Cognate Terms for Animals, Present and Past

 Very few animal names have widespread cognates. This is in part due to the limited dictionary problem. Since most animals live in specific areas, many languages don’t really have words for them. On top of that a lot of languages have terms for animals whose names come from native roots and/or borrowing from mythology and folklore.

The only terms to have more than 75 cognates were dinosaur, gorilla, and kangaroo.

Language	Family	dinosaur	gorilla	kangaroo
Spanish	Indo-European	el dinosaurio	el gorila	el canguro
French	Indo-European	le dinosaure	le gorille	le kangourou
Portuguese	Indo-European	o dinossauro	o gorila	o canguru
Catalan	Indo-European	dinosaure	goril-la	cangur
Romanian	Indo-European	dinozaur	gorilă	cangur
Italian	Indo-European	il dinosauro	il gorilla	il canguro
Greek	Indo-European	δεινόσαυρος (deinósavros)	γορίλας (gorílas)	καγκουρό (kagkouró)
Albanian	Indo-European	dinozaur	gorilla	kangur
Bulgarian	Indo-European	динозавър (dinozavǎr)	горила (gorila)	кенгуру (kenguru)
Serbo-Croatian	Indo-European	диносаурус - dinosaurus	горила - gorila	кенгур - kengur
Ukrainian	Indo-European	динозавр (dinozavr)	горила (horyla)	кенгуру (kenhuru)
Belarusian	Indo-European	дыназаўр (dynazaŭr)	гарыла (haryla)	кенгуру (kjenhuru)
Russian	Indo-European	динозавр (dinozavr)	горилла (goríilla)	кенгуру (kenguru)
Slovak	Indo-European	dinosaurus	gorila
Czech	Indo-European	dinosaurus	gorila
Polish	Indo-European	dinozaur	goryl	kangur
Lithuanian	Indo-European	dinozauras	gorilos	kengūra
Latvian	Indo-European	dinozaurs	gorillas	kengurs
Armenian	Indo-European	դինոզավր (dinozavr)	գորիլլա (gorilla)	կենգուրու (kenguru)
Welsh	Indo-European	deinosor	gorila	cangarŵ
German	Indo-European	der Dinosaurier	der Gorilla	das Känguru
Swedish	Indo-European	dinosaurier	gorilla	känguru
Norwegian	Indo-European	dinosaur	gorilla	kenguru
Danish	Indo-European	dinosaurus	gorilla	kænguru
Icelandic	Indo-European		górilla	kengúra
Dutch	Indo-European	de dinosaurus	de gorilla	kangoeroe
Afrikaans	Indo-European	dinosaurus	gorilla	kangaroe
Tajik	Indo-European	динозавр (dinozavr)	горилла (gorilla)	кенгуру (kenguru)
Persian/Farsi	Indo-European	dâynâsor	goril	kânguru
Pashto	Indo-European	dinasor
Hindi	Indo-European	डायनासोर (ḍāynāsor)	गोरिल्ला (gorillā)	कंगारू (kaṅgārū)
Bengali	Indo-European	ডাইনোসর (ḍainōśor)	গরিলা (gorila)	ক্যাংগারু (kêṅgaru) কাঙারু (kanɡaɾu)
Gujarati	Indo-European	ડાયનાસોર (ḍāyanāsōra)
Nepali	Indo-European	डायनोसर (ḍāyanosar)		कंगारु (kaṅgāru)
Punjabi	Indo-European	ਡਾਇਨਾਸੌਰ (ḍā'ināsaura)		ਕੰਗਾਰੂ (kangɡaɾu)
Marathi	Indo-European	डायनोसॉर (ḍāyanōsŏra)	गोरिला (gorilā)	कांगारु (kāṅgāru)
Sinhalese	Indo-European	ඩයිනෝසෝරයා (ḍayinōsōrayā)
Assamese	Indo-European	ডাইনোছৰ (dinosor)		কেংগেৰু (keṅgeru)
Georgian	Kartvelian	დინოზავრი (dinozavri)	გორილა (gorila)	კენგურუ (ḳenguru)
Chechen	Northeast Caucasian		горилла (gorilla)
Yakut	Turkic	динозавр (dinozavr)
Uyghur	Turkic	dinozavr	gorilla	kën'guru
Bashkir	Turkic	динозавр (dinozavr)	горилла (gorilla)	көнгерә (köngerä)
Tatar	Turkic	динозавр (dinozavr)	горилла (gorilla)	көнгерә (köngerä)
