Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-athena.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-athena!jc
From: jc@mit-athena.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: False cognates
Message-ID: <277@mit-athena.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 13:26:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-athe.277
Posted: Mon Jul  1 13:26:44 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 04:37:00 EDT
Reply-To: jc@mit-athena.UUCP (John Chambers)
Distribution: net.nlang
Organization: MIT Project Athena
Lines: 37
Summary: 

The debate over OK and apparently-related words in assorted other
languages (such as Wolof) gives me a golden opportunity to put out
a request for contributions in the form of false cognates.  First
a definition:  a "False cognate" is a pair of words in two languages
which have nearly-identical pronunciations and meanings, but which
are nevertheless not related (byt borrowing or by common ancestry).

Some examples. 

There are some languages in West Africa (I forget for the moment which
ones) which contain a word pronounced much like English "bad", and which
means the same thing.  The word is unrelated to the english word; the
similarity is a coincidence.

In Hebrew, the word "hi'" is pronounced the same as the English word "he",
and means "she".  This is a coincidence; the languages are not related and
neither one borrowed the word.

There are many languages in which the word for "mother" consists of the "m"
sound plus a low vowel.  Many of them are not related.  Psycholinguists 
have suggested that there is something deep within the human psyche that
wants to call their mother by some term sounding like "ma".  This set
of false cognates is the primary piece of evidence.  Similarly, the
word for "father" very frequently starts with a stop.  It would in English,
but we long ago went through a pronunciation shift that turned "pater" into
"fat[h]er".  

Anyone got any more good examples?  (Please, try to verify that your examples
really are false cognates, not borrowings!)


-- 
       ...!decvax
    		  \ 
      ...!mit-eddie!mit-athena!jc [John Chambers @ MIT Project Athena]
                  /
       ...!harvard