Global Cognates for Travel Terms

Travel Words Do Travel

There is a small cluster of five words related to travel and transport that have a lot of cognates. This includes terms for bus, taxi, hotel, visa, and passport. Taxi and bus were particular standouts with more than 150 cognates each.

That being said, all five of these words had lots of languages where they were (most likely) not borrowed in. Words for hotel in particular had a particularly high chance of not being cognate with about 30 languages, showing no indication of having one.

Words related specifically to international travel, such as 'passport' and 'visa,' have widespread cognates in a huge swath of languages.

Language	Family	passport	visa
Spanish	Indo-European	el pasaporte	la visa, el visado
French	Indo-European	le passeport	le visa
Portuguese	Indo-European	o passaporte	o visto
Catalan	Indo-European	passaport	visat
Romanian	Indo-European	pașaport	viză
Italian	Indo-European	il passaporto	il visto
Greek	Indo-European		βίζα (víza)
Albanian	Indo-European	pasaportë	vizë
Bulgarian	Indo-European	паспорт (pasport)	виза (viza)
Serbo-Croatian	Indo-European	пасош / pasoš	виза / viza
Ukrainian	Indo-European	паспорт (pasport)	віза (viza)
Belarusian	Indo-European	пашпарт (pašpart)	віза (viza)
Russian	Indo-European	паспорт (pasport)	виза (viza)
Slovak	Indo-European	pas	vízum
Czech	Indo-European	pas	vízum
Polish	Indo-European	paszport	wiza
Lithuanian	Indo-European	pasas	viza
Latvian	Indo-European	pase	vīza
Armenian	Indo-European	պասպորտ (pasport) (casual)	վիզա (viza)
Welsh	Indo-European	pasbort	fisa
German	Indo-European	der Reisepass	das Visum
Swedish	Indo-European	pass	visum
Norwegian	Indo-European	pass	visum
Danish	Indo-European	pas	visum
Icelandic	Indo-European	passi
Dutch	Indo-European	het paspoort	het visum
Afrikaans	Indo-European	paspoort	visum
Tajik	Indo-European	паспорт (pasport)	виза (viza)
Persian/Farsi	Indo-European	pâsport (informal)	vizâ
Pashto	Indo-European	pāsport'	viza
Hindi	Indo-European	पासपोर्ट (pāsporṭ)	वीज़ा (vīzā),  वीजा (vījā),  वीसा (vīsā)
Bengali	Indo-European	পাসপোর্ট (paśpōrṭo)	ভিসা (bhiśa)
Gujarati	Indo-European	pārpatra	વિઝા (vīza)
Nepali	Indo-European	पासपोर्ट (pasport)	भिसा (bhisā)
Punjabi	Indo-European	ਪਾਸਪੋਰਟ (pāsapōraṭa)	ਵੀਜ਼ਾ (vīzā)
Marathi	Indo-European	पासपोर्ट (pāsporṭa)	व्हिसा (vhisā)
Sinhalese	Indo-European		වීසා (wīsā)
Assamese	Indo-European	পাৰপত্ৰ (paropotro)	ভিছা (bhiṣā)
Georgian	Kartvelian	პასპორტი (ṗasṗorṭi)	ვიზა (viza)
Chechen	Northeast Caucasian	паспорт (pasport)	виза (viza)
Yakut	Turkic	paaspara,  pasport,  baaspar	виза (viza)
Uyghur	Turkic	pasport	wiza
Bashkir	Turkic	паспорт (pasport)
Tatar	Turkic	паспорт (pasport)	виза (viza)
Kazakh	Turkic	паспорт (pasport)	виза (viza)
Uzbekh	Turkic	pasport	viza
Karakalpak	Turkic	pasport	viza
Kyrgyz	Turkic	паспорт (pasport)	виза (viza)
Turkmen	Turkic	pasport	wiza
Azeri	Turkic	pasport	viza
Turkish	Turkic	pasaport	vize
Mongolian	Mongolic	паспорт (pasport)	виз (viz)
Greenlandic/ Kalaallisut	Eskaleut	passi, pas	visummi
Korean	Koreanic	패스포트 (paeseupoteu) (SK, colloquial)	비자 (bija)
Japanese	Japonic	パスポート (pasupōto) (casual)	ビザ (biza)