Kazakh	Turkic	динозавр (dinozavr)	горилла (gorilla)	кенгуру (kenguru)
Uzbekh	Turkic	dinozavr	gorilla	kenguru
Karakalpak	Turkic	dinozavr	gorilla
Kyrgyz	Turkic	динозавр (dinosavr)	горилла (gorilla)	кенгуру (kenguru),
Turkmen	Turkic	dinozawr		kenguru
Azeri	Turkic	dinozavr	qorilla	kenquru
Turkish	Turkic	dinozor	goril	kanguru
Mongolian	Mongolic	динозавр (dinozavr)	горилла (goríilla)	кенгуру (kenguru)
Greenlandic/ Kalaallisut	Eskaleut	dinosauri	gorilla
Korean	Koreanic		고릴라 (gorilla)	캥거루 (kaenggeoru),  캉가루 (kanggaru) (NK)
Japanese	Japonic		ゴリラ (gorira)	カンガルー (kangarū)
Hungarian	Uralic	dinszaurusz	gorilla	kenguru
Estonian	Uralic	dinosaurus	gorilla	känguru
Finnish	Uralic	dinosaurus	gorilla	kenguru
North Sami	Uralic	dinosaurus
Basque	Isolate	dinosauro	gorila	kanguru
isiXhosa	Niger-Congo	idayinaso	igorila
isiZulu	Niger-Congo	i-dinosaur, idayinaso	i-gorila	ikhangaru
Ndebele	Niger-Congo		igorila
Lingala	Niger-Congo
SeSotho	Niger-Congo		gorila
Kirundi	Niger-Congo
Kiryarwanda	Niger-Congo
Yoruba	Niger-Congo		gorilla
Wolof	Niger-Congo	dinosoor
Swahili	Niger-Congo	dinosauri		kangaruu
Hausa	AF-AS, CHADIC	dinosaurs	gorilla
Somali	Afro-Asiatic	diinosoor	goriila
Oromo	Afro-Asiatic	daayinoosarii(n)
Hebrew	Afro-Asiatic	dinozaur	gorila	kenguru
Maltese	Afro-Asiatic	dinosawru	gorilla	kangarù
Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	dīnāṣawr	ḡūrīlā	kanḡar
Amharic	Afro-Asiatic	ዳይኖሰር (daynosäri)	ጎሪላ (gorila)	ካንጋሮ (kangaro)
Tigrinya	Afro-Asiatic	ዳይኖሰር (daynosär)	ጎሪላ (gorila)
Tamil	Dravidian	டைனோசர் (taiṉōcar) (casual)	கொரில்லா (korillā)	கங்காரு (kaṅkāru)
Telugu	Dravidian	డైనోసార్ (ḍainōsār)	గొరిల్లా (gorillā)	కంగారు (kaṅgāru)
Kannada	Dravidian	ಡೈನೋಸಾರ್ (ḍainōsār)
Malayalam	Dravidian	ദിനോസർ (dinōser)	ഗൊറില്ല (gorilla)	കംഗാരു (kamgāru)
Ilocano	Austronesian	dinosauro		kanggaru
Bikol	Austronesian	dinosauryo
Samoan	Austronesian	dinosaurs, tainasoa
Hawaiian	Austronesian		kolila
Malagasay	Austronesian	dinôzôro		kangoroa
Tagalog	Austronesian	dinosawriyo	gorilya	kangguru
Cebuano/ Bisaya	Austronesian	dinosawryo	gorilya
Sundanese	Austronesian	dinosaurus	gorila	kangguru
Basa Bali	Austronesian	dinosaurus
Javanese	Austronesian	dinosaurus	gorila	kanguru
Bahasa Indonesia	Austronesian	dinosaurus	gorila	kanguru
Bahasa Melayu	Austronesian	dinosaurus	gorila	kanggaru
Tetum	Austronesian	dinosauru	gorila	kangurú
Hiri Motu	Austronesian
Khmer	Austroasiatic	ឌីណូស័រ (diinousɔə)	ហ្គោរីឡា (korila)	កង់ហ្គូរូ (kɑngguuruu)
Vietnamese	Austroasiatic			căng-gu-ru
Mandarin	Sino-Tibetan
Cantonese	Sino-Tibetan
Hokkien	Sino-Tibetan
Hakka	Sino-Tibetan
Wu	Sino-Tibetan
Burmese	Sino-Tibetan	ဒိုင်နိုဆော (daingnohsaw)	ဂေါ်ရီလာ (gaw ri laa)
Thai	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai	ไดโนเสาร์ (dai-noo-sǎo)	กอริลลา (gɔɔ-rin-lâa)
Lao	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai	dai nō sao	ກຣິລາ (ka ri lā)
Lü/Tai Lue	Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai
Guaraní	Tupi-Guarani	tejurusu		kangúro
Quechua	Quechuan	thinusawru	qurila	kanquru
Tok Pisin	Creole	dainaso		kenggaru
Bislama	Creole			kangaru
Sranan Tongo	Creole			kanguru
Papiamentu	Creole	dinosouro	gorila
Haitian Creole	Creole	dinozò		kangourou

