Word Relatives

Word Relatives

The same meaning in 35 languages, coloured by origin. Words that share a colour descend from the same ancestor.

Body1 word

People & family1 word

Animals2 words

Plants1 word

Nature & sky2 words

Numbers1 word

Travelling words1 word

Words that spread along with the thing they name: trade goods, crops and animals.

How close are the languages?

Each square shows the share of words that two languages inherited or borrowed from the same ancestor. The stronger the colour, the closer the two languages (see the scale below the map).

EnglishGermanDutchSwedishIcelandicLatinFrenchSpanishItalianPortugueseRomanianRussianPolishLithuanianIrishWelshGreekPersianHindiFinnishEstonianHungarianTurkishArabicHebrewMandarinJapaneseKoreanVietnameseThaiIndonesianFilipinoHawaiianSwahiliBasque
English
German
Dutch
Swedish
Icelandic
Latin
French
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Polish
Lithuanian
Irish
Welsh
Greek
Persian
Hindi
Finnish
Estonian
Hungarian
Turkish
Arabic
Hebrew
Mandarin
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Thai
Indonesian
Filipino
Hawaiian
Swahili
Basque

Point at a square to compare two languages.

Based on only 9 words so far, so the picture is rough. It sharpens as words are added.