False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

[Shemtov]

Ok, this is from a conlang, but I had decided that /h/- would be the 3P.SING pronoun marker, and then realized that I had already made /o/ a feminine marker. So, given that process, this is one damned unfortunate coincidence.
Thá!'o <Hò> /ho˩/ "3P.FEM.SING.ABS" <Ho> "derogatory slang for a prostitute or a loose woman"

[Shemtov]

<elf> Yiddish /ɛlf/ "Eleven" "Elf"

[k1234567890y]

Just found this:

English refer v.s. Catalan refer "to redo"

[Shemtov]

I can't believe this wasn't mentioned before!
<A> "DEF" :eng <A> "INDEF"

[GrandPiano]

Guarani ore "we (exclusive)"
俺 ore "I, me (informal)"

[Shemtov]

Kugel "Bullet; Ball" Yiddish/Jewish English /kugl̩/ " Traditional Batter or Egg based Pudding that can be Savory or Sweet"

[sangi39]

English hour /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/ vs. Icelandic ár (year) /auːr̥/

Icelandic ár and English year are cognates, but the Icelandic word for "hour" is (klukku)stund or (klukku)tími, as far as I can remember.

[WeepingElf]

I don't know if this has already been posted, but:

wer 'who'
wo 'where'

[Khemehekis]

I don't know if this has already been posted, but:

wer 'who'
wo 'where'

Yes, I pointed it out here.

[DesEsseintes]

Arabic: نور nuur - light

Nobiin: nùùr - shadow

I thought this was kinda striking as most Nobiin speakers are apparently bilingual, using local Arabic alongside their own language.

[Lambuzhao]

Douche "Shower" Douche. Can't believe that wasn't mentioned before

And Dusche goes with the French.

There are two near-homphones in that belong with this entry. I'm not sure if they're false-friends, foul-weather friends, or finicky-friends, but here goes.

The first is душ [duʂ] which comes from douche "shower" and means the same.

But then there's дощ [dɔʃt͡ʃ] which comes from an entirely different, entirely Slavic root *dъždžь, and means "rain".
In my humble estimation, to just about any native-speaker, these would prolly be not-so-close homophones.

However, my baba and grand-uncles and great-cousins who spoke pronounced "rain", as far as I could tell, as дош [dɔʂ], bringing the word even closer to a homophone with душ shower.


In fact, for years I erroneously just supposed that my Uke ancestors borrowed the word from the douche, like so many other lang-communities, and melded it to their own purposes.

I was pleasantly surprised that there is an actual honest-to-goodness Slavic root *dъždžь for дощ "rain". Intriguingly, it's related to
Skt. दुर्दिन (durdina, “rain, shower”), Ancient Greek εὐδία (eudía, “fair weather”), whch is just plain really neat in my book.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstr ... 5%BE%D1%8C


OMG, and then there's душа́ [du'ʂa] "soul, spirit" (common w/ and other Slavic Langs)

[Shemtov]

<Manga> "Japanese Comics" <Manga> "sleeve" <мангас> "monster"

[k1234567890y]

found this on Wiktionary:

Turkish sözlük "dictionary" v.s. Azerbaijani sözlük "wordlist"

they are cognates, and while the meanings are similar, they are not the same. The word for "dictionary" in Azerbaijani, as Wiktionary states, is lüğət

[Creyeditor]

The word for "dictionary" in Azerbaijani, as Wiktionary states, is lüğət

Which is a false friend to German Lüget! lie! (imperative plural)

[k1234567890y]

The word for "dictionary" in Azerbaijani, as Wiktionary states, is lüğət

Which is a false friend to German Lüget! lie! (imperative plural)

ja ja genau XD

[k1234567890y]

English sloven v.s. Slovene

Also

English sloven v.s. Dutch sloven "apron(pl.)" v.s Swedish Sloven "a person from Slovenia"

[Shemtov]

Amorphous Ομορφοσ /omorfos/ "Beautiful"

[Tuyono]

I don't know if this one has been mentioned before:

סוס [sus] 'horse'
sūs 'pig'

[k1234567890y]

within English:

kingfish v.s. kingfisher

kingfish are fish; kingfishers are birds

it seems that kingfish are pretty large; while kingfishers are small birds, it is hard, if possible, for kingfishers to fish kingfish.

[Shemtov]

Cois Fharraige Éireann /e:rʲənˠ/ "Ireland" /erɔ:n/ "Iran"