"mountain" in seven languages
Meaningmountain
Spanish
montaña
/monˈtaɲa/
fem.inherited
French
montagne
/mɔ̃taɲ/
fem.inherited
Italian
montagna
/monˈtaɲɲa/
fem.inherited
Portuguese
montanha
/mõˈtɐɲɐ/
fem.inherited
Romanian
munte
/ˈmunte/
masc.other source · Latin MONTEM 'mountain' (inherited)
Catalan
muntanya
/munˈtaɲə/
fem.inherited
English
mountain
/ˈmaʊntən/
from Latin/French · Old French montaigne
English → ItalianmountainmontagnaCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
*MONTĀNEAM‘mountainous (land), from MONTEM 'mountain'’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Not Latin MONS itself but a spoken adjective 'mountainous'; its -NEA became the palatal ñ / gn in all three. Plain monte / mont / monte also survive.
English relatives: mountain, mount, Montana, Piedmont
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esPasamos agosto en la montaña.
- frOn passe le mois d'août à la montagne.
- itPassiamo agosto in montagna.
- ptPassamos agosto na montanha.
- roPetrecem august la munte.
- caPassem l'agost a la muntanya.
- enWe spend August in the mountains.