Can all the lanuages be connected with a word or something?

Do you think that all the lanuages ever spoken could be connected with a word or something. I mean like a cognate. A word that looks like something in another lanuage, and means it too.

I don't know if it is true. I would like to hear others thoughts on this.

Candace,

There are two schools of linguists these days. Those who believe that all languages descend from a common human proto-language spoken somewhere in Africa about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago and those who believe that the races and nationalities developed relatively independent from one another along with their languages. I subscribe to the first point of view myself.

For example ,almost everywhere in the world we find similar words for "mother /mom", "father/dada/papa" and "baby" (Italian bambino, American Indian papoose 'baby', Hindi babu 'eldest son' etc.). Words as different as Enlgish hound, German Hund, Gaelic cu, Gaulish cuno-, Ancient Greek kyon, Armenian shun and even Sioux Indian (Lakota) shungkwa "dog' all seem to go back to a primitive Eurasiatic word meaning "wolfdog"

Ich weiß es nicht

Yes,like Brennus I believe in a common Human Proto-language,however there is not even the slightest chance you're going to find a word thats the same in every language on earth.

Personally I think its been too long,since the proto human language...I mean look at the numbers.(1 till10) compare them with other languages

You migh recognize some numbers in German:
ein,zwei,drei,vier,fünf,sechs,sieben,acht,neun,zehn

But can you recognize them in Chinese?

yi,er,san,si,wu,liu,chi,ba,jiu,shi

Sander : "Oui, je crois, comme Brennus, à l'existence d'une protolangue-souche. Cependant il n'y a pas la moindre chance de trouver un mot identique dans toutes les langues de la planète".

Je suis d'accord avec la 2e phrase de Sander. Quant à la 1ère, j'ignore si l'apparition spontanée du langage ne s'est faite qu'une seule fois et se serait simplement diffusée par "capillarité". Il n'est pas impensable que l'invention de la langue ait été en fait un phénomène répété en plusieurs endroits ou époques, jusqu'au moment où, l'évolution aidant, les peuples inventeurs se soient rencontrés.

A few things in common, albeit only lately...

taxi
Coca-Cola
okay

Modern transportation and telecommunications have made humanity virtually one world again for better or for worse and this is indeed resulting in a lot of "shared" words like those that Robert mentioned.

It is also interesting how languages sometimes adapt these words to their own phonology and / or morphology as in Spanish hamburguesa and Chinese han bao bao (hamburger),Russian rotvailer and Chinese luo te wei er quan (Rottweiler) and German Schnorkel, English snorkel, Japanese sunorekku etc.

Brennus : « Les moyens modernes de transport et télécommunication ont pratiquement réunifié l'humanité pour le meilleur ou le pire d'où, en effet, le grand nombre de mots "en partage" comme ceux indiqués par Robert ».

Mais la plupart des mots "en partage" existaient avant l'émergence d'un temps et d'un espace raccourcis. L'héritage gréco-latin est là pour le rappeler.

Autres points de détail :

1/ An <okay> est très peu usité en français. C'est Fr <OK> [oke] qui a été adopté, pas *[okEj]

2/ An <taxi> vient de Fr <taxi> = Fr <taximètre>, de Al <Taxameter>. A l'origine, Fr <taxi> désignait le compteur horokilométrique destiné à mesurer le prix de la course en fonction de la distance parcourue et de la durée du trajet puis, par métonymie, tout véhicule comprtant un taximètre. Les premiers taxis étaient en fait des "hippomobiles".

3/ <Coca-Cola> est un nom propre qui désigne un produit couramment consommé. Il n'a d'international que son succès commercial.

Greg,

Hello / Bon jour

When I watch French Canadian films on Canadian television, I hear both 'D'accord' and 'Okay 'being used but 'okay' a little more often. In the European French movies I've seen on the cable networks, I have heard only 'Bien' and 'D'accord.' "Okay" is alive and well among Spanish speakers I meet from Mexico and Central America but still doesn't seem to be used in Spain if the films I've seen are any indication.

Back in 1985, I read an article in "U.S. News And World Report" which talked about the globalization of English. It said that in France, English was often called "La langue du Coca Cola." Just out of curiosity, do they still call it that in France? Slang words and expressions are sometimes very fleeting (ephemeral, temporary etc.).

--- Brennus

Actually, we don't say "taxi" in danish. we say taxa

=>3/ <Coca-Cola> est un nom propre qui désigne un produit couramment consommé. Il n'a d'international que son succès commercial.<=

Hmm this fascinated me when I was in France and Germany, they use "Coke" for "Cola", just like the English,they say "Ill have a coke" while Dutch uses "Ill have a cola" ever wondered why? and what does your language use?

En France on dit <Coca> [koka] pour <Coca-Cola>.

Le mot <coke> [kok]/[kOk] s'utilise pour la cocaïne [kokain].

Salut Brennus,

Je ne sais pas pour le Canada, mais je voulais dire qu'en France <OK> [oke] est utilisé pour <d'accord> [dakOR], mais pas *<okay> *[okEj].

What about "ma"? I am sure everyone on this planet would know that that word means the female parent!