Cats "meow" (miˈaʊ̯) in all languages. Dogs can woof, blaf, ham, ao, ...
Japanese uses “nyaa” for meow. I’m sure there are other counterexamples.
Are any words the same in all languages?
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Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#12Water is a common word across Germanic languages. It also appears to be a very old word as I saw a documentary about the Hittites and the interviewee stated that they may have migrated from Europe.
Even within Europe there are many different words used for water, very cool!
This is not a comprehensive list:
Germanic - wasser/water/voda/woda
French - eau
Italian/Spanish - aqua/agua
Greek - nero (νερό)
Danish - vand
Romanian - apă
Latvian - udens
Turkish - su
Welsh - dwrRe: Are any words the same in all languages?
#13My first thought was "mama" (and possibly "dada"), as I believe I've seen it attributed to the fact it's an easy word for babies to make since it mimics the first sounds we make. But it's not even mentioned..
In Turkish those are "anne" (an-ney) and "baba"... And "mama" means baby food!
In Tunisian Arabic baby speak, “mama” means “mama” but “mam-ma” (see [1]) means food/eat.
Quite confusing, but it seems to work?
Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#14Quiz
Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#15A little pedantic, but it's worth mentioning that the assumption here is _spoken_ languages. There's a whole set of sign languages around the world as well.
Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#16Water is a common word across Germanic languages. It also appears to be a very old word as I saw a documentary about the Hittites and the interviewee stated that they may have migrated from Europe.
Even within Europe there are many different words used for water, very cool! This is not a comprehensive list: Germanic - wasser/water/voda/woda French - eau Italian/Spanish - aqua/agua Greek - nero (νερό) Danish - vand Romanian - apă Latvian - udens Turkish - su Welsh - dwr
The Irish uisce is the source for the English word whiskey.
Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#17Pizza is pretty universal too
Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#18Coffee isn't coffee in Polish.
Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#19Water is a common word across Germanic languages. It also appears to be a very old word as I saw a documentary about the Hittites and the interviewee stated that they may have migrated from Europe.
Even within Europe there are many different words used for water, very cool! This is not a comprehensive list: Germanic - wasser/water/voda/woda French - eau Italian/Spanish - aqua/agua Greek - nero (νερό) Danish - vand Romanian - apă Latvian - udens Turkish - su Welsh - dwr
The Danish belongs in the "Germanic" list; as does the Norwegian "vann" and "vatn" (the latter also Faroese, Icelandic, Norn), and Swedish "vatten".
The Romanian and French both comes from the latin aqua, just like the Italian/Spanish.
Re: Are any words the same in all languages?
#20Coffee isn't coffee in Polish.
The article means pretty much "descended from or sounds like" when they talk of "the same", not that it's spelled or sound exactly the same.
Kawa is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish kahve just like most of the other European words for coffee.