Talk:False cognate

Thanks, Damian. I thought I was the only Westerner in the world to use the similarity between many and manhi as a mnemonic device. I had know idea it was a legitimate linguistic concept, with a name and all! Ed Poor

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Oops! I got tripped over a false friend in the typo (know) in the above sentence. The irony is spinning around in my tummy like an eel.

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That's not a false friend; that's just a homophone. A false friend is a homophone that crosses language boundaries. But thanks for inadvertently pointing out the similarity among FCs, FFs, and homophones; I might include those in the next version of the article. --Damian Yerrick

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Does anyone know the relationship (false cognate/ borrowing) between the Japanese arigato and the Portuguese obrigado? They both mean "Thanks." I seem to recall that the Portuguese were the first westerners in recorded history to visit Japan. Any ideas? If anyone knows, please add it to the appropriate entry... Steve Rapaport

Last time I checked, I was told that the Japanese borrowed that word from the Portuguese. --Damian Yerrick

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Is there any true cognation between English "dinner" and Spanish "dinero"?