I'm looking for languages for which the word twin doesn't have the number two as a root. Meaning word for twin in your languages that has nothing to do with number two.

 

I think that Latin and the Romance languages qualify.

In Portuguese:

two: dois (m), duas (f)
twin: gémeo/gêmeo (m), gémea/gêmea (f)

In French:

two: deux
twin: jumeau (m), jumelle (f)

 

Yeah. In Spanish it's the same:

two: dos

Twin: gemelo / gemela

Sayah

 

Yeah in Turkish too;
Twin:İkizler(iki means two)

 

What about gemini in English?
Gemini = blíženci(Czech)

 

Gemini is a loan from Latin, and it's only used for the astrological sign.

 

Hebrew:
Two - שתיים (shtaim)
Twin - תאום (teom).

 

In Italian, not differently from other Romance languages obviously:

two - due
twin - gemello

Gemello comes from Latin geminus, which means 'identical'.

 

Arabic, like Hebrew, qualifies:

two: إثنان (ithnaan)
twin: توأم (taw'am)

 

Russian:
two = два (dva)
twin = близнец (bliznets); the constellation is also called Близнецы (Bliznetsy, i.e. Twins).

 

I think you mean Turkish does not qualifies... :d
ps: twin:ikiz
not ikizler

 

In Spanish we have two words: "Gemelos" and "mellizos". Both have the same meaning although usually "gemelos" are used for identical twins and "mellizos" for the non-identical ones. Also, they have the same root, so if one in not related to two ("dos") neither is the other.

 

Hi dihydrogen monoxide,

You could write it in Croatian:

Two - dva
Twin - blizanci.

Slovenian:

Two - dve (only two): two - dva (normally)
Twin - dvojćka

German:

Two - zwei
Twin - Zwillinge (die Zwillinge)

 

Not available for Romanian. In Romanian it is only gemeni, no matter the number of them. From Latin gemini.

Of course, modern Romanian has tripleţi, cvadrupleţi etc. for defining the number of twins, but these are loanwords.

 

Very interesting

Hungarian: iker [now no relation with two, but originally 1000 years ago there was, Turkish iki, eki]

 

In both Swedish and Finnish the words for two and twin are connected.

 

Hebrew:
תאומים teomim is twin
שתיים שניים shtayim or shnayim is two.

 

In Greek:

«Δίδυμος, -μη, -μο» ['ðiðimos] (masc.), ['ðiðimi] (fem.), ['ðiðimo] (neut.) (sing.) --> twin
«Δίδυμοι, -μες, μα» ['ðiðimi] (masc.) ['ðiðimes] (fem.), ['ðiðima] (neut.) (pl.) --> twins
The Constellation Gemini, is «Δίδυμοι» ['ðiðimi].

Adj. «δίδυμος» ['ðiðimos] < Classical «δίδυμος» dídumŏs & poetic «διδυμάων» dĭdŭmáōn < compound, word-forming element meaning two, twice, double, «δί-» dí-, from numeral «δύο» dúŏ --> two (PIE *dwo-, two) + thematic form of «δύο», «δυ-» du- + productive suffix «-μος, -μη, -μον» -mŏs (masc.), -mē (fem.), - mŏn (neut.)

 

Mmm... Not sure how Chinese would be viewed here, since in Chinese twins are associated with the idea of pair, which I supposed is related to two, but not exactly. Anyway you decide whether or not it fits.

二 (Mandarin: er; Cantonese: yi) - two
两 (Mandain: liang; Cantonese: loeng) - two (measure word - we would count with 二 but say 两杯水 - two cups of water)

双胞胎 (Mandarin: shuang bao tai; Cantonese: soeng baau toi) - twins (双 means pair)
孖生仔 (Cantonese: maa saang zai - dialectal) - twins (孖 is a dialectal word for pair)

 

In Tagalog; Two is Dalawa, Pair is "Tambalan" and twin is "Kambal.

 

Catalan differs here from the rest of the Romance languages by not using a word derived from GEMELLU, but the word bessó (bessons in the plural). For a Catalan speaker, it is not linguistically related to the word 'two' (which is dos/dues), but the two theories about the origin of the word point towards it: a Latin form *bissone, from bis 'twice', and a pre-Roman form *bikione/bekione, based on either Basque 'two' or an Indo-European word for 'pair, couple'.

 

Is it related to Spanish name Iker?

 

Another formal word in Chinese is 孪生子 (孿生子). 孪 itself contains the meaning of "twin".

 

Japanese terms are simply associated with numbers such as one, two, three...

一人っ子hitorikko: only child (hitori=one person, kko=child)
双子futago: twin (futa=two, go=child)
三つ子mitsugo: triplet (mitsu=three)
四つ子yotsugo: quadruplet (yotsu=four)

P.S
I have come up with another translation for it: 双生児(sou-sei-ji, an infant born together): sou means a pair, sei means to be born and ji means an infant.

 

In Hindi it's जुड़वाँ (juRvaaN).

 

I would like to add, in case somebody don't know, that 雙胞胎 can be also the name of a food in Taiwan.
A 雙胞胎 is two round-shaped bread sticking together; that's why it's called 雙胞胎。
So next time, don't be freaked out and give a you-are-a-barbarian look if someone says "我們去吃雙胞胎吧！"

 

I should add something to my original post: the pronunciation of 双生児(twin) and ソーセージ(sausage) is same in Japanese(even in English), it sounds a bit funny.

 

In Czech párek means pair (diminutive) and sausage

 

It seems twins are always delicious...