Re: Pseudo-cognates?

Snis Pilbor schrieb:

Is there a special word for the event when two languages share a word,
but only by sheer coincidence, NOT necessarily because of common
heritage? And are there many examples where this occurs? How about
when a similar word takes opposite meaning, for example Japanese "ya"
("no")?

I don't know if there is a name for it but false cognate or pseudo
cognate sound right to me.

http://www.zompist.com/proto.html shows a list of chinese and quechua
words that are very similar in sound and in meaning (in order to
ridicule Ruhlen and Greenberg). This is only interesting if Chinese and
Quechua are really not related. (I think about Poisson's Spot.)

http://www.zompist.com/chanceph.htm discusses the probability for two
languages to form by chance words of similar sound.

Unrelated similar words with opposite meaning: I remember Gr. "ne" =
"yes" vs. Fr. "ne"="not", Ge. "nee"="no".
Also Ge. "kalt"="cold" vs. It."caldo"="warm/hot".

Izzy's examples "villa" and "protectzia" I cannot believe they are
historically _not_ related with the corresponding latin words.

Are there really some examples of the same word with the same meaning
but without any etymological relation?

A bit OT are false etymologies, but I like these two classic examples:
Lat. "Albium Intimilium"="Albium of the Intemelii" became It.
"Ventimiglia"="Twenty miles" and Sl. "Pred na polje"="beyond the field"
became It. "Redipuglia"="King of Apulia".

Greetings
Marco P

.

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