Comparison of French and Romanian vocabulary

Thursday, December 31, 2009

The French Wikipedia has an interesting chart here comparing vocabulary between French and Romanian, some of which is nearly identical but also with a number of interesting half-cognates, similar to German sterben (die), half-cognate with English starve. In other words, examples of semantic change.

The word apă is particularly interesting, as though it is technically cognate with Latin aqua it more resembles the Lithuanian upė (river) and Persian âb (آب, water) even in its modern form.


French (English)
Romanian Pronunciation French word with same origin
pays (country)
ţară ['tsa.rə] terre (earth)
terre (earth)
pământ [pə'mɨnt] pavé (pavement, latin pavimentum)
ciel (sky)
cer [ʧer] ciel
eau (water)
apă ['a.pə] eau (latin aqua)
feu (fire)
foc [fok] feu
homme (human being) om [om] homme
homme (person)
bărbat [bər'bat] barbu (bearded man)
femme (woman)
femeie [fe'me.je] (ie : diphtongue) féminin, femelle
mou (soft)
moale ['mǒa.le] (oa : diphtongue) mou (latin mollis, -e)
manger (eat)
a mânca [a.mɨn'ka] manger
boire (drink)
a bea [a'běa] (ea : diphtongue) boire
mer (sea)
mare ['ma.re] mer
petit (small)
mic [mik] mie (crumb)
nuit (night)
noapte ['nǒap.te] (oa : diphtongue) nuit
jour (day)
zi [zi] -di (lundi, mardi, etc. - latin dies)
front (front)
frunte ['frun.te] front
tempe (temple - anatomy)
 tâmplă['tɨm.plə] tempe

temple (temple)
templu ['tem.plu] temple
menuisier (joiner)
tâmplar [tɨm'plar] templier (templar)

3 comments:

cafaristeir said...

Sellamat Dave !

Romanian "apà" derives regularly from Latin "aqua", cf. "lingua" = "limbà"; on the contrary, the Baltic and Iranian words don't come from IE *akwa but rather from *apni = "swift stream", cf. "Penj-ab" = Five rivers".

Olivier

Paul D. said...

Hey, Romanian "foc" is like the French word for, otter. (I know, I know, they're not cognates.)

Paul D. said...

Hey, Romanian "foc" is like the French word for, otter. (I know, I know, they're not cognates.)

  © Blogger templates Newspaper by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP