It is always fascinating to compare different languages - with the realisation that despite the concept of Tower of Babel linguistic chaos we tend to have, that no one can understand a word anyone from the other side of an arbitrary border says, our languages tend to have far more in common than we imagine, just as our cultures and societies in fact do.

Great swathes of Eurasia with just a few different different, but still very much interrelated, blocs.

At least when written down - cross the border from Spain to Portugal, for example, and you may understand pretty much every word of a menu or newspaper headline, but will be hard pressed to follow a single thing when someone speaks to you.