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:

Homonyms and Their Grammatical Heirs



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

[eric l]

Originally Posted by jungjedi

and what about them heterologues
Heterologue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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]

Originally Posted by Racoon

'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,
Buffy

[orbsycli]

Jack

A name of a guy
A gadget that lifts cars
To steal