Linguistic Schizophrenia!

[Boerseun]

I'm amazed at the existence of certain words which exist in completely different contexts, not the same word having opposite meanings, but the same word existing to serve totally non-related concepts!

 

For instance, I can be running a race, or, I'm a member of the caucasian race. How to explain that to a kid? How did the words evolve from their roots to have completely non-related meanings with the same spelling?

 

Any other examples out there? There are quite a few, but its an interesting topic, nonetheless.

[Jay-qu]

Not sure if this is the same as what you mean, but not to long ago I discovered that Flammable = Inflammable!

[jungjedi]

and what about them heterologues

Heterologue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[InfiniteNow]

Is this concept anything like this:

 

http://hypography.com/forums/linguistics/8751-homonyms-their-grammatical-heirs.html

 

 

 

Ring the bell with your ring finger after fighting in a ring...

[eric l]

and what about them heterologues

Heterologue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I did not know the term, but a similar thread has just been started :

http://hypography.com/forums/german-forum/10249-fast-homonyme.html

 

Apparantly, they are also known as "false friends".

[eric l]

A particularity in Dutch - and, if i am not mistaken, also in Afrikaans, Boerseun - may help to find an explication.

 

In Dutch, the diphtong you use to pronounce "A" when reciting the alphabet can be written either EI or IJ, so some homophones are not complete homonyms because they sound the same way, but are written differently.

 

e.g. the verb "reizen" means "to travel", while the verb "rijzen" means "to rise".

 

So far, nothing realy new. But in many of the local accents, these two verbs also sound differently, they are not even homophones. When written EI, the sound is always a diphong, but written IJ it is a long vowel.

 

Now, in many languages (including Dutch) the local accents reflect an older form of the language, often with gramar that has become obsolete. So, (for what it's worth) I take it that these homonyms actually have different roots, and became more and more alike because the actual number of vowel sounds in the standard language decreased over the ages.

 

Of course, other homonyms may have the same root - as in the case of the board that is meeting in front of the (black)board - but we forgot all about the ethymology.

[Boerseun]

Same thing in Afrikaans, although in the early 1900's the spelling was simplified to reflect the pronunciation. Back then, our spelling was 99% Dutch, except for neologisms and words borrowed from other languages, mostly from German, Malay, English and French (I do stand to be corrected on the exact percentages, though)

 

For instance, in Afrikaans, reis means both 'to travel' and 'to rise', with the exact same spelling. But like you said, the origins of these words are lost in time.

 

In Afrikaans, we have another oddity, though: the male hy 'him' is interchangable with sy 'her', without changing the sex!

 

We would say 'Hy het sy koffie gedrink', meaning 'he drank his coffee', but literally it translates as 'He drank her coffee' (!)

[Racoon]

'Bat' comes to mind..

 

I can hit you with a baseball Bat

 

or you could be a flying mammal that usually inhabits caves

[Buffy]

'Bat' comes to mind..

 

I can hit you with a baseball Bat

 

or you could be a flying mammal that usually inhabits caves

...or I could bat my eyelashes...

 

Who me, :evil:

Buffy

[Queso]

Jack

 

A name of a guy

A gadget that lifts cars

To steal

[eric l]

My knowledge of Afrikaans does not stretch far beyond "Sarie Mareis", "Bobbejaan beklim die berg" and some other songs we used to sing around the campfire (we were made to learn some Afrikaans poems in school, but I'm affraid I don't remember much of those).

 

Anyway, I would have thought that the "sy" in "Hij het sy koffie gedrink" would be rooted in the Dutch "zijn" for his (compare to the German "sein"); the "sy" for the English "she" in "sy het haar koffie gedrink" would be rooted in the Dutch "zij" (compare to the German "sie"). So, different roots again.

[Boerseun]

Without a doubt, but with the Standard Spelling rules introduced in the 1900s, it really is confusing for the uninitiated!

 

If you're into Afrikaans poetry, I can send you some. Because of the simplicity of the spelling, poetry is one area in which Afrikaans really excells. It's really cool that you guys did some Afrikaans in school! We did a bunch of Dutch reading in school, and once you wrap your mind around the spelling differences, it's really the same language; save for the Malay and other influences in Afrikaans.

[HydrogenBond]

It may have to do with someone coining a new word or phrase (given the status of money) and then through marketing and fad appeal, it becomes popular and then assimulated into a language.

 

Maybe coining words and coin collecting is a good analogy. Just as people will collect pennies, with the one;s with the oldest data stamp often more valuable, these will appear first in dictionaries (most value). The acception are mis-stamped pennies, which are technically defective, given extra value by the collectors of words.