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Are any words the same in all languages?

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Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#31

A 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.

I think that would also be something interesting to look into as well! Not only are spoken words borrowed, but so are signs and simple gestures. I guess you'd have to make some delineation about where the line in the sand is, since a smile could be considered a sign, and is probably (no evidence) nearly universal. Still interesting though.

If you ever wanted to do a little research on something like that, I'd read your write up.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#37
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Welsh suggests the Ancient Greek "hudor".
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