What language (other than English) do you speak?

[Sam]

French is a Romance language, so I'm sure that "pain" would be derived from Latin "panis." The Japanese word for bread comes from Spanish, which is "pan" (written as パン in JP). I think this is where English got the word pantry from (again using the word "bread" as a reference to common provisions and not only bread).

The wiki article for Latin states that the Romance languages are descended from Latin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin

Additionally, I think most European languages are descended from a proto-Indo-European language (this is why Sanskrit has many similarities / parallels to Latin).

If you're interested in the history of languages, check this book out: http://www.amazon.com/Speak-History-.../dp/0199263418