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Water is a common word across Germanic languages. It also appears to be a very old word as I saw a documentary about the Hittites and the interviewee stated th

Water is a common word across Germanic languages. It also appears to be a very old word as I saw a documentary about the Hittites and the interviewee stated that they may have migrated from Europe.

kepler471 3y ago
Even within Europe there are many different words used for water, very cool! This is not a comprehensive list: Germanic - wasser/water/voda/woda French - eau Italian/Spanish - aqua/agua Greek - nero (νερό) Danish - vand Romanian - apă Latvian - udens Turkish - su Welsh - dwr
- TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
  The Irish uisce is the source for the English word whiskey.
- vidarh 3y ago
  The Danish belongs in the "Germanic" list; as does the Norwegian "vann" and "vatn" (the latter also Faroese, Icelandic, Norn), and Swedish "vatten". The Romanian and French both comes from the latin aqua, just like the Italian/Spanish.
  - kepler471 3y ago
    Thanks for this! Looking into it a bit more, the French is also from the latin source (aqua) - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eau https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eau
  - cafard 3y ago
    The Welsh suggests the Ancient Greek "hudor".
    - richardfontana 3y ago
      That resemblance is coincidental: hudor derives from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (as does English water, wet, winter) while dwr derives from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewb- "deep" (as does English dip, deep) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/d%CA%B0ub%CA%B0r%C3%B3s https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Eur... https://www.etymonline.com/word/*wed- https://www.etymonline.com/word/*wed-
- uoaei 3y ago
  It is strange to see Slavic lumped in with Germanic. Is this common practice?
  - kepler471 3y ago
    I only meant this as "similar to the Germanic", I don't know enough to give this category a proper name
  - jagrsw 3y ago
    Both come from PIE "wódr" for water. Romance languages descended ftom a synonym "ekeh" which resulted in aqua/agua/eau/... and the word itself meant "a body of water" like a lake or a river iirc.
- mcswell 3y ago
  Adding Basque to your list, the word is ur. (I don't know Basque, just looked it up.)

Water is a common word across Germanic languages. It also appears to be a very old word as I saw a documentary about the Hittites and the interviewee stated that they may have migrated from Europe.

kepler471 3y ago

Even within Europe there are many different words used for water, very cool! This is not a comprehensive list: Germanic - wasser/water/voda/woda French - eau Italian/Spanish - aqua/agua Greek - nero (νερό) Danish - vand Romanian - apă Latvian - udens Turkish - su Welsh - dwr

TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
The Irish uisce is the source for the English word whiskey.
vidarh 3y ago
The Danish belongs in the "Germanic" list; as does the Norwegian "vann" and "vatn" (the latter also Faroese, Icelandic, Norn), and Swedish "vatten". The Romanian and French both comes from the latin aqua, just like the Italian/Spanish.
- kepler471 3y ago
  Thanks for this! Looking into it a bit more, the French is also from the latin source (aqua) - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eau https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eau
- cafard 3y ago
  The Welsh suggests the Ancient Greek "hudor".
  - richardfontana 3y ago
    That resemblance is coincidental: hudor derives from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (as does English water, wet, winter) while dwr derives from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewb- "deep" (as does English dip, deep) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/d%CA%B0ub%CA%B0r%C3%B3s https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Eur... https://www.etymonline.com/word/*wed- https://www.etymonline.com/word/*wed-
uoaei 3y ago
It is strange to see Slavic lumped in with Germanic. Is this common practice?
- kepler471 3y ago
  I only meant this as "similar to the Germanic", I don't know enough to give this category a proper name
- jagrsw 3y ago
  Both come from PIE "wódr" for water. Romance languages descended ftom a synonym "ekeh" which resulted in aqua/agua/eau/... and the word itself meant "a body of water" like a lake or a river iirc.
mcswell 3y ago
Adding Basque to your list, the word is ur. (I don't know Basque, just looked it up.)