Re: Pseudo-cognates?

In article <4uah9hF15tjbcU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Harlan Messinger <hmessinger.removethis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

izzy wrote:
Snis Pilbor wrote:
Is there a special word for the event when two languages share a word,
but only by sheer coincidence, NOT ... because of common heritage?

Informally, they are called "sound-alikes". Sometimes they are called
"false friends".

False friends aren't sheer coincidence--they're words that *are* related
but that cause confusion because their meanings are different. Examples
are English "eventual" and French "eventuel" (= "possible"), English
"actual" and French "actuel" (= "current", "at the moment"), English
"smoking" and French "smoking" (= "smoking jacket").

What the OP is asking about is words that *appear* to be false friends
but that aren't.

I believe "tori(or something with "tor" in it at any rate) is a kind of
gate in Japanese?? Tor is a gate in German. I can see no way these two
words can have any kind of linguistic relationship. So are they "false
friends"?

--
Mary Loomer (aka Erilar)
----------------------------------------
Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(There's nothing worse than ignorance in action.)

Erilar's Cave Annex: http://www.airstreamcomm.net/~erilarlo


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