Editing False cognate (section)

{{short description|Words that look or sound alike, but are not related}}
{{distinguish|False friend}}
'''False cognates''' are pairs of words that seem to be [[cognate]]s 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.{{sfnp|Moss|1992|p=?}} For example, the English word ''[[wikt:dog#Etymology|dog]]'' and the [[Mbabaram language|Mbabaram]] word ''[[wikt:dog#Mbabaram|dog]]'' have exactly the same meaning and very similar pronunciations, but by complete coincidence. Likewise, English ''[[wikt:much#Etymology|much]]'' and Spanish ''[[wikt:mucho#Spanish|mucho]]'' came by their similar meanings via completely different [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] roots, and same for English ''[[wikt:have#Etymology|have]]'' and Spanish ''[[wikt:haber#Spanish|haber]]''. This is different from [[false friend]]s, 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>{{Cite book |last=Szubko-Sitarek |first=Weronika |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Multilingual_Lexical_Recognition_in_the/Jge7BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=false+cognate+cross-language+homophone&pg=PA106&printsec=frontcover |title=Multilingual Lexical Recognition in the Mental Lexicon of Third Language Users |date=2014-10-07 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-642-32194-8 |pages=106 |language=en}}</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]]).