Hungarian	Uralic		vízum
Estonian	Uralic	pass	viisa
Finnish	Uralic	passi	viisumi
North Sami	Uralic	pássa	visum
Basque	Isolate	pasaporte pasaportea	bisa
isiXhosa	Niger-Congo	pasipoti	i-visa
isiZulu	Niger-Congo	ipasipoti iphasiphoti	i-visa
Ndebele (Southern)	Niger-Congo	ipasipoti	i-visa
Lingala	Niger-Congo	passeport,  pasepor	vizá
SeSotho	Niger-Congo	pasepoto, phasepoto	visa
ChiChewa	Niger-Congo	pasipoti	viza
ChiShona	Niger-Congo	pasipoti	visa
Kirundi	Niger-Congo		visa
Kinyarwanda	Niger-Congo	pasiporo, ipasiporo paseporo	visa
Yoruba	Niger-Congo		fisa
Wolof	Niger-Congo	paaspoor	visa
Swahili	Niger-Congo	pasipoti	viza
Hausa	Afro-Asiatic	fasfo	bizar
Somali	Afro-Asiatic	baasaboor	fiisaha
Oromo	Afro-Asiatic	paaspoortii	viizaa
Hebrew	Afro-Asiatic	passport (informal, non-standard)	viza
Maltese	Afro-Asiatic	passaport	viża
Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	bāspōr	fīzā
Hijazi Arabic	Afro-Asiatic
Egyptian Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	basbōr	vīza, viyaz (pl)
Moroccan Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	paspōr	fīzā
Amharic	Afro-Asiatic	ፓስፖርት (pasport)	ቪዛ (viza)
Tigrinya	Afro-Asiatic	ፓስፖርት (pasport)	ቪዛ viza
Tamil	Dravidian		விசா (vicā)
Telugu	Dravidian	పాస్పోర్ట్ (pāspōrṭ)	వీసా (vīsā)
Kannada	Dravidian	ಪಾಸ್ಪೊರ್ಟು (pāsporṭu)	ವೀಸಾ (vīsā)
Malayalam	Dravidian	പാസ്പോർട്ട് (pāspōṟṭṭŭ)	വിസ (visa)
Ilocano	Austronesian	pasaporte
Bikol	Austronesian	pasaporte	visa
Fijian	Austronesian	pasipote
Samoan	Austronesian
Hawaiian	Austronesian
Malagasay	Austronesian	pasipaoro
Tagalog	Austronesian	pasaporte	bisa
Cebuano/ Bisaya	Austronesian	pasaporte	bisa, bísa
Waray-Waray	Austronesian	pasapórte, pásport
Sundanese	Austronesian	paspor	visa
Basa Bali	Austronesian	paspor
Javanese	Austronesian	paspor	visa
Bahasa Indonesia	Austronesian	paspor	visa
Bahasa Melayu	Austronesian	pasport	visa
Tetum	Austronesian	pasaporte, pasaporti	vistu
White Hmong	Hmong-Mien
Khmer	Austroasiatic	ប៉ាសស្ព័រ (paahspɔə) (colloquial)
Vietnamese	Austroasiatic
Mandarin	Sino-Tibetan
Cantonese	Sino-Tibetan
Hokkien	Sino-Tibetan
Hakka	Sino-Tibetan
Wu	Sino-Tibetan
DzongKha	Sino-Tibetan
Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	pa-se-pot	vi-za
Burmese	Sino-Tibetan	ပတ်စပို့ (patsăpo) (colloquial)	ဗီဇာ (bija)
Thai	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai	พาสปอร์ต (páat-sà-bpɔ̀ɔt) (colloquial)	วีซา (wii-sâa)
Lao	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai		ວີຊ້າ (wī sā)
Shan	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai	paa4 tsa1 pot5	wi2 tsaa2
Zhuang	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai
Guaraní	Tupi-Guarani
Quechua	Quechuan	pasapurti	bisa
Tok Pisin	Creole	paspot
Bislama	Creole	paspot
Sranan Tongo	Creole	paspoort
Papiamentu	Creole	pasport	visa
Haitian Creole	Creole	paspò	viza

Terms for ‘passport’ were interesting in that there was often an official term for the travel document and a casual term that was cognate with ‘passport. This is something of a grey area and could definitely use more looking into a cognate with ‘passport’ was only counted if I was reasonably sure of its use.

