5 ms·
It's the exact same thing. For example, Suez Canal is called "Qanat al-Suez" in Arabic.
by mahmud 10y ago
It's the exact same thing.
For example, Suez Canal is called "Qanat al-Suez" in Arabic.
- colanderman 10y agoThat doesn't answer the GP's question of whether there's an etymological link. That is, are the two words derived from the same root in some ancient language? It is a reasonable question since they are phonologically similar, but from different language families.
- karlb 10y agoAnd just because two words sound similar doesn't mean they have similar roots. The word for “dog” in the Australian Aboriginal language Mbabaram happens to be “dog,” not because they have the same root but by coincidence. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UtFqXQosVP0C&pg=PT283&lpg=PT283&dq=steven+pinker+aboriginal+word+dog&source=bl&ots=6Gb5JBDGOw&sig=RsAyB8VkPzKqVNGmzbJRkIn-qIE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBzPfQ8-LMAhVBBcAKHSoqAQEQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=steven%20pinker%20aboriginal%20word%20dog&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UtFqXQosVP0C&pg=PT283&lp...
- schoen 10y agoThere's a great list of these at https://web.archive.org/web/20070227031854/http://members.aol.com/yahyam/coincidence.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070227031854/http://members.ao...
- zem 10y agothey're known as "false cognates" in linguistics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate
- ptaipale 10y agoThis one btw doesn't include the one that is strangest to me: that Chinese for mom or momma is 妈妈 "mama" and pop, pappa is 爸爸 "baba".
- rvense 10y agoThese are nearly universal AFAIK. I've heard stipulated a link between this and the fact that these are the first sounds a child will learn.
- riffraff 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_and_papa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_and_papa
- otabdeveloper1 10y ago> these are the first sounds a child will learn. Not really, no. 'Gaga' or 'kaka' are just as easy yet aren't universal. The mystery is not solved. (Could be just areal effects, for example.)
- talideon 10y agoEasy for an adult, not so easy for a baby. Bilabial and coronal sounds don't take much tongue dexterity: you just need to be able to open/close your lips and leave your tongue in its natural resting position respectively to produce them. Velar sounds, on the other hand, require you to flex the middle of your tongue to touch your palate, which is as significantly more difficult sound to produce. It's no coincidence that sounds like 'gaga' and 'kaka' tend to be associated with either more distant relatives or with defecation: the kid's going to be older when those things get introduced.
- ricksplat 10y agoI always presumed these were universal because they are the easiest sounds for infants to make.
- ricksplat 10y agoI'm not sure why that was downvoted. It's a reasonable assertion.
- mootothemax 10y agoJust to add to the fun, the etymology of the word "dog" itself is completely unknown. There's a single documented mention of the Old English "docga" - and then nothing. How this word took over pretty much well entirely from "hound" is a mystery. If that's not enough, the Polish word for dog - "pies" - has exactly the same issue! (and I believe, but can't say with any certainty, that other Slavic languages may have the same issue.) Edit: Oxford English's page on "dog" is paywalled off but still available in via Google's cache, a fascinating read if you have a spare 15 minutes: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jNMSJSGTptEJ:www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/56405+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pl&client=safari http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jNMSJSG...
- jwilk 10y agohttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/p%D1%8Cs%D1%8A https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/p...
- fit2rule 10y agocanal deriv. : 1400-50; late Middle English: waterpipe, tubular passage < Latin canālis, perhaps equivalent to can (na) reed, pipe (see cane ) + -ālis -al1; def. 5 a mistranslation of Italian canali channels, term used by G. V. Schiaparelli