Falsche Freunde: Bezeichnet man ein Paar aus einem fremdsprachigen Wort und einem Wort der Muttersprache, das sich in Schrift oder Aussprache ähnelt, jedoch in der Bedeutung deutlich unterscheidet (False Cognates-a pair of: a foreign word and a word of the speaker’s native language that is similar in pronunciation or writing, but differs in meaning)
So by now I’ve talked about how not only using an incorrect article for a noun, but also the pronunciation of that word can also change the meaning. I’ve also talked about English words that have been incorporated into the German language (loan words). I’ve also mentioned briefly that there are even some words that are the same in German and English (Wahre Freunde [Real Cognates]), just with different pronunciation such as: bus, instrument, material, fit, dessert, cousin, radio, ring, zebra, pilot, experiment, blind, arm, finger, person, talent, warm, hunger…the list goes on.
This week I’m going to talk about false cognates, something that occurs in learning any language. Cognates are words with common origins. Take for example the word "night," in English, in Spanish it's "noche," in Italian it's "notte," in German it's, "nacht." In these cases (as a native speaker of English), the words are all at least partially recognizable, based on knowledge of the word in my native tongue, either through spelling or sound, therefore learning (and remembering) the word in the new language isn't entirely difficult. I can't go into the historical linguistic aspect of language change too deeply as I am not informed enough to sufficiently explain how those languages are related and why these spelling changes happen; but a very crude description of cognates is that languages have evolved (and continue to evolve) over time. Think of each family of languages (In the example I gave the family is Indo-European) as a tree, and think of each individual language (English, Spanish, Italian and German) as branches on that tree. All the branches (dialects=twigs on branches?) are clearly distinct entities and yet somehow they are also connected to a common root (language). Fun fact: the word, "cognate," derives from the Latin word for, "relative." That's essentially what cognates are, vestiges that have stood the test of time (linguistic appendices?).
The problem is, cognates do not always share meaning. As we've seen there are real cognates and false cognates, namely, words that do have the same meaning in both languages and words that don't. There are cases where you think a word in the L2 (whatever foreign language you're learning) may somehow be related to a word in your L1 (native language), but in fact it isn't. This is a false friend, when you mistake a word in the L2, for a word that either sounds the same or is written similarly to a word in your L1, but it has a different meaning than the word in your native language. The first time I remember coming across this concept was when I was learning Spanish back in high school. My teacher told a story of someone who wanted to express how embarrassed they were and used the word “embarazado,” which obviously looks and sounds like the word they were searching for, however this word happens to mean “pregnant,” in Spanish. Other Spanish false friends include “assistir,” which looks like assist, but actually means, “to attend.” Or “recordar,” which means, “to remember,” not record.
Italian is also replete with false friends for native English speakers. Take for example “annoiato,” which means, "bored," not annoyed. Another Italian word for, "bored," is “noioso,” which isn’t noisy, although I suppose some things that are annoying could be noisy. There’s also “educato,” which means “polite,” not educated and “romanzo,” which means “novel,” not romance. A palazza is just a building, not a palace and a preservativo is a condom, not a preservative [but on balance, I suppose the former does include a measurable amount of preservation].
German has got plenty of false friends for native English speakers like myself. Consider the German word “billion,” which means “trillion,” not billion. And when a German person talks about their “Chef,” they are referring to their boss, not the person who cooks food. You may recall my mentioning the Aachener Dom, which is the Aachen Cathedral, not the Aachen dome (“Kuppel”). “Fotograf,” in German refers to the person who takes the picture, not the picture itself, and to describe someone as “sensibel,” is to call them sensitive, not sensible. “Winken,” means, “wave,” not wink. Don’t mistake the German word “gift,” as something you can give someone on their birthday, as it is actually poison, not a present. When talking to a dermatologist, remember a “Pickel,” is a pimple, not a pickle and while we're on culinary false cognates, when ordering pizza keep in mind that in German “Pepperoni” means hot chilis, not “Salami.” A “Fraction,” in Germany is the English “faction,” not a partial number, and if someone asks you in German for “Rat,” they want advice, not a rodent. There is also the German word “Smoking,” which refers to a tuxedo, not the toxic vice (brings new meaning to those “No Smoking” signs you see, right?). And when in the kitchen if you want to sample what a German person is cooking, remember that “tasten,” means “touch,” not taste.
There are plenty of false cognates to be aware of. I come across more and more Falsche Freunde and Wahre Freunde (band, hotel, stress, partner, etc.) as I continue to fumble my way through this language. But it is an interesting thought that somehow you can trace the lineage of a language just like you can a person back through time.
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