{"id":24255,"date":"2025-10-16T15:56:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24255"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:56:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:56:31","slug":"string-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24255","title":{"rendered":"String Phones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In many languages, words for <strong>telephone<\/strong> are some variation of <strong>telephone<\/strong>, but in some, such as Swahili, the word for phone is completely different &#8211; <strong>simu<\/strong>. Let&#8217;s find out where it comes from and what other words are related to it.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/86530412@N02\/8210762750\/in\/photolist-qz7Zc-dvpXQ3-2mGycvZ-7Tzgk4-2mKu2tD-dvkd78-4RagDf-7euC4j-55XuZA-HBrQWf-2k5BkmN-aztrnc-dvyiH1-CXL59o-6DxxB4-2vVATJ-2mbZFfw-8FkFGE-6DBG79-6Dxx6H-6DBGpd-2jKAkow-GoeGaV-2Kthgi-S9op3J-5EqtSi-5GJvJE-2nupG6U-FbRDe-7JC1m2-6xoVNy-9Er5vp-2ohNXqF-6xoWVd-6xoXcA-9hvXW1-56pCZU-dSk6yZ-2omQ5Hi-2oGd5gd-hRc687-qz7Zf-9Er4jg-7cDMYn-216fU7K-qz5E4-7cDQin-qz5E5-2kLzq2o\" title=\"3D Tin Can Phones\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8200\/8210762750_7642b21e39_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"3D Tin Can Phones\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Swahili word <strong>simu<\/strong> means telephone, telephone message, telegraph or telegram. Some related words include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>simu ya mkono(ni) \/ simu za rununu<\/strong> = mobile phone<\/li>\n<li><strong>simu maizi<\/strong> = smartphone<\/li>\n<li><strong>kibanda cha simu<\/strong> = telephone booth \/ box<\/li>\n<li><strong>kitabu cha simu<\/strong> = telephone book<\/li>\n<li><strong>piga simu<\/strong> = to make a call, to phone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from Omani Arabic <strong>\u0633\u064a\u0645<\/strong> (s\u012bm &#8211; telegram), from Persian <strong>\u0633\u06cc\u0645<\/strong> (sim &#8211; wire, string, cord; silver, wealth, money [<em>poetic<\/em>]), from Middle Persian <em>(\u02be)sym \/\u2060 (a)s\u0113m<\/em> (silver), from Old Persian <em>\ud800\udfbf\ud800\udfa1\ud800\udfb9\ud800\udfb6\ud800\udfb6<\/em> (siyamam\u2060 &#8211; silver), from Ancient Greek <em>\u1f04\u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd<\/em> (\u00e1s\u0113mon &#8211; silverware), from <em>\u1f04\u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2<\/em> (\u00e1s\u0113mos &#8211; unmarked, unintelligible, indistinct, silver) from <em>\u1f04\u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2<\/em>, from <em>\u03c3\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1<\/em> (s\u00eama &#8211; mark, sign, token), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*d\u02b0y\u00e9h\u2082mn\u0325<\/em>, from <em>*d\u02b0eyh\u2082-<\/em> (to perceive, to see) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/simu#Swahili\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>Words from the same PIE roots include <strong>semaphore<\/strong>, <strong>semantic<\/strong> in English, <strong>sem\u00e1foro<\/strong> (traffic light, semaphore) in Spanish, <strong>\u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03b1<\/strong> (simas\u00eda &#8211; meaning, sense, significance) in Greek, <strong>sim<\/strong> (string, wire, lead) in Azerbaijani, <strong>\u05d0\u05e1\u05d9\u05de\u05d5\u05df<\/strong> (asim\u00f3n &#8211; token) in Hebrew, and <strong>\u0441\u044b\u043c<\/strong> (sym &#8211; wire) in Kazakh [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%CF%83%E1%BF%86%CE%BC%CE%B1#Ancient_Greek\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented a device he called the <strong>telephone<\/strong>, which he described as an &#8220;apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically&#8221;. This was the first use of the word <strong>telephone<\/strong> to refer to the <strong>telephone<\/strong> we know today. Before then, it had been used to refer to other similar devices [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Invention_of_the_telephone#Alexander_Graham_Bell\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The English word <strong>telephone<\/strong> was borrowed from French <strong>t\u00e9l\u00e9phone<\/strong> (telephone), which comes from Ancient Greek <em>\u03c4\u1fc6\u03bb\u03b5<\/em> (t\u00eale &#8211; afar) and <em>\u03c6\u03c9\u03bd\u03ae<\/em> (ph\u014dn\u1e17 &#8211; voice, sound) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/telephone#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>Other languages that do not use some version of the word <strong>telephone<\/strong> include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Armenian: <strong>\u0570\u0565\u057c\u0561\u056d\u0578\u057d<\/strong> (he\u1e59axos) &#8211; from <strong>\u0565\u057c\u0561-<\/strong> (he\u1e59a &#8211; far) and <strong>\u056d\u0578\u057d\u0565\u056c<\/strong> (xosel &#8211; to speak)<\/li>\n<li>Breton: <strong>pellgomz<\/strong> &#8211; from <strong>pell<\/strong> (far) and <strong>komz<\/strong> (to speak, talk)<\/li>\n<li>Chinese: <strong>\u7535\u8bdd<\/strong> [\u96fb\u8a71] (di\u00e0nhu\u00e0) &#8211; from <strong>\u7535<\/strong> [\u96fb] (di\u00e0n &#8211; lightning, electric power, energy, electricity) and <strong>\u8bdd<\/strong> [\u8a71] (hu\u00e0 &#8211; speech, talk, words) &#8211; borrowed from Japanese <strong>\u96fb\u8a71<\/strong> (denwa &#8211; telephone, phone call)<\/li>\n<li>Finnish: <strong>puhelin<\/strong> &#8211; from <strong>puhella<\/strong> (to chatter)<\/li>\n<li>Icelandic: <strong>s\u00edmi<\/strong> &#8211; from <strong>s\u00edma<\/strong> (cord, rope)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Incidentally, the similarity between the Icelandic word <strong>s\u00edmi<\/strong> and the Swahili word <strong>simu<\/strong> is entirely coincidental, and they are not related.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/telephone#Translations\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/telephone#Translations<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In many languages, words for telephone are some variation of telephone, but in some, such as Swahili, the word for phone is completely different &#8211; simu. Let&#8217;s find out where it comes from and what other words are related to it. The Swahili word simu means telephone, telephone message, telegraph or telegram. Some related words [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,86,205,510,92,95,104,107,109,111,118,121,124,129,254,10,37,45,64,66,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-greek-","category-arabic","category-armenian-","category-azerbaijani-azrbaycan-dili","category-breton","category-chinese","category-english","category-etymology","category-finnish","category-french","category-greek","category-hebrew","category-icelandic","category-japanese","category-kazakh---qazaq-tili","category-language","category-persian-farsi","category-proto-indo-european","category-spanish","category-swahili","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24255"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24264,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24255\/revisions\/24264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}