Language Family Odd One Out

The capital cows were having a picnic, and everyone had brought a word from home.

"Let's play a game," said Suzy. "Everyone say the word for three in your language."

Madrid went first. "Tres."

"Trois," said Paris.

"Tre," said Rome.

Then Budapest smiled. "Három."

Little Thunder blinked. "Hang on. Three of them sound alike. Tres, trois, tre. But három is totally different."

"Good spotting," said Spike. "Spanish, French and Italian all grew from an old language called Latin. They're cousins, so their words look alike. They're in the same language family."

"And Hungarian?" asked Little Thunder.

"Hungarian belongs to a different family," said Budapest proudly. "So our words come from a different family tree."

"Let's try another," said Suzy. "Moon!"

"Luna," said Madrid.

"Lune," said Paris.

"Luna," said Rome.

"Hold," said Budapest.

"Odd one out again!" laughed Little Thunder.

Then Berlin and Amsterdam joined in. "Mother," said Suzy. "In English."

"Mutter," said Berlin.

"Moeder," said Amsterdam.

"They sound like mother!" said Little Thunder. "Is English their cousin?"

"Yes," said Spike. "English, German and Dutch are all in the Germanic family."

Little Thunder thought hard. "So if words look alike, the languages might be related. And if one is very different, it might come from another family."

"That's exactly how language detectives work," said Suzy.

Little Thunder grinned and pointed at the picnic basket. "Then here's a word that's the same in every family."

"What's that?" asked Paris.

"Lunch!" he said, and everyone laughed and agreed. Then they shared their sandwiches, and each cow taught Little Thunder how to say thank you at home.