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I think we've done this before, but I've been transcribing the pronunciation of all words in my dictionary (slowly but surely) and I ran into these. None of them are intentional, of course. They all happened through sound changes or regular derivation.

I recently changed the word for 'bone', which meant that all the words derived from this word had to change as well. Which resulted in:

cattenipp ˈkɛtːənɪp (n) knuckle; proximal phalange, end of the proximal phalange bone {catte, bone; + nipp, bump}

Then, there's the following word (which I could have imagined happening when I created the prefix 'cond-'):

condome ˈkonːəmə (v) to leave (permanently); to move (residence, town) {cond-, elsewhere, away; + me, enter, walk...}

Fortunately, I haven't come up with a compound to combine the former with the following word:

cock kok (n) silence, calm, quiet, still; still (image), frame (video), screenshot
- (attr v) quiet, soft (auditory); calm, relaxed, laid-back
- (v) to quiet down, to calm down (event, storm)


Tell me yours

din wrote: condome ˈkonːəmə (v) to leave (permanently); to move (residence, town) {cond-, elsewhere, away; + me, enter, walk...}

Fortunately, I haven't come up with a compound to combine the former with the following word:

cock kok (n) silence, calm, quiet, still; still (image), frame (video), screenshot
- (attr v) quiet, soft (auditory); calm, relaxed, laid-back
- (v) to quiet down, to calm down (event, storm)


Tell me yours

'To move somewhere quiet' as in when retiring? Or maybe even 'to settle down'?

Ngolu isn't really a rich source of them. There's a lack of consonant clusters and word final stress (pitch accent, so high tone, or in some dialects a long vowel) meaning that even words that are spelt the same as English words, such as kilo 'to be a word' are usually pronounced quite differently - [kiló].

Limuza [limuzá] meaning 'to marry' (of a man), from lima 'be a wife' + '-uz-' causative. In theory you could add an inceptive infix and make limuzina [limuziná] but it would mean 'begin to get married' which isn't terribly useful.

Wii [wíi] meaning 'to be fun', 'tp be enjoyable'; |DAT| 'enjoys' |NOM| - not really a coincidence.

Tara [taɾá~tadá] meaning 'be suddenly ...' and pretty much sounds like 'tada', especially in accents where the pitch accent is replaced by a length distinction, giving [taɾaː~tadaː]. This is a coincidence. I originally thought of something like da for suddenness and wanted to have reduplication as it's a slightly ideophonic kind of thing, and then I remembered that the phoneme that sounds like [d~ɾ] cannot occur word initially, so it turned into a t at the beginning.

Tiee [tʃée] sounds pretty much like 'chair' in my dialect, but it means 'to do this (indicated by what I say or do)'.

Kanu [kanú], sounds like 'canoe', means 'to be a nose'.

Sentences will probably be a richer source of things sounding like other things.

Insular Kett [fɐk] 'require', [iˈfɐks] 'required'

also [hɐɫ] 'go to', [hɐŋ] 'work', [fɐs] 'fire', [rɐt] 'be able to', [ɓi] 'blue', [seʰɸ] 'oracle', but those are boring

Arve [tʂʌkɪ] 'fuck'

Hellesan as a few. Some examples:

estucar "to behead" sounds and is written like Catalan estucar "to put stucco".
plate "shield", like Cat. plata "plate; silver".
avelle "esteem", like Cat. abella "bee".
tays "bundle, beam; fasces", approx. to Eng. tush [tʌʃ].
dance "feast", like Cat. dansa "dance".
map "knob, pommel", like Eng. map.
ghiys "port", like Cat. guix "gypsum, plaster".
maco "dick, cock" (slang), like Cat. maco "pretty, handsome, beautiful".
mint "thin", approx. to Eng. mint [mɪnt].
poig "fist", approx. Eng. potch [pɒtʃ].
drum "yam (vegetable)", approx. to Eng. drum [dɾʌm].
test "still, motionless", like Cat. and Eng. test.
màr "damage, harm", like Cat. mar "sea".
lhas "sea", like Cat. llaç "knot, bow".
marletz "damned, accursed", like Cat. merlets "merlons".
molde "laziness", approx. to Sp. molde "mould, mold".
mandre "number", like Cat. mandra "laziness".
meis "honey", approx. to Eng. mace [meɪs].
ment "myth", like Cat. ment "mind" and approx. to Eng. mint.
marroc "monster", like Cat. Marroc "Morocco".
maig "field, countryside", like Cat. maig "May" and approx. to Eng. much
etc.

