False cognate
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish False cognates are pairs of words that seem to be cognates because of similar sounds or spelling and meaning, but have different etymologies; they can be within the same language or from different languages, even within the same family.Template:Sfnp For example, the English word dog and the Mbabaram word dog have exactly the same meaning and very similar pronunciations, but by complete coincidence. Likewise, English much and Spanish mucho came by their similar meanings via completely different Proto-Indo-European roots, and same for English have and Spanish haber. This is different from false friends, which are similar-sounding words with different meanings, and may or may not be cognates. Within a language, if they are spelled the same, they are homographs; if they are pronounced the same, they are homophones. Cross-linguistic or interlingual homographs or homophones sometimes include cognates; non-cognates may more specifically be called homographic or homophonic noncognates.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Even though false cognates lack a common root, there may still be an indirect connection between them (for example by phono-semantic matching or folk etymology).
PhenomenonEdit
The term "false cognate" is sometimes misused to refer to false friends, but the two phenomena are distinct.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp False friends occur when two words in different languages or dialects look similar, but have different meanings. While some false friends are also false cognates, many are genuine cognates (see False friends § Causes).Template:Sfnp For example, English pretend and French prétendre are false friends, but not false cognates, as they have the same origin.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
"Mama and papa" typeEdit
The basic kinship terms mama and papa comprise a special case of false cognates; many languages share words of similar form and meaning for these kinship terms, but due to common processes of language acquisition rather than relatedness of the languages.<ref name="Jakobson">Jakobson, R. (1962) "Why 'mama' and 'papa'?" In Jakobson, R. Selected Writings, Vol. I: Phonological Studies, pp. 538–545. The Hague: Mouton.</ref><ref name="Nichols">Nichols, J. (1999) "Why 'me' and 'thee'?" Historical Linguistics 1999: Selected Papers from the 14th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Vancouver, 9–13 August 1999, ed. Laurel J. Brinton, John Benjamins Publishing, 2001, pages 253-276.</ref><ref name="Bancel">Bancel, P.J. and A.M. de l'Etang. (2008) "The Age of Mama and Papa" Bengtson J. D. In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory: Essays in the four fields of anthropology. (John Benjamins Publishing, Dec 3, 2008), pages 417-438.</ref><ref name="Bancel-2">Bancel, P.J. and A.M. de l'Etang. (2013) "Brave new words" In New Perspectives on the Origins of Language, ed. C. Lefebvre, B. Comrie, H. Cohen (John Benjamins Publishing, Nov 15, 2013), pages 333-377.</ref>
ExamplesEdit
Note: Some etymologies may be simplified to avoid overly long descriptions.
Within EnglishEdit
| Term 1 | Etymology 1 | Term 2 | Etymology 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| day | Old English dæġ Template:Br<< Proto-Germanic *dagazTemplate:Br<< Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ-<ref name="dhegh">Kroonen, Guus (2013) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill
</ref> || diary || Latin diārium << dies ("day")Template:Br<< Proto-Italic *djēm Template:Br<< PIE *dyḗws ("heaven")Template:Thin space<ref name="oed2">Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition.</ref><ref name="Glossary"/> | ||
| island | Middle English ilandTemplate:Br<< Old English īeġlandTemplate:Br<< Proto-Germanic *awjōlandą | isle | Middle English ileTemplate:Br<< Old French i(s)leTemplate:Br<< Latin insula |
| citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> || Middle English policieTemplate:Br<< Old French policieTemplate:Br<< Late Latin politiaTemplate:Br<< Ancient Greek politeía || police, (insurance) policy || French policeTemplate:Br<< Italian polizzaTemplate:Br<< Medieval Latin apodissaTemplate:Br<< Ancient Greek apódeixis |
Between English and other languagesEdit
| English term | English etymology | Foreign term | Foreign etymology |
|---|---|---|---|
| bad | Possibly from OE bæddel ("hermaphrodite, effeminate man")Template:Br<< PGmc *bad- ("defile") | lang}}, badTemplate:Thin space<ref name="Campbell2">Lyle Campbell, Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, 3rd edition, p. 350</ref><ref name="Glossary">Template:Cite book</ref> | Middle Iranian *vatTemplate:Br<< PIE *wed(h)- |
| better | OE betera | lang}}, behtar and Hindustani descendants | به (beh, "good") + تر (-tar, "-er") |
| cinder | OE sinder << PGmc *sendra- "slag" << PIE *sendhro- "coagulating fluid" |
French cendre ("ash") | Latin cinerem << PIE *ken- ("to arise, begin") |
| day | OE dæġ Template:Br<< PGmc *dagaz Template:Br<< PIE *dʰeǵʰ-<ref name="dhegh"/> | Latin dies ("day") and descendantsTemplate:Thin space<ref name="oed2"/><ref name="Glossary"/> | Proto-Italic *djēm Template:Br<< PIE *dyḗws ("heaven")Template:Thin space<ref name="oed2"/><ref name="Glossary"/> |
| desert | Latin dēserō ("to abandon") Template:Br<< ultimately PIE **seh₁- ("to sow") | Ancient Egyptian Deshret (refers to the land not flooded by the Nile)Template:Thin space | from dšr (red) |
| dog | OE docga or dogga | Mbabaram dog ("dog")Template:Thin space<ref name="Glossary"/> | Proto-Pama-Nyungan *gudaga |
