False cognates

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Re: False cognates

Post by Khemehekis »

Nortaneous wrote: 29 Jul 2019 00:11 In wordlists of North Bougainville languages, "boat" is almost always given as boato.
This looks like a false cognate with the Esperanto!
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Re: False cognates

Post by Nortaneous »

Vlürch wrote: 01 Jun 2019 11:30 :eng: quick
Old Chinese /*qʰʷaːɡ/ - quickly, suddenly

Maybe it's a bit of a stretch, but they do have similar meanings and velars and uvulars aren't that different. Also, even though I don't know of one, I wouldn't be too surprised if there was some English dialect where "quick" is pronounced [kwɑːk] or [kwæk]; I mean, if [ɪ] -> [æ] can happen before /ŋ/ for some people, why not before /k/ since it's also velar?
Modern English vowel changes before velars are typically before the voiced velars /ŋ g/ but not /k/.
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Re: False cognates

Post by Shemtov »

καλώ /kalo/ "I call to" :eng: "to call" The former is from PIE *kelh, and thus its :eng: relative is "to low [as an ox]" while the :eng: is from PIE *gols-, cognate to the Slavic words for "Voice".
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Re: False cognates

Post by k1234567890y »

English make v.s. Proto-Uralic meke- "to make"
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Re: False cognates

Post by k1234567890y »

Maká(a Matacoan language spoken in Paraguay) tenuk “cat” v.s. Japanese たぬき (tanuki) “raccoon dog”
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Re: False cognates

Post by Iyionaku »

Are con-natlang pairs allowed too if they're unintentional?

:con: Paatherye hūn "egg" vs. :deu: German Huhn "chicken", both with the same pronunciation

The former derives from PIE *h₂ōwyóm "egg", the latter ultimately from PIE *keh₂n- "to sing"
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Re: False cognates

Post by k1234567890y »

English load v.s. Standard German laden "to load", despite that both languages are West Germanic, and the words look similar, they are not cognates.
Iyionaku wrote: 30 Sep 2019 11:20 Are con-natlang pairs allowed too if they're unintentional?

:con: Paatherye hūn "egg" vs. :deu: German Huhn "chicken", both with the same pronunciation

The former derives from PIE *h₂ōwyóm "egg", the latter ultimately from PIE *keh₂n- "to sing"
wow what a coincidence!
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Re: False cognates

Post by k1234567890y »

Standard German nein "no(answering questions)" v.s. Toyama dialect of Japanese naan (なあん) "no(answering questions)"
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Re: False cognates

Post by Pabappa »

:eng: cower != :eng: coward. There's also a verb "cow", which is not related to either of these others.
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Re: False cognates

Post by k1234567890y »

Old Chinese /lo/(reconstructed) "to approve" v.s. Hiri Motu lo "yes"
k1234567890y wrote: 29 Jun 2019 21:27 English LOL v.s. Dutch lol "fun"(attested as early as 1560s) v.s. Welsh lol "nonsense, ridiculous"
add one to the list of false cognates: Old Chinese "happy, pleased, delightful", the pronounciation of in Old Chinese has been reconstructed as /lo/
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Re: False cognates

Post by Zythros Jubi »

k1234567890y wrote: 29 Oct 2019 16:54 Old Chinese /lo/(reconstructed) "to approve" v.s. Hiri Motu lo "yes"
k1234567890y wrote: 29 Jun 2019 21:27 English LOL v.s. Dutch lol "fun"(attested as early as 1560s) v.s. Welsh lol "nonsense, ridiculous"
add one to the list of false cognates: Old Chinese "happy, pleased, delightful", the pronounciation of in Old Chinese has been reconstructed as /lo/
AFAIK Old Chinese means "yes" too; see here https://chaoglobal.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/ling/
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Re: False cognates

Post by k1234567890y »

Zythros Jubi wrote: 31 Oct 2019 04:10 AFAIK Old Chinese means "yes" too; see here https://chaoglobal.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/ling/
lo, I have seen that before lol XDD

and that video is actually the reason that inspired me to tell people about
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Re: False cognates

Post by Dormouse559 »

:eng: arbor
:lat: arbor

English arbor comes from Old French erbier "field, meadow, kitchen garden", derived from Latin herba; it was respelled under the influence of Latin arbor. So naturally, the day dedicated to planting trees has a name derived from a word for grass. [xP]
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Re: False cognates

Post by All4Ɇn »

Dormouse559 wrote: 08 Nov 2019 00:00 :eng: arbor
:lat: arbor

English arbor comes from Old French erbier "field, meadow, kitchen garden", derived from Latin herba; it was respelled under the influence of Latin arbor. So naturally, the day dedicated to planting trees has a name derived from a word for grass. [xP]
No way! This seems too crazy to be true!
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Re: False cognates

Post by Dormouse559 »

All4Ɇn wrote: 26 Nov 2019 00:03
Dormouse559 wrote: 08 Nov 2019 00:00 :eng: arbor
:lat: arbor
No way! This seems too crazy to be true!
I know, right? I was just looking up English "arbor" to find out why it was borrowed from Latin, and Wiktionary blew that premise out of the water. And the OED backs it up.
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Re: False cognates

Post by Salmoneus »

Dormouse559 wrote: 08 Nov 2019 00:00 :eng: arbor
:lat: arbor

English arbor comes from Old French erbier "field, meadow, kitchen garden", derived from Latin herba; it was respelled under the influence of Latin arbor. So naturally, the day dedicated to planting trees has a name derived from a word for grass. [xP]
*stares in disbelief*
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Re: False cognates

Post by Sequor »

Japanese nani 'what?'
Inuktitut nani 'where?'
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Re: False cognates

Post by qwed117 »

All4Ɇn wrote: 12 Jun 2019 02:59 Although both of these words ultimately derive their first element from the same Indo-European root, they both derive it from different words in Latin and so I think they still count as false cognates

:bra: para "for" (from Latin per + ad)
:esp: para "for" (from Latin pro + ad)
just saw thought of this, and wow damn that blows my mind
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k1234567890y
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Re: False cognates

Post by k1234567890y »

just found a list of false cognates between Japanese and several other languages:

https://www.wa-pedia.com/language/japan ... ords.shtml
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Re: False cognates

Post by yangfiretiger121 »

k1234567890y wrote: 09 Dec 2019 08:50 just found a list of false cognates between Japanese and several other languages:

https://www.wa-pedia.com/language/japan ... ords.shtml
Technically, labeling that page "false cognates" is misleading because it doesn't provide etymological information for most entries, sticking to solely definitions. Specifically, boya and tsumari may be back-translations. Also, the page labels them as cognates. Thus, this is the incorrect topic. Granted, I wouldn't post the link in Surprising Cognates without complete research.
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