sleep / dream

[elroy]

I’ve just discovered that Russian, like Spanish, has one word (сон) that means both “sleep” (noun) and “dream” (noun). The Spanish word is “sueño.”

Examples from Spanish:

Me falta sueño. = I’m sleep-deprived.
Tuve un sueño bonito. = I had a nice dream.

What other languages do this?

Arabic, German, and Hebrew do not. Even French, a fellow Romance language, doesn’t.

sleep / dream:
Arabic: نوم / حلم
German: Schlaf / Traum
Hebrew: שינה / חלום
French: sommeil / rêve

Also, are сон and “sueño” etymologically related?

 

[Welsh_Sion]

Cymraeg/Welsh

'sleep' cwsg (n.m.), hun (n.f.)
'dream' breuddwyd (n.m.f.)

 

[elroy]

Welsh has androgynous nouns?

 

[Welsh_Sion]

"Elton John nouns" as my Polish students used to call them!

Depending on region and/or register some can be masc. or fem. - yes.

Not to mention those that change their meaning dependent on their gender. (But we're not unique in that.)

 

[Yendred]

French: sommeil / rêve

French also has songe as a synonym for rêve(*), and both sommeil and songe come from Latin somnus (as does Spanish sueño).
(*) though songe is more literary than rêve.

According to Wiktionary, Russian сон is indeed cognate with these Romance words, and ultimately they all come from Indo-European *swépnos/*súpnos which has also given Greek ὕπνος, húpnos.

I guess English sleep can be lumped together.

 

[Welsh_Sion]

According to Wiktionary, Russian сон is indeed cognate with these Romance words, and ultimately they all come from Indo-European *swépnos/*súpnos which has also given Greek ὕπνος, húpnos.

______

... This is also the origin of the more literary, hun (see above). A common rule of Welsh philology is that initial Latin s- often has a parallel in Welsh h-.

cf
sen- = hen /hen/ 'old'
sal- = halen /'halɛn/ 'salt'

 

[Yendred]

A common rule of Welsh philology is that initial Latin s- often has a parallel in Welsh h-.

A common trait with Greek as it seems
sal / háls
septem / heptá

 

[Welsh_Sion]

We shouldn't derail @elroy's thread, but the key word as far we're concerned is 'often'. (I don't know Greek philology well enough to know if it 'always' applies in that case. But I know a man who probably does!)

Anyhow:

salt / háls / halen - YES
septem / heptá / saith - NO

 

[Olaszinhok]

Italian has two different words:
sleep - sonno from Latin sŏmnus
dream - sogno from Latin sŏmnium

 

[Armas]

Finnish

uni = sleep / dream (seen in sleep)
For dream as a wish we say unelma.

 

[Mori.cze]

Czech has distinct terms, "sen" (cognate to the Russian word) for dream and "spánek" for sleep. Checking the etymological dictionary "sen" is really an ancient word, connected to Latine somnus (or Greek hypnos), so highly probably related to the Spanish term.
"Spánek", btw, is related too.

 

[vianie]

"Spánek", btw, is related too.

How?

 

[Mori.cze]

How?

According to my etymological dictionary both words (sen & spánek) can be traced back to old indian "svápna", "svápiti", (forms of) to sleep, of indoeuropean *suep-, *sup (to sleep)

 

[Penyafort]

I’ve just discovered that Russian, like Spanish, has one word (сон) that means both “sleep” (noun) and “dream” (noun). The Spanish word is “sueño.”

Examples from Spanish:

Me falta sueño. = I’m sleep-deprived.
Tuve un sueño bonito. = I had a nice dream.

Not in Catalan.

For 'dream', we say somni.
For 'sleep', we say son. And what's more, we've got masculine el son ('the state and time of sleeping') and feminine la son ('the desire to sleep').

Somni comes from Latin SOMNIUM, while son comes from Latin SOMNU.

Vaig tenir un somni bonic. = I had a nice dream.​

Vaig tenir un son reparador. = I had a reinvigorating sleep.​

Tinc una son que no m'aguanto dret. = I'm so sleepy I can't stand on my feet.​

 

[Circunflejo]

What other languages do this?

According to Wiktionary:

Azerbaijani makes use of yuxu for both of them.
Baluchi makes use of واب for both of them.
Belarussian, Macedonian and Ukrainian make use of сон for both of them.
Bulgarian makes use of сън for both of them.
Finnish makes use of uni for both of them.
Friulian makes use of sium for both of them although I'm not sure if in the sense of sleep just for slumber or for sleep in general too.
Kurdish makes use of خەو for both of them.
Persian makes use of خواب for both of them.
Polish makes use of sen for both of them.
Serbo-Croatian makes use of sȁn for both of them.
Sicilian makes use of sonnu for both of them but I must make the same disclaimer than in the case of Friulian.

 

[apmoy70]

Greek:

To sleep: «Κοιμάμαι» [ciˈmame̞] & learned «κοιμώμαι» [ciˈmo̞me̞] or «κοιμούμαι» [ciˈmume̞] which is a deponent verb < Classical deverbative deponent verb «κοιμάομαι/κοιμῶμαι» koimắŏmai (uncontracted)/koimômai (contracted) --> lit. to go to bed, metaph. to fall asleep < Classical masc. noun «κοῖμος» koîmŏs or fem. «κοίμη» koímē --> layer, bed, sleep, o-grade of the deponent v. «κεῖμαι» keîmai --> to lie, be somewhere, happen (PIE *kei̯- to lie, rest cf Skt. शेते (śete), to lie down, rest, sleep, Hitt. kitta, (idem)).

