| Updated on April 9,
2002 Please use UTF-8 Character Set |
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This article presents words for chess, six chesspieces and check in 59 languages in the table. This article is originally written in Finnish. If you know more languages to be added to the table, please send me e-mail. Your feedback is welcome to my e-mail luiro@tosikiva.net.
The words for chess pieces of those languages need to be transcribed, for example a Greek word purgoV is transcribed in Latin letters as pyrgos 'rook'. I have followed the Finnish transcription traditions with a few exceptions, for example š instead of the regularly used sh, the š however being in scientific use in Finland. Non-Latin Writing Systems
The j means in most cases the semivowel (as y in yet, in IPA j), the only exceptions are when the language has its own standard transcriptions with regular domestic use, eg Hindi and Chinese. In Bulgarian and Macedonian words ts can be transcribed as c too, which should be pronounced as [ts], eg carica 'q', oficer 'b'. Note that in all Slavic languages and Hungarian c is pronounced as [ts].
I have used h for the velar fricative (e g German ch), which is normally transcribed as kh in English and French and x in international phonetics. In the Cyrillic and the Greek alphabet this phoneme is written with the letter X, but since the 2nd century BC Latin has used this letter to indicate the consonantal sequence /ks/. In the table the Greek x means the sequence [ks], while in Farsi x means the velar fricative.
I here thank all the people who have given me feedback from different European countries.
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| Finnish 3 | sakki | kuningas | kuningatar | torni | ratsu | lähetti | sotilas | sakki |
| English | chess | king | queen | rook | knight | bishop | pawn | check |
| French | échecs | roi | dame | tour | cavalier | fou | pion | échec |
| Italian | scacchi | re | donna | torre | cavallo | alfiere | pedone | scacco |
| Catalan | escacs | rei | dama, reina | torre | cavall | alfil | peó | escac, xec |
| Spanish | ajedrez | rey | dama, reina | torre | caballo | alfil | péon | jaque |
| Portuguese | xadrêz | rei | dame | torre | cavalo | bispo | peão | xeque |
| Romanian | şah | rege | damă, regină | turn | cal | nebun | pion | şah |
| Latin 2 | lūsus lātrunculōrum | rēx | rēgīna | turris | eques | cursor | pedes | cāve rēgī |
| Basque | xake, xake-joko | errege | dama | gaztelu | zaldun | alfil, gatzain | peoi | xake |
| Dutch | schaken | koning | dame | toren | paard | loper | pion | schaak |
| Afrikaans | skaak | koning | dame | toring | perd, ruiter | loper | pion | skaak |
| German | Schach | König | Dame | Turm | Springer | Läufer | Bauer | schach |
| Danish | skak | konge | dame | tårn | springer | løber | bonde | skak |
| Norwegian | sjakk | konge | dame | tårn | springer | løper | bonde | sjakk |
| Icelandic | skák, tafl | kóngur | drottning | hrókur | riddari | biskup | peð | skák |
| Faroese | skák | kongur | dama | rókur | riddari | biskoppur | skák | |
| Irish | ficheall | rí | ríonaím | caiseal | ridire | easpag | ceithearnach | sáinniú |
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| Lithuanian | šachmatai | karalius | valdovė | bokštas | žirgas | rikis | pėstininkas | šach |
| Latvian | šahs | karalis | dāma | tornis | zirdziņš | laidnis | bandinieks | šahs |
| Estonian | male | kuningas | lipp | vanker | ratsu | oda | sõdur | šahh |
| Hungarian | sakk | király | vezér | bástya | huszár | futó, futár | gyalog, paraszt | sakk |
| Esperanto | ŝako | reĝo | damo, reĝino | turo | ĉevalo | kuriero | peono | ŝak |
| Russian | шахматы šahmaty |
король korol' |
ферзь ferz' |
ладья lad'ja |
конь kon' |
слон slon |
пешка peška |
шах šah |
| Belorussian | шахматы šahmaty |
кароль karol' |
ферзь ferz' |
ладдзя laddzjá |
конь kon' |
слон slon |
пешка peška |
шах šah |
| Ukrainian | шахи šahy |
король korol' |
королева koroleva |
тура tura |
кінь kin' |
слон slon |
пішак pišak |
шах šah |
| Polish | szachy | król | dama, królowa | wieża | skoczek, koń | goniec | pionek | szach |
| Czech 13 | šachy | král | dáma | věž | jezdec | střelec | pěšec | šach |
| Slovak 14 | šach | kráľ | dáma | veža | kôň | strelec | pešiak | šach |
| Slovene | šah | kralj | dama, kraljica | stolp | konjič | tekač | kmet | šah |
| Croatian | šah | kralj | dama | top | konj, skakač | lovac | pješak | šah |
| Serbian | шах | краљ | дама | топ | коњ, скакач | ловац | пешак, пион | шах |
| Macedonian | шах šah |
крал kral |
кралица kralitsa |
топ top |
коњ konj |
ловец lovets |
пион pion |
шах šah |
| Bulgarian | шах, шахмат šah, šahmat |
цар tsar |
дама, царица dama, tsaritsa |
топ top |
кон kon |
офицер ofitser 12 |
пешка peška |
шах šah |
| Albanian | shah | mbret | mbretëreshë | kala | kalë | ushtar, gur | shah | |
| Greek | σκάκι, ζατρίκι skáki, zatríki |
βασιλιάς vasiliás |
βασίλισσα vasílissa |