Viksen has a whole load; here are some from the start of the alphabet:

- Somewhat boringly, a "and"
- ad, "centre", pronounced similarly to English add
- as, "only", pronounced similarly to English ass or arse
- bág, "new", pronounced similarly to English bag
- bog, "to make"
- dad, "perfect"
- dju, "with", pronounced similarly to English Jew

I have one, was very accidental:
Korkovan:
rõma n. love

Read backwards it's amor!

~Lyra

Himmaswa is predominantly monosyllabic, and its Romanization is based on English, so there are a whole lot that look like English:
Here are a few:
archpeak to throw away/discard
arm affair, matter
bait to restore; to return
bay: ant; bug
bee: to reach/extend to
blaa: to ward off/defend from/prevent
book: to fight
chat: unit of measurement; 9.6 cm
dang: so; therefore; then
dark: to be expected to happen soon
day: dry land
dim: to be straight
eep: lagoon
gang: bone
gay: Mr., Mrs., etc.
goal: to be negative/opposite
goat: to be hard/solid
heat: to speak; to say
him: red trumpet vine
klark: lightning
klot: older brother
leap: to be smooth
look: to rot/spoil
moon: corner; angle
oakgoat: nut
poach: attire/dress/clothing
poo: horsetail
steak: to create/make/establish/set up
sway: because
touch: to be forceful/powerful
toy: to face/look at
tuinpeak: to get up/wake up
warn: self
work: to be easy/simple
yuk: mouth

There are a number of others.

There are a few in Yaufulti. And because it has a mostly-CV structure there are a few correspondences with Japanese. (Also there are some which just look like English words but are pronounced differently)

PS z=ʒ, g=ɣ

fan - love (fan)
fate - do something again (looks like fate)
fen - age (fen)
ful - talk, speak (full)
gul - thing (ghoul)
kaku - requirement, must, have to (書く)
kan - approximate, guess (can)
kan - hour (reminiscent of jikan)
kantu - country (reminiscent of itself)
kuntu - other (ahem)
kusa - stop (草)
lai - go, come (lie, rye, 来)
laki - write, draw (lucky)
lei - divide in two (lay)
nai - pause, wait (ない)
nai - the.MASS (ない)
nana - something, whatever, filler word (nana)
nau - too much (now)
neu - same (looks like new)
ni - trivial matter (に/二/2)
pai - small (pie)
pan - lightning, spark, electricity (pan)
pan - society (pan)
papa - forever (papa)
pen - yes (pen)
pin - would be (pin)
pu - insect, disgusting (poo)
pun - sun, day (looks like pun)
puu - maybe (poo)
saki - invite, welcome (先)
sale - leader (looks like sale)
san - path, road (三、山、さん, etc, also sun)
sel - regularity (sell)
sii - multiply (see, she)
suika - train (スイカ - ok this one was deliberate)
sun - hello (looks like sun)
sun - that
taka - room, hall (高、鷹)
yul - person (yule)
zun - that (sounds like june)
zuu - stand (sounds like jew)
naze - address (なぜ)

Zukish: (Ignoring loanwords)
A = you (NOM.N); zero [ʔa]
Kwak = this [kwak]
Fak = seven [fak]
Vag = eight [vag]
Be = ten [bɛ]
Lemen = hundred [ˈlɛmɛn]
Liär = light (noun) [ˈlɪʔeɹ]
Jam = wife [ʤam]
Lame = ink [ˈlamɛ]
Yam = preparation [jam]
Dere = person [ˈdɛɹɛ]
Gun = guide (M) [gun]
Me = time [mɛ]
Her = each [hɛɹ]
Lec = naked [lɛʧ]
Kat- = again [kat]
Ya- = always [ja]
Kam- = between; inter- [kam]
Get- = someone (or something) who does something; -er (M) [gɛt]
Jet- = someone (or something) who does something; -er (F) [ʤɛt]
Vet- = someone (or something) who does something; -er (N) [vɛt]
Eb- = intensifyer [ʔɛb]
Alak- = now; recent [ˈʔalak]
Tïm- = soon [taɪm]

That's a lot more than I thought there would be.

Myonian is bound to have a bunch, but that's because it's a sister language to English, so not only would they look similar, they mean the same thing as well. Well, aside from the various false friends, like gurl (boy, male) and liech (doctor)...

