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. 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.

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).

Phenomenon

The term "false cognate" is sometimes misused to refer to false friends, but the two phenomena are distinct. 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). For example, English pretend and French prétendre are false friends, but not false cognates, as they have the same origin.

"Mama and papa" type

The basic kinship terms mama and papa constitute 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.

Examples

Note: Some etymologies may be simplified to avoid overly long descriptions.

Within English

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Term 1 !! Etymology 1 !! Term 2 !! Etymology 2

|-

| day || Old English dæġ << Proto-Germanic *dagaz<< Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ- || diary || Latin diārium << dies ("day")<< Proto-Italic *djēm << PIE *dyḗws ("heaven") || Middle English policie<< Old French policie<< Late Latin politia<< Ancient Greek politeía || (insurance) policy || French police<< Italian polizza<< Medieval Latin apodissa<< Ancient Greek apódeixis

|}

Between English and other languages

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! English term

! English etymology

! Foreign term

! Foreign etymology

|-

| bad || Possibly from OE bæddel ("hermaphrodite, effeminate man")<< PGmc *bad- ("defile") || Persian , bad || Old Iranian *wata-

|-

| better || OE betera || Persian , behtar, Hindi , bahatar|| به (beh, "good") + تر (-tar, "-er")

|-

|cinder

|OE sinder<br><< PGmc *sendra- "slag"<br><< PIE *sendhro- "coagulating fluid"

|French cendre ("ash")

|Latin cinerem<br><< PIE *ken- ("to arise, begin")

|-

|day || OE dæġ << PGmc *dagaz << PIE *dʰeǵʰ-

|絵 (e) ("picture") + 文字 (moji) ("character") || sat ("truth, reality, essence")

|-

| shark || Middle English shark from uncertain origin || Chinese 鲨 (shā) || Named as its crude skin is similar to sand (沙 (shā))

|}

Between other languages

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Term 1

! Etymology 1

! Term 2

! Etymology 2

|-

| French feu ("fire") || Latin focus ||German Feuer ("fire")

|PGmc *fōr ~ *fun-<< PIE *péh₂wr̥

|-

| French nuque ('nape') ||Latin nucha, from Arabic نُخَاع nukhāʻ 'spinal marrow' || Hungarian nyak ('neck') || Proto-Uralic *ńᴕkkɜ 'neck'

|-

| German haben ('to have') || PG *habjaną<< PIE *keh₂p- ("to grasp") || Latin habere ("to have") and descendants || 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') || Proto-West Semitic *kāhin-

|-

| Hungarian nő ('woman') || Proto-Uralic *niŋä || Mandarin Chinese 女 (nǚ) ('woman') || Old Turkic kayguk << Proto-Turkic kay- ("to slide, to turn")

|-

| Mayaimi Mayaimi (Big water) || || Hebrew מים mayim ("water") || Proto-Semitic *māy-

|-

| Japanese arigatō ("thank you") || Clipping of 有難う御座います "arigatō gozaimasu" ("(I) am thankful") << 有難く "arigataku"<< 有難い "arigatai" ("thankful, appreciated") << Old Japanese 有難斯 "arigatasi" ("difficult to be") || Portuguese obrigado ("thank you")|| Literally "obliged" << Latin obligātus

|-

| Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) अम्मा / (ammā, "mother")

| Prakrit 𑀅𑀁𑀫𑀸 (aṃmā), from Sanskrit (, "mother, feminine honorific")

| Tamil அம்மா Malayalam അമ്മ (ammā, "mother")

| Proto-Dravidian *amma ("mother")

|-

| Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) मज़ा / مزہ

(Mazah, "Fun")

| From Classical Persian مزہ, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh<sub>2</sub>k.

| Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)

मज़ाक़ / مذاق

(Mazaaq, "Prank/Joke/Fun/Mockery")

| From Arabic "مذاق" (Arabic->Persian->Hindustani).

|-

| Indonesian tanah ("ground")

| Proto-Austronesian *tanaq

| Aleut tanax̂ ("ground")

| Cognate with Proto-Eskimo *nuna ("earth")

|-

| Tagalog bagay ("thing")

| Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bagay

| Haitian Creole bagay ("thing")

| Saint Dominican Creole French bagage

|-

| Hebrew שֵׁשׁ (šeš) ("six")

| Proto-Semitic *šidṯum

| Persian شش (šaš) ("six")

| from Proto-Iranian *šwáš and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs

|-

| Dusun do ("of")

|

| Portuguese do ("of")

| Latin de

|-

| Spanish gusano ("worm, insect larva")

| Uncertain, possibly from Latin cossus ("woodworm")

| Russian гусеница (gusenica) ("caterpillar")

| Proto-Slavic *ǫsěnica ("caterpillar")

|-

| Hebrew אֶלָּא (elá) ("but, except")

| From Aramaic אלא, blend of אִן (ʾin "if") and לָא (lā "not")

| Modern Greek αλλά (allá) ("but")

| >>Ancient Greek ἀλλά, the neuter accusative plural of ἄλλος (“another, different”) >> PIE *h₂élyos

|-

| Thai พระ (phra) ("priest, monk")

| From Sanskrit vara (वर): excellent, holy

| Italian fra ("friar, monk, brother")

| Latin frāter ("brother")

|-

| Hebrew אוֹ (ʔo) ("or")

| Proto-Semitic *ʔaw

| Spanish o ("or")

| Latin aut

|-

| Scots Gaelic bò ("cow")

| Proto-Indo-European gʷṓws

| Vietnamese bò ("cow")

| Proto-Vietic bɔː

|-

| Japanese あなた (anata) ("you")

| Old Japanese spatial deictic anata ("that side, yonder")<< a (distal demonstrative prefix) + nata (variant of kata "direction")

| Arabic أَنْتَ (anta) ("you" [masc. sing.])

| Proto-Semitic *ʼanta ("you")<< *ʼan- (pronominal base) + *-ta (second person masculine marker)

|}

False cognates used in the coinage of new words

The coincidental similarity between false cognates can sometimes be used in the creation of new words (neologization). For example, the Hebrew word 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.

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".

See also

  • Areal feature
  • Convergent evolution
  • Equivalence
  • Etymological fallacy
  • False etymology
  • False friend
  • Linguistic interference (language transfer)
  • Pseudoscientific language comparison
  • Semantic change
  • Sprachbund

References

Works cited

Further reading

  • 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.
  • Cognates.org