Visiting Portugal, Spain, France and then Italy, I am struck by how certain very common pairs of words, are the same for one of the pairs, but differ for the other one of the pairs, in different Romance languages.
??For example, the word for “left” seems to vary from Spanish/Portuguese, Italian, and French, whereas the word for “right” is the same word in every one of the four languages. Similarly, the word for “early” differs in each of the four languages, while the word for “late” is essentially the same word in all four languages. Left: Izquierda,Esquerda, Sinistra, GaucheRight.Derecha,Direita,?? Destra,Droite Early: Temprano, Cedo, Presto, T??t
Late: Tarde, Tarde, Tardo, Tard Any ideas out there as to why?
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Hi Steve, as I’m aware that you’re a good portuguese speaker, I’ll write it in portuguese…J?? havia pensado antes sobre essas semelhan??as entre as l??nguas latinas. Eu sei que muitas palavras do espanhol e do portugu??s t??m origem ??rabe, j?? que a maior parte desses dois pa??ses foi dominada pelos ar??bes por quase mil anos. A palavra "esquerda" ?? derivada de "ezker" (basco). Foi por esse caminho que acabou tornando-se "izquierdo" em castelhano.