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"language" in seven languages

Meaninglanguage

Spanish

lengua

/ˈlengwa/

fem.inherited

Also idioma (m, from Greek) for a national language.

French

langue

/lɑ̃g/

fem.inherited

Italian

lingua

/ˈlingwa/

fem.inherited

Tuscan raised e to i before ng, keeping Latin's i look by accident.

Portuguese

língua

/ˈlĩɡwɐ/

fem.inherited

Idioma is a common synonym.

Romanian

limbă

/ˈlimbə/

fem.inherited

Latin -NGU- became -mb- in Romanian: LINGUAM → limbă.

Catalan

llengua

/ˈʎeŋɡwə/

fem.inherited

English

language

/ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/

from Latin/French · Old French langage

English → ItalianlanguagelinguaCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

LINGUAM‘tongue; language’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Like English 'mother tongue', all three use the same word for the tongue and for a language. The -age forms (lenguaje, langage, linguaggio) mean language as a faculty or style.

English relatives: language, linguistics, bilingual

Sound laws at work

French vowel + nasal becomes a nasal vowel

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In a sentence

  • es¿Cuántas lenguas hablas?
  • frTu parles combien de langues ?
  • itQuante lingue parli?
  • ptQuantas línguas você fala?
  • roCâte limbi vorbești?
  • caQuantes llengües parles?
  • enHow many languages do you speak?

More words from the same Latin

More in School & learning

All School & learning words