Hotel and Vehicles

Names for some forms of transportation (bus, taxi) have also been borrowed extensively as well as the the term ‘hotel.’ Terms for bus tend to come from one of two different forms - 1) the French term autobus 2) the shortening bus. Borrowing from autobus are particularly noticeable in languages that have had extended contact and borrowing from Russian, such as Azeri, Kazakh, Chechen, and Yakut.

For whatever reason, cognates with the word taxi have been borrowed around the world and have some of the most recognizable cognates.

Language	Family	bus	hotel	taxi
Spanish	Indo-European	el autobús	el hotel	el taxi
French	Indo-European	le autobus,  le bus	l'hôtel	le taxi
Portuguese	Indo-European	o ônibus	o hotel	o táxi
Catalan	Indo-European	autobús	hotel	taxi
Romanian	Indo-European	autobuz	hotel	taxi, taximetru
Italian	Indo-European	l'autobus	l' hotel	il taxi
Greek	Indo-European			ταξί (taxí)
Albanian	Indo-European	autobus	hotel	taksi
Bulgarian	Indo-European	автобус (avtobus)	хотел (hotel)	такси (taksi)
Serbo-Croatian	Indo-European	аутобус / autobus	хотел / hotel	такси / taksi
Ukrainian	Indo-European	автобус (avtobus) бус (bus)	готель (hotel')	таксі (taksi)
Belarusian	Indo-European	аўтобус (aŭtobus),  бус (bus)	гатэль (hatelʹ)	таксі (taksi),  таксоўка (taksoŭka)
Russian	Indo-European	автобус (avtobus)	отель (otel')	такси (taksi)
Slovak	Indo-European	autobus	hotel	taxi
Czech	Indo-European	autobus	hotel	taxi,  taxík
Polish	Indo-European	autobus	hotel	taxi
Lithuanian	Indo-European	autobusas		taksi
Latvian	Indo-European	autobuss	hotelis	taksis
Armenian	Indo-European	ավտոբուս (avtobus)		տաքսի (takʿsi)
Welsh	Indo-European	bws		tacsi
German	Indo-European	der Bus	das Hotel	das Taxi
Swedish	Indo-European	buss	hotell	taxi
Norwegian	Indo-European	buss	hotell	taxi
Danish	Indo-European	bus	hotel	taxa, taxi
Icelandic	Indo-European		hótel	taxi
Dutch	Indo-European	de bus	het hotel	de taxi
Afrikaans	Indo-European	bus	hotel	taxi
Tajik	Indo-European	автобус (avtobus)	hotel, otel	такси (taksi)
Persian/Farsi	Indo-European	otobus, bas (Dari)	hotel	tâksi
Pashto	Indo-European	bas,  bus	hot'al	t'aksi, tiksi
Hindi	Indo-European	बस (bas)	होटल (hoṭal)	टैक्सी (ṭaiksī) टेक्सी (ṭeksī)
Bengali	Indo-European	বাস (baś)	হোটেল (hōṭel)	ট্যাক্সি (ṭêkśi)
Gujarati	Indo-European	bas	hot'el	teksī
Nepali	Indo-European	बस (bas)	होटल (hoṭal)	ṭyāksī
Punjabi	Indo-European	ਬੱਸ (bassa)	ਹੋਟਲ (hoṭal)	ਟੈਕਸੀ (ṭaiksī)
Marathi	Indo-European	बस (bas)	हॉटेल (hŏṭel)	टॅक्सी (ṭĕksī)
