1316: False Cognates Jul 18, 2018

Cognates, in related languages, are a great tool to help people learn and retain vocabulary when learning another language, but false cognates, sometimes affectionately called "false friends" are conversely a hinderance. There are plenty of words which just coincidentally happen to sound like others, such as the translation for native word [dog] in Mbarabam meaning 'dog', but usually these are unrelated. On a few occasions, such as the Indonesian 'air' translating to 'water', these can be opposite, or at least very different. In a stranger case yet, the Georgian word for 'father' is მამა (pronounced mama), which is not only opposite, but also generally dissimilar to most languages which use a [d] or [b] for fathers. No matter what, there are challenges, but these can just feel like a bit extra on top of that.