Conclusions cannot always be drawn about historical connections. Some words are similar in numerous languages.  Linguistic research has led to the theory of an Ur-language (Indo-European) spoken some fifty thousand years ago, from which most other languages have descended. Papa, for example, is used for ‘father’ in seventy percent of languages across the world.

Meanwhile, essential latterday vocabulary has crossed languages as easily as the jet-setting executive who uses it:

 Taxi is spelt and means the same in French, German, Swedish, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Czech, Slovak, Portuguese, Hungarian and Romanian

 Sauna is spelt and means the same in Finnish, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Danish, Lithuanian, Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian, Romanian and Norwegian

 Bank is spelt and means the same in Afrikaans, Amharic (Ethiopia), Bengali, Creole, Danish, Dutch, Frisian (Germany and Holland), German, Gujarati (India), Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Sinhala (Sri Lanka), Swedish and Wolof (Senegal and Gambia)

 Hotel is spelt and means the same in Afrikaans, Amharic, Asturian (Spain), Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Frisian (Germany and Holland), Galician (Spain), German, Icelandic, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Tswana (Botswana), Ukranian and Yiddish.

Some words must remain a mystery to all except native speakers. You would have to live in these places for quite a while to understand how to use correctly some of the following, which in their simply translated definitions contain what seem to us contradictory meanings:

 Hay kulu (Zrma, Nigeria) anything, nothing and also everything

 Irpadake (Tulu, India) ripe and un ripe

 Sitoshnna (Tulu, India) cold and hot

 Merripen (Romani, Gypsy) life and death

 Gift (Norwegian) poison and married

 Magazinschik (Russian) a shopkeeper and a shoplifter

 Danh t (Vietnamese) a church and a brothel

 Aloha (Hawaiian) hello and goodbye (the word has many other meanings including love, compassion, welcome and good wishes)

An urgent need to communicate can create a language without native speakers.

Pidgin, for example, has developed from English among people with their own native tongues. Fine examples of pidgin expressions in the Tok Pisin language of Papua New Guinea are: liklik box you pull him he cry you push him he cry (an accordion) and bigfella iron walking stick him go bang along topside (a rifle).

When the Duke of Edinburgh visits Vanuatu, in the Pacific, he is addressed as oldfella Pili-Pili him b’long Missy Kween, while Prince Charles is Pikinini b’long Kween.

The concept of ‘so-so’ is found in many languages, and often in a similarly repetitive form:

it’s tako tako in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian,
aixa aixa in Catalan,
cosi cosi in Italian,
wale wale in Chipwyan (Canada),
hanter hanter in Cornisa,
thik thik in Gujarati (India),
hai hao in Mandarin,
jako tako in Polish,
ma ma in Japanese,
ithin ithin in Sinhala (Sri Lanka),
soyle boyle in turkish,
atal atal in Occitan (France),
asina asina in Asturias (Spain),
elae belae in Azeri (Azerbaijan)
and azoy azoy in Yiddish.