages because they were borrowed from the other (or from a third language):

English "beef:, French "boeuf" (English borrowed from French)
English "copper", German "Kupfer", Archaic Latin "cuprus" (English and German borrowed from Latin, Latin borrowed from Greek kypros)
Timbisha "kapayu", Spanish "caballo" (both mean "horse", Timbisha borrowed from Spanish)
Nootka "stiqiw", Alsea "stiqiu" (both mean "horse", both borrowed from Chinook Jargon "stiqiw" from an unknown source)

OR

3) Words in completely unrelated (and geographically distant) languages that just randomly look alike:

English "come", Shoshoni "kimma"
Greek "osteon", Mohawk "ostyun" (both mean "bone")
English "he", Osage "hi" (pronounced hee)
Ghanonnga "tapo", Shoshoni "tapo" (both mean "sun")

LATER EDIT: The group under 1 are called "cognates". Here are some websites that may be of interest (the subject is vast so I just randomly selected some sites):

http://jones.ling.indiana.edu/~kdejong/L530/IECognates.pdf

http://indoeuro.bizland.com/archive/article3.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_method

Here's a whole book of Indo-European cognates: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/piep00.html

And one full of Germanic cognates: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/pgmc00.html

There are more cognate sets beyond Indo-European here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languages

That's just from a quick search. You can find other references from the Wikipedia bibliographies or if you are interested in a specific language family you can contact me by email

Answer 2

Spanish, Italin, and French have many similar words that mean the same but usually come from latin even Portugese has a few of them also.

French: Touche English: Touch

Hey Chad the language is Taglao I love filipino food is guranteed to give you a heart attack by the age of 50 and filipinos are the best natural pool players and drunks I learn how to handle my liquor in my navy days with the filipinos.

Answer 3

Many deliver solutions that ALIF-LAAM-MEEM and different identical unmarried letter pronounciations within the Quran don't have any which means. If it has no which means, why then did God incorporated within the Quran which was once intended for mankind within the first situation? Maybe, this can be a for the deduction that a precise Muslim must discover individuals who honestly recognise the meanings of it, in the actual culture of the way the Prophet's Companions, the Imams of the four Mazhabs, and different first-rate Islamic pupils learnt the Islamic faith. Proof of them is all the precise first-rate pupils has met the Prophet Muhammmad SAW, a minimum of of their desires as a signal that the direction they comply with is the only truest.

Answer 4

A lot of the wacky spellings of English words make sense when you compare them to their related German words (spelling in German is almost completely regular, although some rules are slightly different from the usual English rules).

night Nacht (ch is that scratchy-back-of-throat sound)
light Licht
knee Knie (k is pronounced)

Answer 5

poisson with a double 's' for fish in French!
cinco - cinq - cinque (five in Spanish, French and Italian)
intelligent - intelligent - intelligent (in English, French and German- the pronunication is all that's different)
beau - beautiful (French, English)
quatre - cuarto - quattro (four in French, Spanish, Italian)
deux - dos - due (two, ditto)
un - uno - uno (one, ditto)
high, hoch, haut (English, German, French)
house, das Haus (English, German)
January, janvier, Januar (English, French, German)
lots more - do you need any more?

Answer 6

portokall-the orange in Albanian
protokale-the orange in Greek

P.S. I'm not sure if it is protokale in Greek but I know that is something very similar.

Answer 7

Chinese: 日本 (ri ben)
Thai: ญี่ปุ่น (yee bun)

Meaning: Japan

Answer 8

In spanish:DOS
In filipino:DOS

Still the same, eh?

CC

Answer 9

English: poison
French: poison = fish(engl.)