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Are any words the same in all languages?

by spansoa on 9/7/23, 2:58 PM with 494 comments

  • by godelski on 9/7/23, 11:54 PM

    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 replacing the plosive in papa with a b or t. You can pretty much go down the google translate list and see. For mama sometimes the last a changes to an i. Here's some examples (not a linguist or many language speaker so please correct me if I'm wrong. Trying to add some sounding help)

    Nearly identical in: Afrikaans, English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Filipino

    Albanian: mama, babi

    Arabic, Chinese: mama (妈妈/媽媽), baba (爸爸)

    Bulgarian: mama, tatko (татко)

    Chez: mama, tatínek

    Hebrew "i-ma" (אִמָא), "ah-bah" ̶"̶b̶a̶h̶-̶b̶a̶h̶"̶ (אַבָּא) (edited: thanks zimzam and ars!)

    Korean: "Oh-mah" (엄마) "Ah-pa" (아빠)

    My understanding is that these are pretty early words and need to be pronounceable by infants. I wonder what the first human words were and if we still use any of them. We have some constellation myths that are probably older than written language (not recorded, so can never confirm). The 7 sisters is a good example, but remember these are all always contested. We'll never really know tbh.

  • by Eliah_Lakhin on 9/8/23, 12:49 AM

    Perhaps, it would be more useful for students if foreign language courses start with explaining one thing that is well known to linguists, but maybe does not have enough recognition by a wide audience.

    Most European languages are at some extent just dialects of the same common language[1].

    And most of the words we use in distinct languages are (at some extent) just different pronunciations of the same vocabulary. This happened no just because of the borrowings between cultures, but because centuries ago these nations speak one single common language that has diverge in centuries into different dialects.

    More over it is more or less researched how the words and the grammar rules have evolved from the proto-language up to it's modern form. So in fact we can (again, at some extent) translate many modern words to their ancient form, and then translate them back into another modern European language. Of course it is not always that simple process, and there is a lot of exceptions and difficulties, and the true borrowings too. But I think that understanding just some common ideas of linguistics could help in studying of foreign languages (from the same family of languages). At least maybe it will be more fascinating than just a pure memoization.

    [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language

  • by xnx on 9/7/23, 3:25 PM

    "OK is frequently used as a loanword in other languages. It has been described as the most frequently spoken or written word on the planet." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK

  • by legohead on 9/7/23, 3:09 PM

    My 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..

  • by teleforce on 9/8/23, 7:10 AM

    This is a very popular modern riddle/joke, "The most understood word in the world is Coke (Coca-Cola), what is the second most popular word?", and the correct answer is "OK".

    I once asked this question to a friend, and after a while he said "OK, I give up", without realizing that he had just answered the riddle.

    Joking aside, I think beer is a very universal word. It's probably come from the Proto-Indo-European origin, meaning meaning "brewer's yeast".

    [1] Beer In Other Languages:

    https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/beer-in-other-languages/

  • by dman-os on 9/8/23, 5:03 AM

    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

  • by jterwill on 9/7/23, 5:37 PM

    “Huh?” Is strong candidate, if you accept it is a word. Here is a fun talk in the subject https://youtu.be/rHHJ3hSppEA?feature=shared It seems the demands of asking for clarification in conversation shapes the word to be easy and fast to pronounce.

  • by jjallen on 9/8/23, 4:40 AM

    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.

  • by u801e on 9/8/23, 12:03 AM

    I believe mango is another candidate for a word that's nearly the same in many languages. Like chai vs tea, the two words (that I know of) are aam and mango.

  • by bloppe on 9/7/23, 10:09 PM

    These words are called translingual. Probably the largest collection of them are recent scientific coinages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_scientific_vocab...

  • by jangliss on 9/7/23, 3:23 PM

    A Dutch friend once said that the one word from his language that has had universal reach was "apartheid"... I'm sure that if there are any truly global words they are probably ones like that (initially) attached to a specific geographical context.

  • by matsemann on 9/7/23, 10:21 PM

    Slightly related. But I've seen documentaries from other remote countries, where children use the same sounds when mocking people. Not the same words, but kinda the same melody. Is it kinda universal, or was it just chance?

    I feel like if I heard children speak in a foreign language, I wouldn't be able to understand if they made fun of someone in a way that need no cultural context, somehow.