Sinhalese	Indo-European	බස් (bas)	හෝටලය (hōṭalaya),	ටැක්සිය (ṭæksiya)
Assamese	Indo-European	বাচ (bas)	হোটেল (hütel)	টেক্সী (teksi)
Georgian	Kartvelian	ავტობუსი (avṭobusi)		ტაქსი (ṭaksi)
Chechen	Northeast Caucasian	автобус (avtobus)		такси (taksi)
Yakut	Turkic	автобус (avtobus)	отель (otel')	такси (taksi)
Uyghur	Turkic	aptobus		taksi
Bashkir	Turkic	автобус (avtobus)		такси (taksi)
Tatar	Turkic	автобус (avtobus)	отель (otel')	такси (taksi)
Kazakh	Turkic	автобус (avtobus)	отель (otel')	такси (taksi)
Uzbekh	Turkic	avtobus	otel	taksi
Karakalpak	Turkic	avtobus		taksi
Kyrgyz	Turkic	автобус (avtobus)	отель (otel')	такси (taksi)
Turkmen	Turkic	awtobus	otel	taksi
Azeri	Turkic	avtobus	otel	taksi
Turkish	Turkic	otobüs	otel	taksi
Mongolian	Mongolic	автобус (avtobus) бас (bas) (China)		такси (taksi)
Greenlandic/ Kalaallisut	Eskaleut	bussi	hoteli	taxa
Korean	Koreanic	버스 (beoseu) (SK)  뻐스 (ppeoseu) (NK)	호텔 (hotel)	택시 (taeksi) 딱씨 (ttakssi) (Koryo-mar)
Japanese	Japonic	バス (basu)	ホテル (hoteru)	タクシー (takushī)
Hungarian	Uralic	autóbusz,  busz	hotel	taxi
Estonian	Uralic	buss,  autobuss	hotell	takso
Finnish	Uralic	bussi	hotelli	taksi
North Sami	Uralic	busse,  linnjábilla	hotealla	tákse
Basque	Isolate	autobus	hotel	taxi
isiXhosa	Niger-Congo	ibhasi	ihotele	iteksi, i-taxi
isiZulu	Niger-Congo	ibhasi	ihhotela ihotela	itekisi
Ndebele (Southern)	Niger-Congo	ibhesi	ihotela	iteksi
KiKongo	Niger-Congo	bisi
Lingala	Niger-Congo	bísi	lotέlε, otέlε, otele	takisí,  takεsí
SeSotho	Niger-Congo	bese	hotele	tekisi teksi
ChiChewa	Niger-Congo	basi,  bási	hotela	takisii
ChiShona	Niger-Congo	bhazi	hotera	tekisi
Kirundi	Niger-Congo	ibisi	i-hotēri	tagisi
Kinyarwanda	Niger-Congo	(i)bisi	ihoteli, ihoteri	tagisi
Yoruba	Niger-Congo	bùsì	hotẹlì	takísí
Wolof	Niger-Congo	trakokin,  bus	hotel	taksi
Swahili	Niger-Congo	basi	hoteli	teksi
Hausa	Afro-Asiatic	bas, bâs	hotel	tā̀sî
Somali	Afro-Asiatic	bas	hoteel, huteel	tagsi
Oromo	Afro-Asiatic	motobisii	hoteela	taaksii
Hebrew	Afro-Asiatic	otobus
Maltese	Afro-Asiatic		ħotell	taksi
Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	bāṣ,  ʔotobīs,  ʔotobūs	ʔōtēl	taksī
Hijazi Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	bāṣ		taksi
Egyptian Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	otobīs, bass	ʔotel	taksi
Moroccan Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	ṭubīs ṭbuis, büs	ʔuṭil	taksī, tāksī
Amharic	Afro-Asiatic	አውቶቡስ (ʾäwtobus)	ሆቴል (hotel)	ታክሲ (taksi)
Tigrinya	Afro-Asiatic	ኣውቶቡስ (ʾäwtobus)	ሆቴል (hotel)	ታክሲ (taksi)
Tamil	Dravidian	பஸ் (pas)	ஓட்டல் (ōṭṭal)	டாக்ஸி (ṭāksi)
