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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?

#271

Post by ArekDymalski »

Delk wrote: post #250
godelski wrote: post #151

These seem like very bad candidates. All are loan words, which is interesting, but we could go deeper if we're considering pineapple/ananas and coffee. And let's be real, words like robot and computer are mostly the same in this respect too, especially if we're considering taxi. But what about words that are more "native"? How about "mama" and "papa"? There are variations, but these seem to be pretty small and mostly…

Robot intuitively sounds like it could be a good candidate. I don't think "computer" is quite that universal, though. AFAIK it's something else at least in French ("ordinateur"), Swedish ("dator"), Norwegian ("datamaskin"), Finnish ("tietokone"; lit. "knowledge/data machine") and Estonian ("arvuti"). I think Chinese has its own unrelated word, too. And about half of the African languages that I can easily check in Wi…

Computer in French is called "Ordinateur". I think robot might be a strong candidate for an universal term.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#272

Post by hackyhacky »

godelski wrote: post #151

These seem like very bad candidates. All are loan words, which is interesting, but we could go deeper if we're considering pineapple/ananas and coffee. And let's be real, words like robot and computer are mostly the same in this respect too, especially if we're considering taxi. But what about words that are more "native"? How about "mama" and "papa"? There are variations, but these seem to be pretty small and mostly…

> Chez: mama, tatínek

I hate to be "that guy," but I think this is Czech, not "Chez" (which is a French word meaning "at the home of").

Also, if it is Czech, then the word for mother should be properly written máma (with the acute accent).

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#273

Post by econonut »

thunderbong wrote: post #30

From the article, two words which are common to all languages are - 1. Coffee 2. Chocolate

In Vietnamese, "sô cô la" is chocolate, and I think it's bit of a stretch to say those are the same. Coffee is cà phê, which is good. Tea is another that doesn't work in Vietnamese (trà), but taxi is great (xe tắc xi).

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#274

Post by u801e »

wizofaus wrote: post #240
u801e wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't speak or understand Bengali and can't read the written form either, but when looking it up on Google translate, I got the following result: আম or Āma which is similar to the Hindi/Urdu word Aam (आम in Devanagari script) (آم in Urdu script).

Yes, which is still reasonably different to "mango".

In my first comment, I wrote:

>> Like chai vs tea, the two words (that I know of) are aam and mango.

I was referring to either aam or mango being a word that's common in many languages throughout the world, like chai and tea. So, আম or Āma is similar enough to Aam (आम or آم).

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#275

Post by grose »

bedobi wrote: post #244
godelski wrote: post #151

These seem like very bad candidates. All are loan words, which is interesting, but we could go deeper if we're considering pineapple/ananas and coffee. And let's be real, words like robot and computer are mostly the same in this respect too, especially if we're considering taxi. But what about words that are more "native"? How about "mama" and "papa"? There are variations, but these seem to be pretty small and mostly…

don't mean to nitpick but not sure where you're getting Japanese from, in Japanese mama is Okaasan or Haha and Otousan or Chichi for dada. (I don't know the evolution of either of the words, it may be that they were closer to mama and dada in the past or distant past, but contemporar Japanese doesn't fit the pattern)

Mama and papa are used in Japan too. See constructions like “mama-tomo” (“mom friends”) and “papa-katsu” (“sugar daddy”).

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#276

Post by kushan2020 »

AareyBaba wrote: post #175
zhengiszen wrote: post #137

Alcohol Sugar Words of Arabic origin

Sugar has origins in ancient India where it was known as 'sharkara' in Sanskrit[1]. For reasons I haven't been able to figure out, some modern Indian languages (like Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi) call it 'cheeni' which is the same word to refer to someone as Chinese. Other languages use variations of the Sanskrit 'sakhar', 'sakkare' [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sugar

In Hindi we only call the crystallized version chini possibly due to Chinese figuring out the crystallization process. The crude version is called Shakar in Hindi.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#279

Post by mikepavone »

godelski wrote: post #151

These seem like very bad candidates. All are loan words, which is interesting, but we could go deeper if we're considering pineapple/ananas and coffee. And let's be real, words like robot and computer are mostly the same in this respect too, especially if we're considering taxi. But what about words that are more "native"? How about "mama" and "papa"? There are variations, but these seem to be pretty small and mostly…

Japanese has mama and papa, but only as relatively recent loanwords. The closest (at least phonetically, though not necessarily in usage) native equivalents are haha and chichi

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#280

Post by mikepavone »

grose wrote: post #275
bedobi wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

don't mean to nitpick but not sure where you're getting Japanese from, in Japanese mama is Okaasan or Haha and Otousan or Chichi for dada. (I don't know the evolution of either of the words, it may be that they were closer to mama and dada in the past or distant past, but contemporar Japanese doesn't fit the pattern)

Mama and papa are used in Japan too. See constructions like “mama-tomo” (“mom friends”) and “papa-katsu” (“sugar daddy”).

These are recent loanwords though which the OP considered uninteresting
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