I am interested in the rare phenomenon of "word coincidence" in different languages.
What I am specifically looking for is a situation when:
1. There are two different languages A and B.
2. The language A has a word M. And the language B has a word N.
3. The words M and N have identical or close meanings.
4. The words M and N are pronounced alike. (Not exactly the same, but still pretty "alike" to be recognizable).
5. M and N are not borrowed from the same source. (M is not borrowed from B; N is not borrowed from A; M and N are not borrowed from the same third language).
6. M and N are not derived from the same source due to genealogic affinity of A and B languages.
7. The languages A and B may be completely unrelated linguistically, or may still be allied - that does not matter if conditions 1 to 6 are met.
I understand there might be very few examples.
However, the following is the only example I can suggest by myself:
English: name
Japanese: 名前 [namae] = "name"
The words are completely unrelated, as the Japanese 名前 is a compound word with two roots: 名 [na] meaning "name" and 前 [mae] meaning "before, in front of".
I wonder if somebody could provide more examples.
What I am specifically looking for is a situation when:
1. There are two different languages A and B.
2. The language A has a word M. And the language B has a word N.
3. The words M and N have identical or close meanings.
4. The words M and N are pronounced alike. (Not exactly the same, but still pretty "alike" to be recognizable).
5. M and N are not borrowed from the same source. (M is not borrowed from B; N is not borrowed from A; M and N are not borrowed from the same third language).
6. M and N are not derived from the same source due to genealogic affinity of A and B languages.
7. The languages A and B may be completely unrelated linguistically, or may still be allied - that does not matter if conditions 1 to 6 are met.
I understand there might be very few examples.
However, the following is the only example I can suggest by myself:
English: name
Japanese: 名前 [namae] = "name"
The words are completely unrelated, as the Japanese 名前 is a compound word with two roots: 名 [na] meaning "name" and 前 [mae] meaning "before, in front of".
I wonder if somebody could provide more examples.
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