As You Read, Note Words, Phrases, and Other Information About Gergor's Two Selves

If you've e'er learned another linguistic communication, you've most certainly run across false friends.

While these sneaky words or short phrases can complicate the language-learning process, they also hinder the work of translators who must be particularly attentive when they crash-land into faux friends along the way.

A professional person and reliable translation service will be fully aware of this potential bump in the route, and then they'll know how to navigate accordingly.

Here'due south everything you need to know about false friends.

What are faux friends of the translator?

Imitation friends are give-and-take pairings in ii dissimilar languages that appear to take a like phonetic form, only in reality have entirely unlike meanings, origins, and spelling.

For example, the German word "enkel", although pronounced nearly the same as English language word "ankle", ways "grandchild."

And then if y'all roll your ankle in Germany and inquire for assistance with your "enkel," you may confuse a few people.

This is the concept of a fake friend—a word that deceives you lot into thinking information technology's the proper translation of a give-and-take from your native language.

The expression "Fake amis du traducteur" was kickoff introduced in a 1928 book by French linguists Maxim Koessler and Jules Derecquigny. The term was translated into English as "fake friends of the translator" and later shortened simply to "false friends."

False friends are also known more technically as bilingual homophones.

Why false friends aren't so friendly

Equally you can imagine, false friends pose numerous bug not only for those who take but simply begun learning foreign languages.

Allow'due south consider the following case:

Picture a couple out on a coffee date. The woman speaks primarily English, the man Castilian.

Equally she gets upwardly from the table to grab a napkin, she spills some coffee on his lap and declares "estoy embarazada!"—intending to say she is embarrassed by the incident.

The human'south eyes abound large and they both have a laugh when he explains she mistakenly appear to anybody in the café that she is pregnant!

In a social setting like this, the improper use of a word or phrase could effect in a express joy or, worse yet, an awkward silence.

Examples of fake friends

As you will meet in the examples below, there are different types of false friends yous need to exist enlightened of:

false friends across different languages
false friends within a single linguistic communication
not-verbal communication

False friends across languages

These examples highlight the confusion that tin can ascend when yous try to use a word in a unlike linguistic communication that sounds a lot like the original but means something else entirely:

Polish-English: aktualnie – currently; really – właściwie
Polish-Czech: czerstwy – dried; čerstvy – fresh
Spanish-English language: morbido – soft, frail; morbid – enfermizo
German-English: gift – poisonous substance; gift – Geschenk
Czech-Russian – ovoce (o-vo-tse) – fruit; овощи (o-vo-schi) – vegetables.
Swedish-English: ett befouled – a child; barn – ladugård
Dutch-German language: slim – smart; schlimm – bad, terrible
French-English: pain – bread; hurting – douleur
Spanish-Italian: burro – donkey; burro – butter

Fake friends inside a language

Interestingly, false friends can be found also inside one language.

To use an English example, for an American person, "pants" ways "trousers", whereas for a British person the aforementioned term means "undergarment."

Non-exact faux friends

To add some other layer, false friends can impact non-verbal communication likewise.

While a thumbs up is widely recognized as a sign of approval or understanding, it's taken as highly offensive thumbs down in some parts of the middle e.

The most common mistake made by Poles spending their holidays in Republic of bulgaria, for example, is the wrong interpretation of non-verbal confirmation or negation. In the Black Bounding main region, a single nod of 1's head up means "no" while turning it from the left to the right means "yes".

Where do fake friends come from?

False friends come about for a few reasons.

1. Shared etymology

Sometimes information technology's the case where 2 languages shared common origins, simply a give-and-take shifted meanings or acquired additional meanings over fourth dimension. This tin can lead to the emergence of false friends.

Take the discussion "friend" as an example. The original Germanic term was used to describe someone you care for, leaving that open up to include both family ties also every bit relationships formed forth the way.

Scandinavian facsimiles like Swedish (frände) and Danish (frænde) predominantly mean "relative"—a closer link than what friend has come to be understood in English.

ii. Homonyms

Homonyms are words that have the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins.

A fun instance is the Swedish give-and-take "rolig", which means "fun". In Danish and Norwegian, however, "rolig" means at-home, mostly not the state in which you display yous are having fun.

three. Pseudo-Anglicisms

These are words in other languages that are formed with some English elements and may announced to be English but in fact are not.

For example, table football or foosball is known in French republic every bit "infant-foot." Made up of two English language words, there is no equivalent in the linguistic communication information technology resembles.

Imitation friends vs. internationalisms

In any give-and-take on fake friends, y'all should also be aware of internationalisms.

Internationalisms are other words or phrases that sound very similar or fifty-fifty identical in several languages, but different false friends, they accept the aforementioned meaning.

Internationalisms are specially apparent within languages of the same group, specially the Romance and Germanic languages.

Common etymologies of a given give-and-take are linked to its earliest beginnings, and European languages therefore contain a bevy of words of Latin or Greek origin which can serve as excellent examples of internationalisms.

Take, for example, the Smooth cywilizacja, German language Zivilisation, Spanish civilización, and English civilization. Equally we can see, the discussion of Latin origin has taken very similar forms (both in graphic and phonetic terms) in several languages while retaining its original meaning.

As you tin see, internationalisms often brand learning foreign languages easier, whereas false friends can make it much more difficult.

Think of information technology as bumping into an old friend on the street – yous're delighted to see them, and it's good to catch up and regain that sense of familiarity. That'due south an internationalism.

False friends, on the other hand, may seem like they're being helpful, only really, they're only leading you astray.

The recognition of internationalisms should proceed y'all on guard for "false friends" you lot might come up across forth the way. In existence aware of that spectrum, private learners volition move beyond standard means of thinking about languages and translators volition exist even more focused on the text to make sure they're getting the correct message across in their work.

How Faux Friends Touch on Translation

When information technology comes to formal translation projects, a seemingly trivial error caused by a false friend can take serious consequences.

Have for example, these small translation mistakes that had a major impact.

As we have seen, it's not enough for translators simply know a strange language. In improver to knowing the grammatical complexities of a language, they must also exist aware of common faux friends that may trip them up.

Translators must possess potent localization knowledge, meaning an awareness of local customs, traditions, and civilisation of a given region that may affect how words and phrases are translated.

To learn more about what experienced translators can do for your business, bank check out Summa Linguae's translation services.

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Source: https://summalinguae.com/translation/false-friends-of-the-translator/