"salt" in seven languages
Meaningsalt
Spanish
sal
/sal/
fem.inherited
French
sel
/sɛl/
masc.inherited
Italian
sale
/ˈsale/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
sal
/saw/
masc.inherited
Romanian
sare
/ˈsare/
fem.inherited
Romanian turned intervocalic -l- into -r-: SALEM → sare, SOLEM → soare.
Catalan
sal
/sal/
fem.inherited
Feminine in Catalan (la sal), as in Spanish.
English
salt
/sɔlt/
Indo-European kin · PIE *sh₂éls
English → ItaliansaltsaleDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: saline, salad, sauce, salary.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
SALEM (nom. SAL)‘salt’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
French turned the stressed a into e, as in mer (MARE) and père (PATREM). Gender trap: la sal in Spanish, but le sel and il sale.
English relatives: saline, salad, sauce, salary
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esPásame la sal, por favor.
- frPasse-moi le sel, s'il te plaît.
- itPassami il sale, per favore.
- ptMe passa o sal, por favor.
- roDă-mi sarea, te rog.
- caPassa'm la sal, si us plau.
- enPass me the salt, please.