False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

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Ælfwine
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Ælfwine »

:non: "áss" beam or pole compared to :usa: ass
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Shemtov
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Shemtov »

GrandPiano wrote: :cor: hwor /ʍɔr/ [ʍɔɹ~ʍɔɾ] "sister" - :eng: whore
So Borat is actually Cornish, not Kazakh?
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Shemtov »

Creyeditor wrote:Hausa: shi "3SG.M" :eng: she "3SG.F"

The first one is especially cool, if Hebrew 3SG.F is really 'hi', because they are both Afro-Asiatic.
I believe the from in Akkadian is /ʃi/.

:hun: <mi> /mi/ "what" and :heb: /mij/ "who"

:eus: <baina> "but" :mon: <байна> "is, am, are"
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G64
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by G64 »

:lat: sex "six" :eng: sex
:lat: disco "I learn" :eng: disco
:lat: ānus "ring" :lat: ănus "old woman" :eng: anus
:lat: fac "make!" :eng: fuck
:lat: dic "say!" :eng: dick
Native: :ita: | Intermediate: :eng: | Basic: :lat: :esp:
Studied: :qya: (+all of the above)
Willing to study: :grc: :jpn: :heb: :rus:

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WeepingElf
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by WeepingElf »

G64 wrote: :lat: disco "I learn" :eng: disco
I've been told about a school in England where the words AUDIO VIDEO DISCO are written above the door.
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Creyeditor
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Creyeditor »

:cat: :ces: :esp: :por: :ita: :hun: turista tourist :fin: turista To chatter.
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Vlürch »

Creyeditor wrote::cat: :ces: :esp: :por: :ita: :hun: turista tourist :fin: turista To chatter.
Hmm, there's more to it than "chatter". It's most commonly used in the phrase "totta turiset", which is more or less "what you say is true" in the sense "I agree with what you said" which has no implications of pointlessness like "chatter" does, but on its own it doesn't always necessarily even mean actual speech and can be dismissive, like "mitä sä turiset?" eg. "what are you babbling?".
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by GrandPiano »

:tur: pasta "cake" :eng: pasta
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Shemtov »

German <Sehr> "a lot; much; very" and Aramaic /ze.ɛr/ "small; short". This is even more confusing when you realize the Yiddish cognate to the German has an alveolar rhotic at the end, and that Ashkenazim often elide the /ɛ/ in /ze.ɛr/.
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Shemtov »

Yiddish/Hebrew /nɪgun/ "A tune; A specific kind of Jewish folk music" English N***er.
You have no idea how many times I've been accused of racism over use of /nɪgun/.
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qwed117
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by qwed117 »

Shemtov wrote:Yiddish/Hebrew /nɪgun/ "A tune; A specific kind of Jewish folk music" English N***er.
You have no idea how many times I've been accused of racism over use of /nɪgun/.
Also, doesn't Chinese have /nika/ <niga>
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by GrandPiano »

qwed117 wrote:
Shemtov wrote:Yiddish/Hebrew /nɪgun/ "A tune; A specific kind of Jewish folk music" English N***er.
You have no idea how many times I've been accused of racism over use of /nɪgun/.
Also, doesn't Chinese have /nika/ <niga>
<那个/那個> nèi ge [neɪ̯˥˩ kɤ̆˩~neɪ̯˥˩ gɤ̆˩]. See the OP.
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by GrandPiano »

:eng: ask and :eng: ass

It seems to be pretty common to pronounce "asked" as "assed", but people rarely notice because of how common it is.
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Thrice Xandvii »

Shemtov wrote:German <Sehr> "a lot; much; very" and Aramaic /ze.ɛr/ "small; short". This is even more confusing when you realize the Yiddish cognate to the German has an alveolar rhotic at the end, and that Ashkenazim often elide the /ɛ/ in /ze.ɛr/.
Also unrelated, but not as humorous, is :esp: ser to be.
GrandPiano wrote: :eng: ask and :eng: ass

It seems to be pretty common to pronounce "asked" as "assed", but people rarely notice because of how common it is.
If you say so. But I don't think I've heard it said that way. "Aks," though? Yep.
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by GrandPiano »

Thrice Xandvii wrote:
GrandPiano wrote: :eng: ask and :eng: ass

It seems to be pretty common to pronounce "asked" as "assed", but people rarely notice because of how common it is.
If you say so. But I don't think I've heard it said that way. "Aks," though? Yep.
The reason I thought of that pair is because I noticed myself doing it today. In informal speech, if you're not careful, it's not that hard to let /skt/ become /st/ (another option, of course, is metathesize it to /kst/, but I'm fairly certain that never happens in my idiolect).
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by GrandPiano »

I don't think this one's been mentioned yet:

:fra: poisson "fish" - :eng: poison
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alynnidalar
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by alynnidalar »

GrandPiano wrote:
Thrice Xandvii wrote:
GrandPiano wrote: :eng: ask and :eng: ass

It seems to be pretty common to pronounce "asked" as "assed", but people rarely notice because of how common it is.
If you say so. But I don't think I've heard it said that way. "Aks," though? Yep.
The reason I thought of that pair is because I noticed myself doing it today. In informal speech, if you're not careful, it's not that hard to let /skt/ become /st/ (another option, of course, is metathesize it to /kst/, but I'm fairly certain that never happens in my idiolect).
I go a step further and elide the /t/ in a lot of cases, I think, which results in the two pronunciations being exactly the same for me!
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Shemtov
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Shemtov »

I think sometimes I say [sk̚t], so the /k/ is barely noticeable.
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Thrice Xandvii
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Thrice Xandvii »

GrandPiano wrote:The reason I thought of that pair is because I noticed myself doing it today. In informal speech, if you're not careful, it's not that hard to let /skt/ become /st/ (another option, of course, is metathesize it to /kst/, but I'm fairly certain that never happens in my idiolect).
You know, it's funny, but I just spent a bit today trying to notice this, and the /k/ does get dropped a fair bit. I think I might have been overextending what you said to imply that some people say "ask" as "ass" which I certainly have never heard. So, either it was a reading comprehension fail on my part, or some other sort of misinterpretation.

Either way, you appear to be right.
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

Post by Znex »

GrandPiano wrote:I don't think this one's been mentioned yet:

:fra: poisson "fish" - :eng: poison
:eng: gift - :deu: Gift "poison"

I feel like this one's prolly been done already though.
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