Languages of Note

For all three terms, there were no cognates found in the Chinese languages. Likewise, the other possible cognates related to animal cognates were regularly absent in the Chinese languages.

Words of Note - Dinosaur

It’s interesting that the dinosaur should have the highest number of cognate terms, although it’s worth mentioning how many languages didn’t borrow the term. Many East Asian languages, like Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese, have terms for dinosaur that are a calque from Japanese kyūryū, meaning ‘terrible/awesome dragon.’ 

Language	romanization	native script
Japanese	kyūryū	恐竜
Korean	gong-nyong	공룡
Cantonese	hung2 lung4	恐龍
Mandarin	kǒnglóng	恐龍
Vietnamese	khủng long	khủng long

Finding cognates for dinosaur was interesting in how many product names that were cognate with ‘dinosaur’ or ‘dino’ could be found in languages that didn’t have cognate terms in their standard vocabulary, such as Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

While there is a specific definition of dinosaur means in scientific writing, the word for dinosaur in many languages is often used a broad category. As these terms have jumped into common vernacular, they are increasingly used to describe any large, prehistoric, and normally reptilian animal regardless of whether or not they belong to the Superorder Dinosauria.

It’s also interesting the number of languages that appear to have no cognate with kangaroo, especially those spoken in Southeast Asia and Central Europe.

By Charles J. Sharp - Own work, from Sharp Photography

Looking into this there were also at least 65 languages that have a cognate term for ‘mammoth’ and the same number for ‘koala.’

Table - Totals

	dinosaur	gorilla	kangaroo
Languages with Cognate Terms	92	80	75
Languages Likely without Cognates	11	11	10
	0.893	0.879	0.882

An aside about Dinosaur Names

There’s an argument to be made that the names of specific dinosaurs also have some far-reaching cognates. This is possibly because certain dinosaurs have shown considerable staying power in popular culture.

Also when it comes to naming conventions, dinosaurs are pretty unique. That’s because unlike other animals, they don’t have both common names and taxonomic names. Instead they are almost always referred to by their taxonomic genus unlike other animal names which can overlap or refer to a whole range of taxa.

scientific name	common name in English
Species - Feles domesticus	cat, house cat
Species - Carassius auratus	goldfish
Species - Orcinus orca	orca, killer whale
Family - Serrasalmidae	piranha
Genera - Pica, Cissa, Urocissa, Cyanopica	magpie

As such, the names for dinosaurs usually come directly from their taxonomic nomenclature which come most often from Latin and Greek roots, and tend to get borrowed wholesale with relatively minimal adaption…except in the Chinese languages.

There are, however, more than a thousand different dinosaur genus, so this really only applies to the most recognizable dinosaurs like Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus and of course Tyrannosaurus for each of which I could find between 50 and 60 languages with cognates, which isn’t a lot in raw numbers but a lot proportionally.

	Triceratops	Tyrannosaurus	Velociraptor
Arabic	trīsīrātūbus	tīrānṣawr	fīlūsīrābtūr
Bengali	ṭrāiserāṭapasa	ṭirānōsarāsa	bhelōsirāpṭara
Czech	triceratops	tyrannosaurus	velociraptor
Hindi	trāiserāṭops	ṭāirenosorasa	vēlosirāpṭar
Japanese	torikeratopusu	tiranosaurusu	verokiraputoru
Kazakh	tritseratops	tiranosavr	velotsiraptor
Thai	tri-see-raa-toop(s)	thai-rā-nō-sō-ras	wi-lo-si-raep-teu(r)

Of course, this brings back the same problem as before. For a relatively small number of languages, it’s very easy to find the name for Tyrannosaurus. For most other languages, it’s not.

Source Wikimedia,  ★Kumiko★

Essentially, all names for prehistoric animals have transnational names, however, it’s hard to draw a clear line for when the scientific vocabulary meets the everyday. But I thought it was too cool not to mention.