Telugu	Dravidian	బస్సు (bassu)	హోటల్ (hōṭal)	టాక్సీ (ṭāksī)
Kannada	Dravidian	ಬಸ್ಸು (bassu)	ಹೋಟೆಲು (hōṭelu)	ಟ್ಯಾಕ್ಸಿ (ṭyāksi)
Malayalam	Dravidian	ബസ് (basŭ)	ഹോട്ടൽ (hōṭṭal),  ഹൊട്ടേൽ (hoṭṭēl)	ടാക്സി (ṭāksi)
Ilocano	Austronesian	bus	hotel	taksi
Bikol	Austronesian	bus	hotel	taksi
Fijian	Austronesian	basi	otela	tekisi, tekesi
Samoan	Austronesian	pasi		tamaitaavale la’u pasese
Hawaiian	Austronesian		hōkele
Malagasay	Austronesian	aotobìsy	hotely, (gargotte, roadside stall) hotely gasy (small restaurant)	taksy
Tagalog	Austronesian	bus	hotel	taxi
Cebuano/ Bisaya	Austronesian	bas	hotel, otel hutil, util	taksi
Waray-Waray	Austronesian	awtobús, álto han bus (bus stop)	hótel, otél	táksi, taksimétro
Sundanese	Austronesian	beus	hotel	taksi
Basa Bali	Austronesian	bis		taksi
Javanese	Austronesian	bis	hotèl	taksi
Bahasa Indonesia	Austronesian	bus,  bis	hotel	taksi
Bahasa Melayu	Austronesian	bas	hotel	teksi
Tetum	Austronesian	bis, bus	otél	taksi
Hiri Motu	Austronesian	bas		taksi
White Hmong	Hmong-Mien	npav luv npav		tsheb tav xijj*
Khmer	Austroasiatic	អូតូប៊ុស (ʼoutoubuh)	ហោតិល (haotəl)	តាក់ស៊ី (taksii)
Vietnamese	Austroasiatic	xe buýt,  ô tô buýt,  buýt	ô ten (colloquial)	xe tắc xi,  tắc xi
Mandarin	Sino-Tibetan	巴士 (bāshì)		的士 (díshì) 德士 (déshì) (Singapore, Malaysia)
Cantonese	Sino-Tibetan	巴士 (baa1 si6-2)		的士 (dik1 si6-2) 德士 (dak1 si6-2)
Hokkien	Sino-Tibetan	bá-suh / bá-sirh	ho͘-té-luh (Taiwan)	tha-khú-sih
Hakka	Sino-Tibetan	pa-sṳ́		他庫西／他库西 (thà-khu-sí)
Wu	Sino-Tibetan	1pa6zy 1kon-gon-chi-tsho
DzongKha	Sino-Tibetan	བཱསི (basi)
Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	འབའ་སེ ('ba' se)		t'eg-si tek-si
Burmese	Sino-Tibetan	ဘတ်စ်ကား (batsăka:) (bus-vehicle)	ဟိုတယ် (hotè)	တက္ကစီ (tetsi/tetkăsi)
Thai	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai	รถบัส (rót-bát), บัส (bát)	โฮเต็ล (hoo-dtel)	แท็กซี่ (tɛ́k-sîi) รถแท็กซี่ (rót tɛ́k-sîi)
Lao	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai			ຕັກຊີ (tak-si)
Shan	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai		hɔ2 tɛ2
Lü/Tai Lue	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai
Zhuang	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai
Aymara	Aymaran			taksi
Guaraní	Tupi-Guarani	ómnibus		taxi
Quechua	Quechuan	awtupus, unnibus, omnibus		taksi
Tok Pisin	Creole	bas	hotel	taksi
Bislama	Creole	bas	hotel	taksi
Sranan Tongo	Creole	bus, bùs	hotel	taksi
Saramaccan	Creole	bési,	öteli	takisi
Papiamentu	Creole	bùs	hotèl	taksi,
Haitian Creole	Creole	bis,  otobis tap tap	otel,  lòtel	taksi