  • by divbzero on 9/8/23, 5:54 AM

    Another commonality across many languages is naming days of the week after celestial bodies:

      Sunday    Sun     Sōlis    Hēlíou     日曜日
  Monday    Moon    Lūnae    Selḗnēs    月曜日
  Tuesday   Mars    Mārtis   Áreōs      火曜日
  Wednesday Mercury Mercuriī Hermoû     水曜日
  Thursday  Jupiter Iovis    Diós       木曜日
  Friday    Venus   Veneris  Aphrodítēs 金曜日
  Saturday  Saturn  Sāturnī  Krónou     土曜日
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week

  • by hnaccountme on 9/8/23, 3:34 AM

    This is such a bad post, all the winning words are very recent creations. I was expecting words that are more core to a language.

  • by nothacking on 9/8/23, 3:39 AM

    "Tea" is ruined by my native language, Polish: herbata. Robot seems to be a good candidate though: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/robot

  • by fuzzbazz on 9/7/23, 3:45 PM

    Pizza is pretty universal too

  • by wizofaus on 9/7/23, 11:21 PM

    Any languages that use a distinctively different word for "robot"?

    Well other than Chinese and Arabic (which also use very different words for "taxi" than most other widely spoken languages).

    Btw my other candidate is "chihuahua" (though there's probably other dog breeds...). And yes it's the essentially the same in Chinese and Arabic if Google translate is to be believed.

  • by spamtarget on 9/7/23, 11:17 PM

    hungarian chimes in, the words mentioned in the article in hungarian:

    tea - tea (different pronunciation) pineapple - ananász orange - narancs taxi - taxi (slightly different pronunciation) tomato - paradicsom

    now let's look at the article's champions coffee - kávé chocolate - csokoládé

    both the same origin, but distorted so much, that i could not order those things in starbucks...

    so in my books, taxi is the winner

  • by Javalicious on 9/7/23, 3:41 PM

    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.

  • by Condition1952 on 9/8/23, 3:19 AM

    You need to be a little bit more lenient when comparing different languages. As far as I know, “cat” shared the same build pattern in many languages: guttural-a-dental

    Cat - gato - katze - qOt

    This, like the case of shai/tea implies that the animal expanded rather late and quickly from the same region (Asia?)

    Mobile phone, giraffe, etc. sound and are written also similar in all Arabic and Latin scripts.

    You can download the translations from the HTML source of any Wikipedia article and put them on a spreadsheet, if that’s what you’re into

  • by aristus on 9/8/23, 11:16 AM

    The correct answer is "spam". Spam was a novel problem that hit the entire world almost at once, just as that entire world was becoming able to talk with itself easily. So an invented word was immediately adopted in all languages. Just check out the bottom of the wiktionary page.

    https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/spam

  • by harel on 9/7/23, 11:58 PM

    There is one word which I think is the same in all languages: Tariff.

    And it makes sense - it's the "how much?" that would be (and is) asked at any port and travelling hub.

  • by harimau777 on 9/8/23, 2:53 AM

    Mama and Papa are virtually the same in every language that I've been exposed to. My theory is that "babies first words" aren't actually words; "ma" and "pa" are just the easiest syllables for a baby to make and society has interpreted them as meaning mother and father.

  • by anonu on 9/8/23, 12:24 PM

    Turkey, the bird, is one of my favorite quirks of etymology.

    In English, it's turkey, in reference to it's supposed origin from Turkey.

    In French it's dinde, which could be viewed as d'Inde, or "from India".

    In Arabic it's "habash" which refers to the Horn of Africa.

    Clearly one of the most confused birds around ...

  • by alexpotato on 9/8/23, 12:38 AM

    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?

  • by dpq on 9/8/23, 10:11 AM

    One of their main candidates [coffee] is incorrectly selected: it is something like "sourch" in Armenian (սուրճ) [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D5%BD%D5%B8%D6%82%D6%80%D5%B...].

    Also, in Hebrew an orange is a "tapuz" (תפוז), which is short for "tapuach zahav", or a "golden apple" [https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%96]. A pity that this isn't highlighted, given that Hebrew is supported in Duolingo.

  • by twosdai on 9/7/23, 10:16 PM

    Surprised it didn't mention the word or rather not word, "uhhh" or "umm" when we don't know what to say and need to fill silence.

    I know other languages and cultures have slight variations but the ending sound as far as I have seen is the same.

  • by flanked-evergl on 9/8/23, 1:14 PM

    John McWhorter gives a very good critique of this in one of his excellent course from the great courses, it is called the story of human language.

    Really would strongly recommended it, he is one of the most entertaining people that I have ever listened to.

