Multilingual false friends 2

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Multilingual false friends 2

Postby Aurinĭa » 2018-01-25, 18:38

Continuation of this thread, which can now be found in the Forum Archives.

Post your multilingual false friends here!

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby Vlürch » 2018-01-26, 14:46

English (en) kitchen
Tatar (tt) кичен/kiçen - in the evening

Turkish (tr) küçük - small
Azeri (az) küçük - puppy
Kurdish (ku) kûçik - dog
Azeri (az) kiçik - small
Crimean Tatar (crh) kiçik - small
Uzbek (uz) kichik - small
Khakas (kjh) кічіг - small
кичиг - small
Southern Altai (alt) кӱчӱк - puppy
Tajik (tg) кучук - dog
Persian (fa) کوچک (kučak) - small
Balochi (bal) کچک (kucak) - dog

Macedonian (mk) кучка - female dog
Bulgarian (bg) кучка - bitch
Serbo-Croatian (sh) кучка/kučka - female dog

Finnish (fi) hoi - hey, ahoy (sailor greeting)
Rapa Nui (rap) hoi - horse
hoi - deep sea; go in; put in
Andi (ani) хой - dog
Khakas (kjh) хой - sheep
Tuvan (tyv) хой - sheep

Kyrgyz (ky) кой - sheep
Kazakh (kk) қой - sheep
Uyghur (ug) قوي/қой - sheep
Crimean Tatar (crh) къой/qoy - sheep
Turkish (tr) koy - cove; put, fuck (imperative)
Erzya (myv) кой - law, tradition, custom
Finnish (fi) koi - cloth moth; Japanese carp
Estonian (et) koi - cloth moth
Karelian (krl) koi - moth
koi - moth
Japanese (ja) (koi) - carp
English (en) koi - Japanese carp
Bulgarian (bg) кой - who, which, what
Palauan (pau) koi - grey
Maori (mi) koi - spike; sharp
koy - slave
koy - horse

Finnish (fi) kukka - flower
kukka - flower
Chuvash (cv) кукка - maternal uncle
Faroese (fo) kukka - (childish) to defecate
Italian (it) cucca - he/she/it obtains by deceit, deceives
Neapolitan (nap) cuccà - to lay (someone or something) down; to lie down
Sicilian (scn) cucca - female cuckoo; little owl; bad luck-bringer person, jinx

English (en) kin
Turkish (tr) kin - hatred
Azeri (az) kin - hatred
Crimean Tatar (crh) кин/kin - hatred
Karaim (kdr) кин - day; hatred
Chuvash (cv) кин - daughter-in-law
Udmurt (udm) кин - who
Hungarian (hu) kin - on whom
Japanese (ja) (kin) - gold
Kurdish (ku) kin - short
Dutch (nl) kin - chin
Afrikaans (af) kin - chin
West Frisian (fy) kin - chin

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2018-01-30, 18:11

(yi) תּחת /toxəs/ buttocks
(ga) tochas /toxəs/ scratching [to relieve an itch]
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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby IpseDixit » 2018-01-30, 18:18

linguoboy wrote:(yi) תּחת /toxəs/ buttocks
(ga) tochas /toxəs/ scratching [to relieve an itch]


ת is pronounced [s] in Yiddish? :o

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-01-30, 18:22

IpseDixit wrote:
linguoboy wrote:(yi) תּחת /toxəs/ buttocks
(ga) tochas /toxəs/ scratching [to relieve an itch]


ת is pronounced [s] in Yiddish? :o

Yep, and not just in Yiddish either:
In traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation, tav represents an /s/ without the dagesh and has the plosive form when it has the dagesh.

(From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taw)

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2018-01-30, 18:24

IpseDixit wrote:
linguoboy wrote:(yi) תּחת /toxəs/ buttocks
(ga) tochas /toxəs/ scratching [to relieve an itch]


ת is pronounced [s] in Yiddish? :o

Generally, yes. Historically it lenited to [θ] in Hebrew. In areas where the dominate vernacular had /θ/ (e.g. Greece, Iraq, Yemen), it was maintained as such. Otherwise it fell together with /s/ (Ashkenazic), /d/ (Spain, Portugal), or /t/ (other Sephardic communities).
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby IpseDixit » 2018-01-30, 18:29

And is it of Germanic or Semitic origin? Modern Israeli Hebrew has that word too, only it's pronounced [ta'xat].

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-01-30, 18:33

Semitic.

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2018-01-30, 19:03

IpseDixit wrote:And is it of Germanic or Semitic origin? Modern Israeli Hebrew has that word too, only it's pronounced [ta'xat].

You can tell from the spelling: ת is only ever used in Yiddish words of Semitic origin. The normal way to write /s/ is ס and /t/ is ט. Similarly with ח, since the usual way to write /x/ in Yiddish is with כ. (Using כ for /k/ is another sure sign of a Semitic loan since /k/ in words of European origin is written ק.)
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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby IpseDixit » 2018-01-30, 19:30

Interesting to know.