Many of concepts like passports, buses, and taxis have multiple terms and names that are used in different contexts and different registers. This will be discussed further.

Totals

	bus	hotel	taxi	pasport	visa
Terms Found	181	148	160	149	113
Non-Cognate Terms Found	17	25	11	20	8
Total Cognate Terms	164	123	149	129	105
Proportion	0.906	0.831	0.931	0.866	0.929

Travel Terms in LG2

Language	Family	bus	taxi	passport	hotel	visa
Berber	Afro-Asiatic	t’t’uƀis (city bus)			lutil
TashlHeet	Afro-Asiatic		t'-t'aksi		lut'il
Afar, Qafar	Afro-Asiatic
Iraqw	Afro-Asiatic	basi
Cree	Algic
Ojibwe	Algic
Garifuna	Arawakan
Mon	Austroasiatic	pàt pàtsəka			hɔte
Muong	Austroasiatic				khéch xãn
Wa	Austroasiatic
Hiligaynon/ Ilongo	Austronesian	bus		pasaporte, pahanugo	otél
Takia	Austronesian	bas
Maori	Austronesian	pahi	takahī, tekehī		hōtēra
Madurese, Madoerees	Austronesian	bīs	taksi		hotel
Chamorro	Austronesian	bås		pasapotti
Palauan	Austronesian	bas			hoter
Marshallese	Austronesian	baj	tāākji	peejpoot	wōtel, oteel
Tongan	Austronesian	pasi	tekisī	paasipooti	hōtele
Kali'na	Cariban	potosu oto
Lezgi	Northeast Caucasian	автобус (avtobus)	такси (taksi)	паспорт (pasport)
Ingush	Northeast Caucasian	автобус (avtobus)		паспорт (pasport)
Abkhaz	Northwest Caucasian	автобус (avt'obus)
Adyghe	Northwest Caucasian	автобус (avtobus)		паспорт (pasport)
Kriol (Belize)	Creole	bos	taksiman	paspoat		veesa
Pijin (Solomon)	Creole	bas, basfea (bus fair)	taksi	paspot	hotel
Kriol (Aus)	Creole	bas
Seychelles Creole, Seselwa	Creole	bis	taksi		lotel
Krio	Creole	bohs	taksi
Sango	Creole	ndolotingo tí ábísi (bus station)	takisii
Arabi Juba	Creole	bas	taksi	basbort
Kituba (Munukutuba)	Creole	bis	takisí	yes	otel
Ossetian	Indo-European	автобус (avtobus)	такси (taksi)	паспорт (pasport)
Zazaki	Indo-European			pasaporte
Dhivēhī	Indo-European		teksi		hotaa hoṭā
Tikuna/ Ticuna	Isolate	omnibu
Mingrelian	Kartvelian		ტაქსი (ṭaksi)	პასპორტი (ṗasṗorṭi)
KhoeKhoe	Khoe-Kwadi	bēb
Yucatec Maya	Maya
Navajo	Na-Dené
Kikuyu	Niger-Congo	ibathi
SeTswana	Niger-Congo	bese (most common) base	thekisi	paseporoto	hotele	visa
Sepedi	Niger-Congo	pese	thekesi	phasephote	hotele	visa
SiSwati	Niger-Congo			ipasipoti		ivisa
Mandinka	Niger-Congo		takisoo	paasipooroo	hoteeloo	wiisaa
Fula	Niger-Congo		taksi
ChiBemba, IchiBemba ChiWemba	Niger-Congo	bus
Chizigula	Niger-Congo	basi	teksi	pasporti	hoteli
Luganda	Niger-Congo				wooteeli, oteeri
Shikomori	Niger-Congo		taksi	pasipori	loteli
Mooré, Mossi, More	Niger-Congo	biisi	tagsi	paaspoore
Dinka	Nilo-Saharan	bath
Madi, Ma'di	Nilo-Saharan		têkēsì
Kanuri	Nilo-Saharan	bâs	tàksî (Manga)	fàsfôr (Manga)	òtêl (hotel)
Otomi	Oto-Manguean
Western Desert Lanugage	Pama-Nyungan	paatja, yanamarra (Pintupi-Luritja) paatja (Pitjantjatjara) paatja (Ngaanyatjarra)	taxi*		autel
Red Karen, Kayah Li	Sino-Tibetan	/lo̤˦ba˦/		/paspo/	/hɔ˨tɛ˨/
Chuvash TUR	Turkic	автобус (avtobus)		паспорт (pasport)
Kumyk	Turkic	автобус (avtobus)	такси (taksi)	паспорт (pasport)
Kilden Sami	Uralic	avtobúss
Erzya	Uralic	автобус (avtobus)
Komi	Uralic	автобус (avtobus)
Nahuatl	Uto-Aztecan		taxi
Yaqui	Uto-Aztecan