Sleep: «Ύπνος» [ˈipno̞s̠] (masc.) < Classical masc. noun «ὕπνος» húpnŏs --> sleep (PIE *sue̯p-no-/*suo̯p-no- sleep cf Skt. स्वप्न (svapna), sleep, ToA ṣpäm̥/ToB ṣpane (idem), Lat. somnus, Proto-Germanic *swefnaz, to sleep, Proto-Slavic *sъpati, to sleep).

To dream: «Ονειρεύομαι» [o̞niˈɾe̞vo̞me̞] (deponent v.) < Βyz.Gr. deponent v. «ὀνειρεύομαι» oneireúomai (idem) < Classical masc. noun «ὄνειρος» óneirŏs (see below) + Classical verbal suffix «-εύω» -eúō (which becomes «-εύομαι» -eúŏmai in the mediopassive voice).
In various Modern Greek dialects the verb is the deponent «νείρομαι» [ˈniɾo̞me̞] (which is the aphetism of variant «ονείρομαι» [o̞ˈniɾo̞me̞] < «ὄνειρος»).

Dream: «Όνειρο» [ˈo̞niɾo̞] (neut.) < Classical masc. noun «ὄνειρος» óneirŏs, also neut. «ὄνειρον» óneirŏn (less common), earlier neuter noun «ὄναρ» ónăr (found only in nominative/accusative singular), from PIE *h₃en-r- > *h₃ner-io- dream cf Arm. անուրջ [ɑˈnuɾd͡ʒ], Alb. ëndërr [ˈəndər], both mean dream).

 

[Terio]

Portuguese has two words :

sono : sleep
sonho : dream

 

[Trisia]

Romanian:

sleep = somn (Latin somnus)
dream = vis (Latin vīsum)

Vis is neuter and has got two plural forms, depending on its meaning:
vis, vise = dreams at night (vise plăcute = pleasant dreams)
vis, visuri = goals, hopes, wishes, castles in Spain

 

[KalAlbè]

Haitian Creole is similar to French in this regard:

Sleep: Somèy
Dream: Rèv

 

[KalAlbè]

Igbo

Sleep: ụra
Dream: nrọ

 

[AutumnOwl]

Finnish

uni = sleep / dream (seen in sleep)
For dream as a wish we say unelma.

For me uni would only mean dream, when talking about sleeping I would use nukkua, for example "nukutko?" (are you sleeping?) Perhaps it depends on from where in Finland you are from, my parents were from Finnish Karelia.
nukkua - Wiktionary

Swedish:
Dröm / drömma - a dream / to dream
Dagdröm - daydream
Sova / sömn - both words means sleep, sova is a verb, sömn is a noun
Sömnig - sleepy (adjective)

 

[Drakonica]

Polish:
sen - a sleep
sen - a dream (during a sleep)
marzenie - a dream (awake)

 

[ThomasK]

At first sight I only see parallels between Dutch and German, implying that neither has one word for the two.

I only thought of droomslaap, i.e., the REM sleep phase, which seems to suggest a link but with two different words.

Portuguese has two words :

sono : sleep
sonho : dream

I do wonder about these: if they are not the same, aren't they related? Can the -ho suffix be a diminutive? -zinho seems to be one at least: pao > paozinho...

 

[raamez]

.

sleep / dream:
Arabic: نوم / حلم

Hebrew: שינה / חלום

The Arabic cognate would be سِنَة as in the Quranic verse لا تأخذه لا سنة ولا نوم from the verb وسن to doze off
From نام to sleep we have منام a dream.

 

[ThomasK]

Same root, I guess. But not the وسن for dozing off, I suppose...

 

[Olaszinhok]

At first sight I only see parallels between Dutch and German, implying that neither has one word for the two.

I only thought of droomslaap, i.e., the REM sleep phase, which seems to suggest a link but with two different words.

I do wonder about these: if they are not the same, aren't they related? Can the -ho suffix be a diminutive? -zinho seems to be one at least: pao > paozinho...

The Portuguese words sono and sonho should share the same etymology as the Italian counterparts, see below:

Italian has two different words:
sleep - sonno from Latin sŏmnus
dream - sogno from Latin sŏmnium

The Portuguese diminutive suffixes -inho and -zinho have nothing to do with the word sogno.

 

[Armas]

For me uni would only mean dream, when talking about sleeping I would use nukkua, for example "nukutko?" (are you sleeping?) Perhaps it depends on from where in Finland you are from, my parents were from Finnish Karelia.
nukkua - Wiktionary

The noun uni is commonly used meaning sleep in standard Finnish. E.g. En saa unta "I can't sleep" lit. "I can't get sleep", univaje "sleep deficit", uneton "sleepless" (though it can also mean "dreamless") etc. But the verb from uni > uneksia is only used for daydreaming.

 

[Awwal12]

Russian, like Spanish, has one word (сон) that means both “sleep” (noun) and “dream” (noun).

On the other hand, Russian consistently contrasts a dream during a sleep (сон) and a dream as a wish or a visionary scheme (мечта), while Germanic languages and (curiously) Arabic don't.

 

[Mahaodeh]

and (curiously) Arabic don't.

I think that this is new, and by new I mean it started within the last century or two. There is no evidence that حلم hulm has been used to mean wish or anything other than a sleeping dream before the 19th century. I’m guessing that this new meaning may be due to translation.

 

[Abaye]

I think that this is new, and by new I mean it started within the last century or two. There is no evidence that حلم hulm has been used to mean wish or anything other than a sleeping dream before the 19th century. I’m guessing that this new meaning may be due to translation.

Similarly Hebrew חלום, the cognate of Arabic حلم. In old texts it means dream during sleep, in newer texts also dream as a wish.

 

[Encolpius]

Hungarian

álom - ancient Finno-Ugric word = dream - Traum - cz.: sen
álmos - derivate = sleepy - schläfrig - cz.: ospalý [sp-]
alszik = to sleep - schlafen - cz.: spát