πύργος pyrgos |
ιππότις, άλογο ippótis, álogo |
τρελλός, αξιωματικός trellós, axiômatikós |
πιόνι pióni |
σκάκι skáki |
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| Turkish | satranç | şah, kral | vezir | kale | at | fil | asker, piyon | şah |
| Azerbaijani | şahmat | şah | vezir | top | at | fil | piyada | şah |
| Uzbek | šatranž | šoh | farzin | ruh | ot | fil | pijoda | kišt |
| Tatar | šahmat | korol' | ferz' | lad'ja | at | fil | peška | šah |
| Turkmen | küšt | ša | perzi | ruh | at | pil | pyjada | küšt |
| Chuvash | šahmat | korol' | koroleva | tura | laša, ut | slon | peška | šah |
| Bashkir | šahmat | korol' | ferz' | tura | at | fil | peška | šah |
| Karachay-Balkar | šahmat (-la) | pattšah | ferz' | tura | at | slon | peška | šah |
| Kumyk | šahmat | patša | vazir | lad'ja | at | peška | šah | |
| Karakalpak | šahmat | patša | koroleva | tura | at | pil | pijada | šah |
| Tuvin | (höl)šydyraa | nojan | merze | terge | a"t | teve | ool | ša, šah |
| Kalmyk | šatr | han | bersn | tergn | mörn | zan | kövün | šall |
| Mongolian | šatar | nojon | bers | tereg | mor' | temee | hüü | šag |
| Pahlavi | tšatrang | šāh | frazēn | mādajār | asp | pīl | pajādag | |
| Farsi | šatrandž | šāh | vazir, farzin | rox | asb | fil | pijāde | kiš |
| Arabic | ﺞﻧﺮﻃﺸ šatrang |
ﻚﻟﻤ mälik |
ﺮﻴﺰﻮ, ﺰﺮﻔ wäziir, firz(ān) |
ﺔﺑﺎﻄ tabja |
ﻦﺎﺻﺤ, ﺲﺮﻔ hosān, faras |
ﻞﻴﻔ fiil |
ﻰﺮﻛﺳﺀ, ﻖﺪﺑﺒ äskärii, bēdäq |
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| Swahili | kucheza | mfalme | malkia | ngome | jamadari | padri | kitunda | |
| Hindi | šatranj | bādšāh | farzī, wazīr | kištī, hāthī, rukh | ghorā | ũt | pyādā, paidal | šah, kišt |
| Bengali | dābā | rājā | montri, rānī | noukā | ghorā | ũth | ||
| Georgian | tš'adrak'i | mepe | t'ura | et'li | mxedari | k'u | p'aik'i | |
| Hebrew | תמחשׁ šakhmat | ךלמ melekh | הכלמ malka | חירצ, הרתtseriakh, tirah | סוּס, שׁרפּ sus, paraš | ץר rats | ליח chajal | חשׁ šakh |
| Chinese | guòji xiàngqí | wángqí | wánghòu | jū | mǎ | xiàng | bīng | |
| Japanese | chesu | kingu | kuiin | rukku | naito | bishoppu | poon | |
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| Note that this article is written in the
Unicode (UTF-8) Character Set. Several foreign letters are underlined and
explained below.
Azerbaijani: e = e
upside down |
References
— 2 My source is Cassell's Latin Dictionary, D. P. Simpson, 1959 (1968). The original meaning of the word lātrunculus was an unknown game. Latin has been used by scholars in many Western countries in the Middle Ages as literal language. There has been many words for chess in Latin, eg lūsus lātrunculārius, lūsus scacchōrum (Magyar-Latin szótár, Györkösy Alajos 1960 [1992]). Geitlin's Finnish-Latin Dictionary uses a version lūdus lātrunculōrum. Back
— 3 Finnish word for chess is usually written as shakki, for example in Finnish chess magazines named Suomen Shakki ('Finland's Chess') and Kirjeshakki (= 'Correspondence Chess'). However, the usual pronounciation of this word begins with 's' (for most Finns /š/ is merely a foreign phoneme or never been in actual use). Just like in Latin and Spanish, Finnish has just one sibilant, the usual /s/. In few words of foreign origin /sh/ is found in the orthography, but these words are usually pronounced as /s/.
Johan Gabriel Geitlin in 1883 in his Finnish-Latin dictionary writes both sakki ja shakki, the first being primary. Back Table
— 5 The name rook comes from the Sanskrit ratha, a chariot, through Persian and Arabic rukh. Most European languages adapted the word by homophony through the Italian rocco meaning tower, which was thus translated. The only language other than English that uses a direct transliteration is Icelandic, with hrókur. (The Oxford Companion to Chess, David Hooper & Kenneth Whyld 1984, rook). Table
— 11 English castle is an alternative term for 'rook', now uncommon. This is the case for the Dutch kasteel 'id.' too. In Finnish a colloquial term linna (literally 'castle') means the castling, more generally linnoitus 'castling', literally 'fortress'. Table
— 12 Apart from Bulgarian офицер, for the bishop there is a colloquial term фриц [frits]. This used to be a name given to German soldiers and officers in the WW II by the Bulgarians, from the German name Fritz. Maybe phonetic similarities have given a stimulus to this innovation for the new term for bishop (ofitser < > frits). Table
— 13 The name for chess in Czech can be either šach or šachy, the latter being plural. Jezdec 'knight' (lit. 'rider') is usually called as kůň (lit. 'horse'). Table
— 14 Name of the game in Slovak can be either
šach or šachy. The former is singular, the latter plural, but both
can be used interchangebly; singular is perhaps a bit more usual.
Kôň
'knight' can be also called as jazdec (lit. 'rider'), which is called so
to distinguish it from kráľ when using abbreviations. The initial letters
make the difference. Table
