Similarities of the Old Tongue to Modern Languages

While reading The Wheel of Time, I noticed that many of the Old Tongue (OT) words have similarities to words in modern languages from all over the globe, including Italic and Germanic languages, as well as Mandarin, Japanese, and Arabic. The most obvious ones are listed below. I don't think this necesarily detracts from the work in any way; if anything, it makes it better, for it allows readers to sort of subconsciously know what OT phrases mean, even if they don't know the exact meanings of all the words. I wonder, however, if this similarity is conscious or subconscious on the part of Robert Jordan. In such cases as "t'mat," it must by by design that it is similar; but in such cases as "ayende," it is harder to tell. Jordan has written a letter on the subject of the Old Tongue, which might be useful if you find the Old Tongue interesting.

Eric has some interesting thoughts on the reason for the similarities:

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but regarding similarities blarities blarities between the Old Tongue and modern languages, one should consider the possibility that they are entirely deliberate on the part of Jordan and entirely in sync with the story, as perhaps the Age of Legends is not so long ahead of our own after all, and perhaps the Old Tongue itself is a much evolved child of the languages we speak all around the world today.

If you find any more correlations, to these languages or others, please contact me. Thanks to the many submissions that have made this list as large as it is. Correlations in the Wheel of Time to history, Earth cultures, and fairy tales can be found found here.

Great thanks to the Complete Old Tongue Compilation, from which I got all the Old Tongue word definitions. Also thanks to the many people that e-mailed me with their ideas.

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This page last edited March 28, 2003