Comparative Language Glossaries

Side-by-side word lists across 17 language families — from Indo-European to Uralic, Dravidian to Altaic. Each glossary translates common vocabulary across related languages, revealing patterns of shared ancestry and borrowing.

Comparative glossaries are one of the most powerful tools in historical linguistics. By placing the same word — "water", "mother", "sun" — side by side in a dozen related languages, patterns emerge that reveal how languages evolved from common ancestors. The Latin aqua became French eau, Spanish agua and Romanian apă. The Proto-Germanic *watar split into English water, German Wasser and Dutch water.

Our glossaries cover the major language families of the world: the Indo-European branch (Romance, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Indic, Iranian), Uralic languages (Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian), Turkic languages (Turkish, Kazakh, Uzbek), Dravidian (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada), East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and several more. Each list contains between 100 and 500 vocabulary items.

For detailed word meanings, etymologies and cross-family definitions, see our dedicated Glossary Definitions & Etymology page with over 8,000 entries.

Afroasiatic & African

Semitic & African Glossary

Comparative word list for Semitic and African languages including Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Swahili, and more.

Altaic

Altaic Glossary

Comparative word list covering Turkic and Mongolic languages together.

Americas & Constructed

American, Polynesian & Constructed Glossary

Combined word list for American, Polynesian, and constructed languages.

Americas & Pacific

American & Polynesian Glossary

Comparative word list for American and Polynesian languages including Inuktitut, Cherokee, Nahuatl, Quechua, Hawaiian, and more.

Caucasian & Isolates

Basque & Caucasian Glossary

Comparative word list for Basque and Caucasian languages including Georgian, Armenian, and more.

Constructed

Constructed Languages Glossary

Comparative word list for constructed languages including Esperanto, Volapük, Novial, and more.

Dravidian

Dravidian Glossary

Comparative word list for Dravidian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and more.

East & Southeast Asian

Asian Glossary

Comparative word list for Asian languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and more.

Indo-European

Albanian, Greek & Armenian Glossary

Comparative word list for Albanian, Greek, and Armenian - three distinct Indo-European language branches.

Balto-Slavic Glossary

Comparative word list for Balto-Slavic languages including Russian, Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, and more.

Celtic Glossary

Comparative word list for Celtic languages including Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Breton, and more.

Germanic Glossary

Comparative word list for Germanic languages including English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Icelandic, Gothic, and more.

Indic Glossary

Comparative word list for Indic languages including Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, and more.

Iranian Glossary

Comparative word list for Iranian languages including Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, Tajik, and more.

Romance Glossary

Comparative word list for Romance languages including Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, and more.

Mongolic

Mongolic Glossary

Comparative word list for Mongolic languages including Mongolian, Buryat, and more.

Turkic

Turkic Glossary

Comparative word list for Turkic languages including Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Uzbek, and more.

Uralic

Finno-Ugric Glossary

Comparative word list for Finno-Ugric languages, a major branch of the Uralic language family.

Uralic Glossary

Comparative word list for Uralic languages including Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, and more.