Ancaron: (There's a bunch here as well, I'll limit it to just words that are spelled the same)
Ran = life, alive, live [ɾan]
Man = left [man]
An = center, in, on [an]
Tan = inside, in [tan]
On = person [on]
Pat = light, bright [pat]
Pub = sky [pub]
In = more, many [in]
Pit = make out of recognizable parts [pit]
Can = pool, swim [kan]
Pan = plant [pan]
Ton = hit [ton]
Map = clothes [map]
Run = death, dead, die, kill [ɾun]
Pot = mouth, eat [pot]
Pet = neck [pet]
Dad = floor [dad]
Let = horn [let]
Pi = when [pɪ]
Mud = yellow [mud]
Cup = window [kup]
Fan = tree [fan]
At = mountain [at]
Far = forest [faː]
Or = hill [oɚ]
Fun = bad [fun]
It = moon [it]
Tom = year [tom]
Mom = verb [mom]
Cut = but [kut]
Gum = injury, injure [gum]
Tar = full [taː]
Ron = fight [ɾon]
Zit = a sort of crop somewhat like wheat [ʒit]
Siren = picture [ʃɪˈɾen]
No = sand [nɔ]
Im = like, similar to [im]
For = snow; for [foɚ] (I think I was just being lazy on that last one...)
If = rain [if]
Sit = concern [ʃit]
Mat = knee [mat]
Pain = bone [pain]
Car = plural marker [kaː]

Selectively avoiding old and new IE loanwords, Lilitika has...

aves (/avɛs/): "via the method of", preposition used with INSTR
bet (/bɛt/ or /beɪt/): "no"
dekes (often contracted to /dεks/): "before"
dhí (/ðiː/): interrogative mood marker
dútí (/duːtiː/): "sorrowful" (casual)
sofil dhí (/so.fɪl.ðiː/, sounds like "so filthy"): "will copulate?"
esso (/ɛsoː/, a trade name of ExxonMobil): "impact"
evrí (/ɛvriː/): "short"
famish (contraction of 'fameshis'): "to be glittered"
galuría (/galʌɹiːa/, "galleria"): "genuine courage"
glotis (/glotis/): confuse-PRES
hakish ("hackish"): "to be gasped"
kai (Greek και): gnomic aspect marker
kin: potential mood marker
koka: "impunity"
korr (/koɹ/): renarrative mood marker
kwí (/kwiː/): relative conjunction relationship relativizer (it's pretty hideous)
les: "during"
mana: "opinion"
mes: "at"
mí: indefinite article or "one"
...and so much more!

allowing for non-rhotic accents you get stuff like míta (meter), "one"; mata (matter), "joint", liva, "set", etc.

adeu "actor", close to Cat. adéu "goodbye, bye".
anoi "goodbye, bye", close to Eng. annoy.
sam "how", close to Eng. Sam.
materó "cupboard, wardrobe", like Cat. Mataró, a city.

Nortaneous wrote:[seʰɸ] 'oracle'

What word is that supposed to sound like?

Izambri wrote:tays "bundle, beam; fasces", approx. to Eng. tush [tʌʃ].

"Tush" meaning "bottom" is pronounced with /ʊ/, not /ʌ/.

Izambri wrote:poig "fist", approx. Eng. potch [pɒtʃ].

How did you even know about this word? I just looked it up and saw that it's an Australian word meaning inferior quality opal used in jewellery for mounting precious opals ... I'm Australian but not a jeweller.

Lyhoko Leaci wrote:Her = each [hɛɹ]

Cf. Turkish 'her'.

In both cases I used http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ as a guide.

Imralu wrote:

Nortaneous wrote:[seʰɸ] 'oracle'

What word is that supposed to sound like?

Safe?

Accidental but perhaps subconscious:

Proto-Razaric pinis 'spear'

Bearlandic hylig "sad" (litterally "cry-ish") sounds like Dutch heilig "holy".

Quququqquq has three:
aqua 'water'
qua 'like, as'
quaqua 'everywhere'

Somehow I made the Sunago word for "to be wanted" wanbi.

And the lative/purpose marker te. And I didn't realize this for WEEKS.

Lyhoko Leaci wrote:Well, aside from the various false friends, like gurl (boy, male) and liech (doctor)...

False? English leech is an archaic word for 'physician'.