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-01-31, 3:14

American English (en-US) potty - toilet (especially for children)
Tamil (ta) போட்டி [ˈpoːʈi] - competition

Malayalam doesn't have a cognate with this Tamil word, so when I first saw it written in a Tamil cartoon, I had no idea what it meant, and it always reminded me of the American English word. :P

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby atalarikt » 2018-01-31, 14:00

Japanese (ja) 黒 (kuro) black
True Motu kurokuro white
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِلْعَالِمِينَ۝
"And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge." (Ar-Rum: 22)

Jika saya salah, mohon diperbaiki. If I make some mistake(s), please correct me.
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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-02-04, 20:21

Tagalog (tl) bawal (apparently pronounced [ˈbaʔwal]) - forbidden
Amharic (am) በኋላ bähwala - after

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby atalarikt » 2018-02-09, 13:37

Low German (nds) buuk belly
Sundanese (su) buuk [bʊʔʊk] hair
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِلْعَالِمِينَ۝
"And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge." (Ar-Rum: 22)

Jika saya salah, mohon diperbaiki. If I make some mistake(s), please correct me.
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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby cHr0mChIk » 2018-02-12, 7:25

In the old thread, I've mentioned this example:

cHr0mChIk wrote:Polish (pl) "szukam drogi na zachód" - I am looking for the road on the west
Czech (cs) "šukam drogy na záchod" - I am f**king drugs in the toilet


Today, I've stumbled upon an another similar, bizarre one. However, this time, it's the other way around. The sentence sounds normal in Czech/Slovak, but... hmm... highly inappropriate in Polish:

Czech (cs) "Tam byla porucha v odbytu" - There was a malfunction in sales
Slovak (sk) "Tam bola porucha v odbyte" - There was a malfunction in sales
Polish (pl) "Tam była "porucha" w odbycie" - There was sex in the anus

"Porucha" - means "malfunction/failure/disturbance" in Czech/Slovak - and it comes from the verb rušit' (to disturb) - *rušiti in Proto-Slavic (Russian рушить - to tear down; Serbo-Croatian rušiti - to demolish/crush; Polish ruszyć - to stir/touch/move etc.). However, in Polish, the verb (po)ruchać means "to f**k". The Polish word might share the root and etymology, however, a semantic shift appears to have taken place here, which resulted what it means in modern Polish.

"Odbyt" means "sales" in CZ/SK, and "anus" in Polish. I've tried to research these, however I didn't find anything in the books I have and in the ones which are available to me. Perhaps someone else has an idea of the etymology of these words. Also, I might attempt a more in depth research in the future, about the etymology of Czech "odbyt" vs. the Polish "odbyt".
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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby Vlürch » 2018-02-12, 19:06

English (en) mast
Persian (fa) مست (mast) - drunk

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-02-13, 3:40

مست is actually where the English word must(h) comes from.

I am so tempted to buffalax this famous 90s Bollywood song now, though. :P "Do cheese a buddy, hey, mustard, mustard! Do cheese a buddy, hay must!" (Anybody who's heard that song enough times probably knows which song I'm talking about even without clicking on the hyperlink).

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby הענט » 2018-02-13, 3:46

linguoboy wrote:
IpseDixit wrote:
linguoboy wrote:(yi) תּחת /toxəs/ buttocks
(ga) tochas /toxəs/ scratching [to relieve an itch]


ת is pronounced [s] in Yiddish? :o

Generally, yes. Historically it lenited to [θ] in Hebrew. In areas where the dominate vernacular had /θ/ (e.g. Greece, Iraq, Yemen), it was maintained as such. Otherwise it fell together with /s/ (Ashkenazic), /d/ (Spain, Portugal), or /t/ (other Sephardic communities).


Is תּחת relative to the English word tush?

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-02-13, 3:54

Hent wrote:
linguoboy wrote:
IpseDixit wrote:
linguoboy wrote:(yi) תּחת /toxəs/ buttocks
(ga) tochas /toxəs/ scratching [to relieve an itch]


ת is pronounced [s] in Yiddish? :o

Generally, yes. Historically it lenited to [θ] in Hebrew. In areas where the dominate vernacular had /θ/ (e.g. Greece, Iraq, Yemen), it was maintained as such. Otherwise it fell together with /s/ (Ashkenazic), /d/ (Spain, Portugal), or /t/ (other Sephardic communities).


Is תּחת relative to the English word tush?

Yep, apparently, that's where it comes from. Tush is (or at least was) short for toches.

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Re: Multilingual false friends 2

Postby cHr0mChIk » 2018-02-13, 5:44

Vlürch wrote:English (en) mast
Persian (fa) مست (mast) - drunk


Serbian (sr) маст (mast) - lard/fat
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