Copied and adapted from the article "SabbathLang.html" found on "www.amethystministries.org" and titled "The word Sabbath in world languages."
Dr. William Meade Jones lived over a hundred and fifty years ago and was a well-known research expert in London England. He discovered in his studies that the seventh-day shabbath was the only weekly shabbath ever commanded by Yahuwah, the Father of our Savior Yahushua, in scripture.
Jones decided that since scripture clearly shows that the shabbath was first given to mankind at the end of the Creation Week (B'ereshiyth [Genesis] 2:1-3) then two important facts would have had to be known throughout the ancient world. First, a fixing of the seven-day weekly cycle on a world-wide basis, and second, an ancient world-wide knowledge of the seventh-day shabbath.
2. They would have taught their descendents about the shabbath and its sacredness.
3. The truth that mankind is to rest on the seventh day of each week requires a seven-day week, even though they may have later turned to idols and left the commandments of the True Eloah.
4. As the descendents of Adam and Noach spread out all over the world, they would have carried with them the seven-day week and the seventh day sacred shabbath given by Yahuwah to mankind.
Many of Adam's and Noach's descendents became scoffers. However, Jones reasoned, that they would still carry with them the twin truths of the Creation Week of B'ereshiyth 1 by their keeping of the seven-day weekly cycle and the seventh day shabbath by naming the seventh day of the week in their language as the day of shabbath rest.
William Mead Jones decided to research a majority of the languages of the world to see if his reasonings were true. The results of his research was as he suspected and is another powerful proof not only that the seventh day is the true shabbath of Yahuwah but also that the creation account in B'ereshiyth 1 and 2 is accurate and that Yahuwah is our Creator!
3rd Day to the shabbath.
4th day to the shabbath.
(from ancient Lybian or Numidian) Atlas Mountains, Africa.
The table above includes some of the oldest languages known to man. One of these, the Babylonian language, was in use hundreds of years before Abraham. That language designated the seventh day of the week as "sa-ba-tu," meaning rest day -- indisputable proof that Yahuwah's sacred shabbath as given in scripture was not, and is not, exclusively Yahudiyth (Jewish).
Very few realize that the word "shabbath" and the concept of resting from work on the seventh day of the week is common to most of the ancient and modern languages of the world. This is evidence totally independent of the scriptures and confirms the teaching that Yahuwah's seventh day shabbath predates the religion of Yisra'el. The concept of a seventh day sacred rest was understood, accepted, and practiced by virtually every culture from Babel through modern times.
1. In the majority of the principal languages the last, or seventh, day of the week is designated as "shabbath."
2. There is not even one language which designates another day as the "day of rest."
From these facts we may conclude that not only those people who called the last day of the week "shabbath," but all other peoples and races, as far as they recognized any day of the week as "shabbath," rested on the seventh day. In fact, it was recorded by the great historian, Socrates, that in his time the whole known world, with the exception of Rome and Alexandria, observed the seventh day of the week.
Another interesting fact is that the words in the original languages that are used to designate the seventh day of the week as the shabbath have continued to be very similar while the other words have been so changed over time that they are unintelligible to people of other language groups. This is another proof that the shabbath and the words used to designate the seventh day of the week as the "shabbath day" originated at Creation in complete harmony with the scriptural record found in B'ereshiyth 2:1-3.
Related articles which you may find to be of interest.
When Does the Shabbath Start?