Lets say in a few hundred years China, India and Japan work together and found their first base on the moon, what would they name it?
Is the word for moon similar enough in their languages for them to use something like that (or something similar)? Or do they share a root tongue like Romance languages do where they could call it “luna”?
Indo-Aryan languages use variations on “chandra” and “chand” for “moon.” But they also use related mythological terms.
Moonzilla.
Chinese and Japanese are unrelated languages, but they share a writing system, in which 月 is the character for “Moon”. It’s pronounced “yuè” in Chinese, and as “tsuki”, “gatsu” or “getsu” in Japanese. (Chinese characters typically have at least two pronunciations in Japanese.)
And while many - but not all - Indian languages are Indo-European, Chinese and Japanese are not.
Probably either Customer Service or Tech Support.
Not to mention, both can call their base RUNAR ONE
Right now, English is the closest thing to a “common” language between those three countries. I expect it will be called something like “International Lunar Base”, with each country having an official native-language version of this name.
Of course, it’s conceivable that by the time this happens, Chinese (Mandarin?) will replace English as the worldwide standard language for technology and science.
Is it conceivable? I doubt it.