Richard W wrote:

Lyhoko Leaci wrote:Well, aside from the various false friends, like gurl (boy, male) and liech (doctor)...

False? English leech is an archaic word for 'physician'.

I know that, but I've never heard of it used as such in modern English, and is the average person going to know that it used to mean that? Differing semantic shifts, or only one language going through a semantic shift between related languages are how false friends develop to begin with.

Poswa:
There are hundreds of matches to words in languages like Hawaiian, I'm sure, but I'll stick to English. Also I'm going to focus on spelling and omit really short words like "pup" which itself has several meanings in Poswa.

anna residue
armenia "silly coin" (a hypothetical compound, not a word with a specific meaning)
baby all, whole, entire
baby to suck, lick
bedžy sheet, blanket (not an exact match, but it might be loaned into Pabappa as "bed")
bima habitat, home place
blab number, value, quantity
blop eye, pupil
blub tripwire, trap
blub milk
bobby to slap
bomby all, everyone
bum we (acting as one)
bumbum pedestrian road, trail that is paved
forbes of a friend
katy slave
labia land of curiosity
lapel a type of bomb-throwing warrior
lobby to secrete a substance from one's body
lovables the pleasure of crashing into something (normally this would be spelled lovablwes however)
marvy to spill
miles horse; girl with a ponytail
name to share wealth, be generous
nippon desert
nobias study room, office
nopasta back pocket
pamby army
pasta ceiling, barrier
pervy sunburn
pistontop animal cell
plop paint
plop choice; "or"
plum deprived, having lost something
pom pom Help! Help!
pony forgiveness
poppies social network for married couples
poppies of wine
poppy acorn
popstop to the shoulder
popup writing surface; desk
postop clairvoyance, foresight, understanding
potties of the hostages
pubes of a trail or path
pupa collar
rapes to grow (transitive), cause to expand
rate to repeat
rube countryside
rum children, offspring
rune view, scene, panorama
sitontop saddle with holes for the animal's scales (another hypothetical compound; it was just too good to pass up)
sopale large bath towel
swum seduced by something
tame whip, chain, rope
tape to tempt someone
testa comet, meteor
tones party
tonga compact in a way that leaves little redundancy; using things for multiple purposes
titties social network for childless people
tytsup gem, jewel (titsup in Pabappa)
ufos the greatest source of power, that which makes its owner invincible
wavy eggs served as food
žiti to walk barefoot


Lollipop was the word for farmer in an early version of Pabappa. It was an incredible councidence since I only use random generation for words, and I played with it for years since it fit the feel of the lkanguage perfectly, but nowadays it'd be really bad grammar. The modern Pabappa version of that word is larlasta and it isn't used in that sense because Pabappa already has a word for farmer. nannamies might be Finnis hfor "candy man" and is Poswa for "bitten by a wolf", but I cant find the Finnish word in use.

There's a page on Frathwiki for these. I was gonna organize something, but then I got lazy. (And now Frathwiki isn't working either. What's up?)

Soap wrote:nannamies might be Finnis hfor "candy man" and is Poswa for "bitten by a wolf", but I cant find the Finnish word in use.

I wouldn't have recognized that word otherwise, but now that you said it means "candy man", it kinda makes sense. Nanna is a very obscure word; I've never used it myself. I've only heard it in the idiom X on nannaa which means something like "X is very good" (where X doesn't have to be an edible).

Soap wrote:Poswa:

pubes of a trail or path

Happy trail?

labia land of curiosity

Indeed?

Some false friends and funny coincidences, mostly with English, from Gnomish. Glosses are concise, not precise.

kwindow- [kwɪndɔʊ] "eyes"; resembles "window"*
dim [dɪm] "water"; resembles "dim"
gidim [ɡɪdɪm] "driver"; resembles "giddy up" or "get 'im"
lonjit [lɒɲɟɪt] "nautiloid"; resembles "Longinus"
rosh [ʁɒʃ] "sage, wizard"; resembles (Master) Roshi of Dragon Ball
rang [ʁæŋ] "chasm"; resembles "rang"
qidz [qɪdz] "air"; resembles "kids"
jug [ɟʊɡ] "soil"; resembles "jug"
had [hæd] "iron"; resembles "had"
mush [mʊʃ] "copper"; resembles "mush"
siqq [sɪqː] "under"; resembles "sick"

*This one ends in a hyphen here because, like most words for body parts in Gnomish, it is inalienably possessed and must always end in a possessive suffix.