  • by thunderbong on 9/7/23, 5:08 PM

    From the article, two words which are common to all languages are -

    1. Coffee

    2. Chocolate

  • by badrabbit on 9/8/23, 6:19 AM

    There are exceptions I know of for sure to their winner words. I would have told you duolingo except you wanted an email!

    But my winner words are the two words all humans learn without being told: abba and umma which what babies actually say universally us ba or da and ma when referring to their father and mother. Adult languages take these words and add to them like with english it is pa or pappa or dad for father and mom or mommy or momma for mother. But I challenge anyone to find me babies that don't use those words or languages without an evolved form of those root words.

  • by shrubble on 9/7/23, 10:12 PM

    Aside from English, "ananas" for pineapple and "lox"; however 'lox' and 'water' are the 2 of the oldest words still in use, but not the most widespread across many languages...

  • by jrflowers on 9/8/23, 2:41 AM

    The noise one makes by blowing through pursed lips (sometimes referred to as blowing a raspberry in English) seems like a pretty universal way to indicate “fart” though it is spelled differently in various cultures

    Pfffffttttt

  • by mci on 9/7/23, 3:19 PM

    My two candidates are pepsi and amen. Coke is known as coca-cola where I live.

  • by est on 9/8/23, 6:50 AM

    > Exceptions: Mandarin Chinese uses a different word for pineapple.

    Actually two words for pineapple: 凤梨 & 菠萝

    On the topic, I think one word is defintely the same in all languages: "OK". Yeah, even in Mandarin.

  • by koliber on 9/7/23, 10:51 PM

    It seems that many languages use mama or something close for mother.

  • by dcb_lu on 9/8/23, 8:31 AM

    There is also an interesting contrast with the word for "butterfly" which tends to be quite different between languages[0] -- "mariposa", "papillon", "farfalla", "borboleta", and "fluture" all come from romance languages, for instance.

    [0] https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/butterfly

  • by kushan2020 on 9/8/23, 4:02 AM

    The article incorrectly states orange is derived from the Sanskrit word Narang नारङ्ग, but this word itself is a loan word from proto Dravidian (ancestor of Tamil) நாரம் (nāram)

  • by Chirael on 9/8/23, 5:09 AM

    I thought I learned at one point that “kaka” (poop) was one of the earliest proto-Indo-European words [0] and think it is present in many languages but “all” is a pretty high bar.

    [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/8lefir/why_doe...

  • by themadturk on 9/8/23, 5:18 PM

    I've often wondered how widespread "okay" is. I remember standing on the deck of a Washington State Ferry about 20 years ago, listening to a couple of Arabic men speaking. At the end of a long string of Arabic words, one of the men said "Okay?" with exactly the same inflection an English-speaker would, to solicit agreement, and his companion echoed "okay" in the apparent affirmative.

  • by krollick on 9/8/23, 12:35 AM

    I would think newer scientific/technical words would be more likely to spread unchanged from their origin. Like "boson" or "quark".

  • by playingalong on 9/8/23, 7:11 PM

    A lot of comments mention a lot food items or beverages. I think a specific drink or food is likely to be well recognized globally. E.g.

    Pizza Sushi Cola Vodka Gin Kebab Grill

    Another category would be modern inventions/phenomena like Internet Sms Selfie

    Yet another would be countries which are well known, but with not so many cultural mixes (e.g. not Germany), e.g. Peru Australia Sudan

  • by cperciva on 9/8/23, 2:28 AM

    Yes, Bouba and Kiki are the same in all languages.

  • by jcrash on 9/7/23, 10:41 PM

    Surprised bread wasn't mentioned, seems like there are more than a few languages where the word for bread is 'pan'

  • by davidw on 9/7/23, 11:31 PM

    How much does 'no' vary? Non, niet, nein... but I don't know much about non-European languages.

  • by timonoko on 9/8/23, 8:17 AM

    "Kana" seems to have longestmost Wiktionary page. Some might draw a map how these different Kanas relate. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kana

  • by PopAlongKid on 9/7/23, 11:37 PM

    I read a long time ago that "Amen" was a word that was the same in nearly all languages.

  • by dghughes on 9/8/23, 11:53 AM

    I recall reading about ESSO the gas company how the company tried to find a neutral name that didn't mean anything in any language. edit: but now I see it just means Standard Oil as in 'S' and 'O'.

  • by etothepii on 9/8/23, 1:45 AM

    Very surprised to see Amen not making the list. I know it is a Christian word at the end of a prayer meaning "so be it". However, even if the prayer language is changed I understand Amen to remain untranslated.

