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Count on Language!! |
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Counting in various
languages is fun. Counting will reveal many words which look related. These
words show how the various languages are related. Look at the table below
and try to see some of these relationships yourself! |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
| A |
one |
two |
three |
four |
five |
| B |
unum |
duo |
tres |
quattror |
quinque |
| C |
un |
deux |
trois |
quattre |
cinq |
| D |
yi |
èr |
san |
sì |
wu |
| E |
uno |
dos |
tres |
cuatro |
cinco |
| F |
ett |
två |
tre |
fyra |
fem |
| G |
eins |
zwei |
drei |
vier |
fünf |
| H |
um |
dois |
três |
quatro |
cinco |
| I |
en |
to |
tre |
fire |
fem |
| J |
ichi |
ni |
san |
shi |
go |
Notes
- The names of the languages have been omitted so that you can find the
relationships without prejudice.
- The words are given, as nearly as possible, in native spellings. However,
accent marks and the like have had to be approximated. In particular, the
tone markings for Chinese (D) are incomplete.
- The word for 1 in Swedish (F) may seem out of place. Real linguists
face similar problems all the time. 'Ett' is also an indefinite article;
the other indefinite article in Swedish is 'en.'
- The grammatical context can change the words given in the above lists.
Linguists use the grammars of languages as well as the vocabulary to help
determine language relationships.
- Japanese (J) has two systems of numeration. The so-called Sino-Japanese
number words are in the table. These are the names for numbers in Japanese
when used in mathematics. The so-called native Japanese number words do
not bear nearly so strong a resemblence to Chinese (D).
- Words for numbers are nice to use when searching for relationships
between languages because we expect all languages (Of course, there are
exceptions!) to have words for 1, 2, and so on. We do not expect all languages
to have a word for a beech tree, for example, because in some geographic
locations there are no beech trees to be found.
What's what
- D (Chinese) and J (Japanese) are quite different from the rest.
A, B, C, E, F, G, H and I are clearly more closely related to each other
than to D and J. D and J do seem to be related.
- B, C, E, and H are in one group and A, F, G, and I are in another,
as a comparison of the words for 4 and 5 shows.
- B (Latin) is no longer spoken. C (French), E (Spanish), and H
(Portuguese) all derive from Latin. Of these, E and H seem most closely
related. It is difficult to tell from the few words above much more.
- A (English), F (Swedish), G (German), and I (Danish) do not
seem quite as tight knit a group as B, C, E, and H. Of these, F and I are
most closely related. It is difficult to tell from the few words given
very much else.
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