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 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.

If you find any more correlations, to these languages or others, please contact me. Correlations in the Wheel of Time to history, Earth cultures, and fairy tales can be found here.

OT WordOT MeaningModern LanguageWordMeaning
a
the/a
English
a
a
al
the/of the
Spanish (Arabic)
al
to the (the)
aan
one
French (Swedish)
un (en)
one
af'rait
Name of a Trolloc tribe
Maltese/Arabic
afrid
little devil
algode
cotton
Spanish/Arabic
algodón/al-qutun
cotton
asa
you
Spanish
usted
you
avende
tree
French
arbre
tree
ayende
release/freedom
Spanish
allende
beyond
caba
horse
Spanish
caballo
horse
chalinda
sweet girl
Spanish
chalada or linda
fool girl or pretty
kaf
bitter black drink
Swedish
kaffe
coffee
mai
maidens
Mandarin
mei
sister or maiden
miere
sea
Spanish
mar
sea
n'dore
dancers
Spanish
bailadores
dancers
shadar
shadow
English
shadow
shadow
Shaitan
The Dark One
Maltese/Arabic
xitan
the devil
tabac
tobacco
English/Swedish
tobacco/tobak
tobacco
t'mat
tomato
English
tomato
tomato
ye
I
Spanish/Russian
yo/ya
I
zemai
corn
Spanish
maíz
corn

Although this has nothing to do with the OT, I found it very interesting that "Elayne" is mostly just "Ilyena" with an "e" instead of an "i" and with a few letters transposed. Is this coincidence, or is Elayne supposed to be Ilyena reborn? Another mysterious coincidence is that of the name "al'Thor" to the name "Thor," the Norse god of thunder. Also "Rhuarc" and "rock;" "Cauthon" and "caution," to name a few. I'm sure there are many more.

Great thanks to the Complete Old Tongue Compilation, from which I got all the Old Tongue word definitions. Also thanks to Erik Hjortsberg, who provided the Swedish correlations, Juliet Bonnici for the Maltese parallels, and Don Harlow for the Arabic and Russian similarities.

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This page last edited July 29, 1997

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