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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?

#291

Post by jjallen »

After being an amateur linguist for quite a while and living in Switzerland, where everything you buy is translated into at least 3 if not more like dozens languages for toys I recently noticed a word that was the same in dozens of languages.

We also having a toddler so we buy lots of toys (that have to have lots of disclaimers and warnings in many languages to reduce liability).

The word that I have seen that is the same in the greatest number of languages is "slime". It was basically the same in the greater than 30 or so languages I saw it translated into.

I think it is a word that no one wants to claim and make theirs, I suppose.

I was going to say it is a new word and that that is the reason it is the same in many languages, which I think is probably true - but it shouldn't be. Because after all slime grows on many things that are decomposing.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#292

Post by themoonisachees »

ArekDymalski wrote: post #271
Delk wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Internet has to also be pretty up there. IIRC some languages do have their own word for it (and the Académie Française sure would like us to as well) but overall I think a lot of the world just uses the English word.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#293

Post by themoonisachees »

gscott wrote: post #286

The word Email is the same in every language.

Officially, the Académie Française recommends the word for email be "mél" for message électronique (lit. Electronic message). In practice everybody says mail or email, but the official word is voluntarly chosen to not be the English word, as the Académie often does.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#294

Post by foobiekr »

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…

Robot isn't even an old word - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#295

Post by PhasmaFelis »

BWStearns wrote: post #199
alexpotato wrote: post #188

I've been on the hunt for the equivalent of "preaching to the choir" which, as far as I can tell, only really exists in English. For non-English speakers it translates to: "Attempting to convince a group of people who are already convinced of something" Anyone have an example in another language?

Not quite the same but there's "A pig teaching Minerva" https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2020/08/11/a-pig-teaches-mine... Similarly giving redundant advice but with the added connotation of the advisor being less knowledgable on the matter.

Interesting! A more direct English equivalent of that would be "teach your grandmother to suck eggs," which isn't used much these days. That's probably a good thing. I have no idea why grandmothers are supposed to be especially good at sucking eggs.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#296

Post by themoonisachees »

whitten wrote: post #141
wizofaus wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Taxi" is quite different in Chinese and Arabic for a start. I'd guess it's likely to be almost universally understood among all humans that have had exposure to the concept though.

I think taxi (spelled differently) is in Russian, Greek, and Spanish

Taxi in Russian is indeed pronounced the same and is written Такси.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#297

Post by umeshunni »

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".

I think OP was saying that similar to the words Tea/Chai that originated from different parts of China and spread to the rest of the world, the words Aam (from Indo-Aryan) and Mango (from Dravidian) originated in different parts of India and spread to rest of the world.

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#299

Post by dman-os »

Coffee fails the test in my locale which is interestingly the supposed origin[0] of the drink/plant. We call it Buna in Ethiopia and it's a big symbol/part of the national identity not to mention the most important export commodity.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coffee

Re: Are any words the same in all languages?

#300

Post by midoridensha »

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”).

Those are loanwords, very recently borrowed from English, like so many other recent loanwords. That's what they're always written in katakana.
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