"ninety" in seven languages
Meaningninety
Spanish
noventa
/noˈbenta/
inherited
The v comes from nueve, by analogy.
French
quatre-vingt-dix
/katʁəvɛ̃dis/
other source · French compound 'four twenties and ten'
Belgium and Switzerland say nonante.
Italian
novanta
/noˈvanta/
inherited
Portuguese
noventa
/noˈvẽtɐ/
inherited
Romanian
nouăzeci
/nowəˈzetʃʲ/
other source · Romanian compound nouă zeci 'nine tens'
Catalan
noranta
/nuˈɾantə/
inherited
The second n dissimilated to r: NŌNĀGINTĀ → noranta.
English
ninety
/ˈnaɪnti/
Indo-European kin · PIE *h₁néwn̥ + *déḱm̥ 'ten'
English → ItalianninetynovantaDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: nonagenarian.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
NŌNĀGINTĀ‘ninety’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Ninety-nine in Paris is quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, 'four-twenty-ten-nine'; in Brussels or Geneva it is simply nonante-neuf.
English relatives: nonagenarian