  • by rvieira on 9/7/23, 3:23 PM

    Cats "meow" (miˈaʊ̯) in all languages. Dogs can woof, blaf, ham, ao, ...

  • by Fatnino on 9/8/23, 3:12 PM

    In Hebrew:

    Orange = tapuz (which is 2 words mashed together, tapuach (apple) & zahav (gold))

    Taxi = monit

    Tomato = agvania

  • by fleur-de-lotus on 9/8/23, 6:33 AM

    "Mafia" is an italian word understood by everybody on earth.

  • by jscipione on 9/8/23, 2:12 AM

    Orange is also fairly universal, something similar to naranja or portokáli. In English we say the word with a hard g but with a soft g as in German it sounds closer to naranja - oran-ja.

  • by OnlyMortal on 9/7/23, 3:15 PM

    Water 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.

  • by jstarfish on 9/7/23, 10:09 PM

  • by nonfamous on 9/7/23, 10:11 PM

    "Taxi" is universally understood, in my experience. (TFI calls it a "runner up" candidate.)

    "Kaput" is another.

  • by judah on 9/7/23, 11:22 PM

    I suspect "hallelujah" (from the Hebrew הללו-יה, a command to praise God) and its variants are common across many languages.

  • by scotty79 on 9/7/23, 10:14 PM

    If taxi is an option, why not laser or computer?

  • by hgraves1991 on 9/8/23, 4:02 AM

    Brands and models tend to be unanimously identified: iPhone, Huawei, Mercedes, BMW, etc. Do these count as words, or names?

  • by AndrewThrowaway on 9/8/23, 10:02 AM

    I think "one two three" sound very similar in a lot of languages. Like pronouncing them "a e i".

  • by iraqmtpizza on 9/7/23, 11:59 PM

    uint64, probably

  • by oh_sigh on 9/7/23, 11:00 PM

    "Idealist" is unexpectedly "idealist" or very close to that in almost all European languages.

  • by RcouF1uZ4gsC on 9/7/23, 11:52 PM

    In the near future it will be “subscribe”.

    Watching YouTube videos in different languages and eventually you hear “subscribe”

  • by wizofaus on 9/8/23, 12:44 AM

    Even "hacker" isn't a bad candidate, though it does seem to be different in Arabic.

  • by pieterr on 9/7/23, 4:12 PM

    What about "Opera"?

    It's the first word that I use in 4 different language "wordle" games.

  • by jesprenj on 9/7/23, 11:18 PM

    What about stop? It had likely spread to most latin-type countries due to traffic signs.

  • by miraji on 9/8/23, 7:02 AM

    Two words of Finnish origin seem pretty universal: sauna and rapakivi.

  • by toppy on 9/7/23, 3:33 PM

    Quiz

  • by HenrikB on 9/8/23, 5:03 AM

    "shh"? (to calm, to silence) with spelling variations

  • by gatestone on 9/8/23, 12:13 PM

    "Kiosk" is pretty universal, Persian originally.

  • by coding123 on 9/8/23, 2:52 AM

    I'm guessing the closest is "no"

  • by gscott on 9/8/23, 4:27 AM

    The word Email is the same in every language.

  • by kuon on 9/8/23, 10:21 AM

    I though banana was one of those words.

  • by self_awareness on 9/7/23, 3:13 PM

    "Hotel" could be pretty close?

  • by vippy on 9/8/23, 4:18 AM

    re: the Nahuatl origin of chocolate, my money is obviously on xocolatl.

  • by pizzafeelsright on 9/7/23, 4:42 PM

    Baal?

  • by zhengiszen on 9/7/23, 11:41 PM

    Alcohol Sugar

    Words of Arabic origin

  • by sambapa on 9/7/23, 4:23 PM

    "Czaj" in polish is very uncommon, pretty much not in use.

  • by mrits on 9/7/23, 10:58 PM

    TV? WiFi? Bus?

  • by ban-lan-gen on 9/9/23, 1:08 PM

    Haha?

  • by coryaf on 9/7/23, 11:55 PM

    No.

  • by sdfghswe on 9/7/23, 3:55 PM

    Coffee isn't coffee in Polish.

  • by dotcoma on 9/8/23, 5:39 AM

    banana? robot ?

  • by wushupork on 9/7/23, 9:02 PM

    Chai or tea

  • by clearmind on 9/7/23, 11:53 PM

    Pineapple

  • by t3rra on 9/8/23, 4:06 AM

    Tea in Korean is neither "tea" or "chai" after all. It is "cha". Very bad post.