False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

[k1234567890y]

Sanskrit आर्य (ārya) /ˈɑːɾ.jɐ/ “noble, noble one” v.s. Proto-Finnic orja /ˈorjɑ/ "slave"

Also

English friend /fɹɛnd/ v.s. Swedish frände /frɛnˈdɛ/ "relative"

[Vlürch]

Sanskrit आर्य (ārya) /ˈɑːɾ.jɐ/ “noble, noble one” v.s. Proto-Finnic orja /ˈorjɑ/ "slave"

At least commonly the Finnish term (also found in other Uralic languages) is considered a loanword from Proto-Indo-Iranian, because speakers of Proto-Uralic enslaved speakers of Proto-Indo-Iranian. So yeah, it's a false friend and unfortunate, but not a coincidence... which is what makes it even more unfortunate.

[k1234567890y]

Sanskrit आर्य (ārya) /ˈɑːɾ.jɐ/ “noble, noble one” v.s. Proto-Finnic orja /ˈorjɑ/ "slave"

At least commonly the Finnish term (also found in other Uralic languages) is considered a loanword from Proto-Indo-Iranian, because speakers of Proto-Uralic enslaved speakers of Proto-Indo-Iranian. So yeah, it's a false friend and unfortunate, but not a coincidence... which is what makes it even more unfortunate.

ik it is not a coincidence, but still list them because they are false friends.

[Xonen]

Sanskrit आर्य (ārya) /ˈɑːɾ.jɐ/ “noble, noble one” v.s. Proto-Finnic orja /ˈorjɑ/ "slave"

At least commonly the Finnish term (also found in other Uralic languages) is considered a loanword from Proto-Indo-Iranian, because speakers of Proto-Uralic enslaved speakers of Proto-Indo-Iranian.

Well, maybe. We know basically nothing about speakers of Proto-Uralic: who they were, where they lived and when they lived, exactly, are all still unanswered questions, AFAIU. So getting into specifics about their culture or policy towards other tribes is iffy, to say the least. Of course, there are certain more recent examples of a parallel connection between an ethnonym and slavery, so it's certainly plausible.

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ik it is not a coincidence, but still list them because they are false friends.

I'd say these are probably distinct enough in their modern forms that they're not that likely to get mixed up, but then, I haven't really had many discussions about slavery in Sanskrit (or about nobles in Finnish with native speakers of Sanskrit), so I guess I wouldn't really know.

[Shemtov]

Inter-Chinese false friends:
Mandarin [tʰai˧˩t͡ɕi˧˥]"Tai-chi" Cantonese: [tʰai˧˩t͡ɕi˧˥] or [tʰai˧˩t͡si˧˥] "Grape"