Why is the word police similar in so many languages?

Originally Answered: Why is the word ‘police’ so similar in many languages and are there other words that share such similarities across different languages? It is borrowed. It originally was borrowed from the Latin word Politia meaning “citizenship” and “government”.

What is police in French language?

les policiers pl. ( police ) station. commissariat (de police ) ( police ) station.

Is police a universal word?

The word police is the most universal and similar terms can be seen in many non-English speaking countries. One of the oldest, cop, has largely lost its slang connotations and become a common colloquial term used both by the public and police officers to refer to their profession.

Why is the word ‘police’ different in different languages?

In languages that are not connected with English or Latin, such as in Japanese, the word for Police is quite different: Keisatsu The words for Mother and Father are quite similar in various languages, but not universal in all languages. Cognates in Indo-European languages would understandably, sound and mean similar.

What is a morpheme in linguistics?

Morphology in linguistics refers to how a word is put together in a language. A morpheme is a part of a word that has a meaning in and of itself. For example, the jump and the ing in jumping. Words can be quite complex in their structure, for example in many Australian languages.

How do languages differ from one another?

They may use different sounds, they may make words in different ways, they may put words together to form a sentence in different ways, and that’s just for starters! When we talk about a ‘language’ we mean the act of speaking, writing or signing.

How are the sounds in a language related to each other?

There are also specific ways the sounds in a language can be put together in a word. In linguistics this is called ‘phonotactics’. Words in some languages always finish with a vowel, while words in other languages must not have two consonants together.