| emoticon | emotion + icon | Japanese 絵文字 (emoji) Template:Thin space<ref name=Taggart-2015>Template:Cite book</ref> | 絵 (e) ("picture") + 文字 (moji) ("character")<ref name=Taggart-2015 /> |
| have | Middle English haven << OE habban ("to have") << Proto-West Germanic *habbjan << Proto-Germanic *habjaną ("to have"), durative of *habjaną ("to lift, take up") << PIE *kh₂pyéti present tense of *keh₂p- ("to take, seize, catch"). |
Corsican avè ("to have") | Latin habēre, present active infinitive of habeō << Proto-Italic *habēō << PIE *gʰeh₁bʰ- ("to grab"). |
| hollow | OE holh Template:Br<< PGmc *holhwo- | Lake Miwok hólluTemplate:Thin space<ref name="Campbell2"/> | |
| much | OE myċel Template:Br<< PGmc *mikilaz Template:Br<< PIE *meǵa- ("big, stout, great") | Spanish mucho ("much")Template:Thin space<ref name="Glossary"/> | Latin multus (many)Template:Br<< PIE *ml̥tos ("crumbled") |
| saint | Latin sanctusTemplate:Br<< PIE *seh₂k- ("to sanctify") via French | Sanskrit sant and descendantsTemplate:Thin space<ref name="Schomer-1987">Template:Cite book</ref> | sat ("truth, reality, essence") |
| shark | Middle English shark from uncertain origin | Chinese 鲨 (shā)Template:Thin space | Named as its crude skin is similar to sand (沙 (shā)) |
Between other languagesEdit
| Term 1 | Etymology 1 | Term 2 | Etymology 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| French feu ("fire") | Latin focus | German Feuer ("fire") | PGmc *fōr ~ *fun-<ref name="dhegh"/><ref>Lyle Campbell, Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, 3rd edition, p. 355</ref><ref name="Glossary"/>Template:Br<< PIE *péh₂wr̥ |
| French nuque ('nape') | Latin nucha, from Arabic نُخَاع nukhāʻ 'spinal marrow' | Hungarian nyak ('neck')<ref name="Barczi">Template:Cite book</ref> | Proto-Uralic *ńᴕkkɜ 'neck' |
| German haben ('to have') | PG *habjanąTemplate:Br<< PIE *keh₂p- ("to grasp") | citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> || PIE *gʰeh₁bʰ- ("to grab, to take") |
| Swedish göl ("pool") | PG *guljō | Salar göl ("pool") | Proto-Turkic *kȫl ("lake") |
| German Erdbeere ('strawberry') | Erd ('earth') + Beere ('berry') | Hungarian eper ('strawberry')<ref name=Barczi/> | |
| German Haus ('house') | Hungarian ház ('house')<ref name=Barczi/> | ||
| Hawaiian kahuna ('priest') | Hebrew כוהן (kohen) ('priest')<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> | ||
| Hungarian nő ('woman') | Mandarin Chinese 女 (nǚ) ('woman')<ref name=Barczi/> | ||
| Inuktitut ᖃᔭᖅ (kayak) | Proto-Eskimo *qyaq | Turkish kayık ('small boat')<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> | Old Turkic kayguk Template:Br<< Proto-Turkic kay- ("to slide, to turn") |
| Mayaimi Mayaimi (Big water) | Hebrew מים mayim ("water") | ||
| lang}} arigatō ("thank you") | Clipping of 有難う御座います "arigatō gozaimasu" ("(I) am thankful") Template:Br<< 有難く "arigataku"Template:Br<< 有難い "arigatai" ("thankful, appreciated") Template:Br<< Old Japanese 有難斯 "arigatasi" ("difficult to be")Template:Thin spaceTemplate:Citation needed | Portuguese obrigado ("thank you")<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | Literally "obliged"Template:Br << Latin obligātus |
| Hindustani अम्मा / Template:Nq (ammā, "mother") | Prakrit 𑀅𑀁𑀫𑀸 (aṃmā), from Sanskrit {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Transliteration, "mother, feminine honorific") | Tamil அம்மா (ammā, "mother") | Proto-Dravidian *amma ("mother") |
| Indonesian tanah ("ground") | Proto-Austronesian *tanaq | Aleut tanax̂ ("ground") | Proto-Eskimo *luna ("earth") |
| Tagalog bagay ("thing") | Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bagay | Haitian Creole bagay ("thing") | Saint Dominican Creole French bagage |
| Dusun do ("of") | Austronesian o | Portuguese do ("of") | Latin de |
| Spanish gusano ("worm, insect larva") | Uncertain, possibly from Latin cossus ("woodworm") | Russian гусеница (gusenica) ("caterpillar") | Proto-Slavic *ǫsěnica ("caterpillar") |
False cognates used in the coinage of new wordsEdit
The coincidental similarity between false cognates can sometimes be used in the creation of new words (neologization). For example, the Hebrew word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} dal ("poor") (which is a false cognate of the phono-semantically similar English word dull) is used in the new Israeli Hebrew expression אין רגע דל en rega dal (literally "There is no poor moment") as a phono-semantic matching for the English expression Never a dull moment.<ref>Page 91 of Template:Cite book</ref>
Similarly, the Hebrew word דיבוב dibúv ("speech, inducing someone to speak"), which is a false cognate of (and thus etymologically unrelated to) the phono-semantically similar English word dubbing, is then used in the Israeli phono-semantic matching for dubbing. The result is that in Modern Hebrew, דיבוב dibúv means "dubbing".<ref>Page 96 of Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Areal feature
- Convergent evolution
- Equivalence
- Etymological fallacy
- False etymology
- False friend
- Linguistic interference (language transfer)
- Pseudoscientific language comparison
- Semantic change
- Sprachbund
ReferencesEdit
Works citedEdit
Further readingEdit
- Rubén Morán (2011), 'Cognate Linguistics', Kindle Edition, Amazon.
- Geoff Parkes and Alan Cornell (1992), 'NTC's Dictionary of German False Cognates', National Textbook Company, NTC Publishing Group.
- Template:Citation
- Template:Citation
External linksEdit
- Cognates.org Template:Webarchive
- {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}