Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Bristel »

Teskwan:

hiskorpjën [hisʷkʷʰəɾpʰjən] "a bunch of swords to him" looks like "hi scorpion" (transcribed this wrong at first)
damnit [d̥amnitʰ] "a meeting place for Niet*" looks like "damn it"

*Niet is a goddess of hunger and thirst
Last edited by Bristel on Thu Mar 20, 2014 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
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Yo te pongo en tu lugar...
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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Nortaneous »

Amqoli helli 'north', but that was intentional. xor 'carry' and gram 'place' weren't.
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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Chagen »

Pazmat has an adjective suffix -ī, which due to sound change often appears as -iy-: compare the noun juqō "burn wound" and the derived adjective juqrī juqrīyō juqrīyū juqrīyit juqrīyīh "painful (as the Pasuu lived in a desert so burns were a common source of pain)"; the -r- is because the noun is underlyingly juqar.

I just realized that this is almost identical to the PIE adjective suffix *-iyo. Though its history is completely different; it comes from a PP suffix *-e, which is stressed resulting in a long vowel in Pazmat, the <y> showing up solely to break vowel hiatus which is banned.
Nūdhrēmnāva naraśva, dṛk śraṣrāsit nūdhrēmanīṣṣ iźdatīyyīm woḥīm madhēyyaṣṣi.
satisfaction-DEF.SG-LOC live.PERFECTIVE-1P.INCL but work-DEF.SG-PRIV satisfaction-DEF.PL.NOM weakeness-DEF.PL-DAT only lead-FUT-3P

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by CatDoom »

Speaking of suffixes, ʔuuleomoh has -r', a derivational suffix which produces agent nouns from verbs. After vowels it's realized as a pre-glottalized voiced alveolar approximant [ˀɹ]. After consonants, however, it becomes syllabic and the glottalization shifts to the preceding consonant, making it sound basically identical to the English suffix -er, which also serves the same grammatical function.

This is basically a complete coincidence; ʔuuleomoh is an Akanan a-posteriori language in the Western family. The morpheme is descended from the Iŋomœ́ suffix -zu:ká, which appears to come from a combination of two derivational suffixes in Proto-Western, with the original form -dajV-kʰa-.

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Ryan of Tinellb
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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Ryan of Tinellb »

I was working on a language where the copula was /ʃɪt/, but unfortunately, I've just been playing around with its ancestor languages, so it's unlikely to stay that way.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Foolster41 »

Salthan: (Actually, I think I messed up the vowels on these, I'[m going to have to look at these again after I get some sleep.)
Kar - Beautiful, Pretty, Handsome ("car")
Fal - Shoulder ("fall")
Tal - Arm ("Tall")
Ki - Question, "huh"? ("key")
Lir - Rope ("leer")
Sor - Enemy ("soar")
Daseks - to Break (sounds like "da sex"). (Coincidentally, Sekdas means to have sex)
No - Length of time ("no")
Ton - Earth.
dans - Touch ("Dance")
Shane - boat, ship. ("Shame", m>n)
Nal - Bread ("Mall")
No - Length of time ("No")
Chais - sing, preform music ("Chase")
Dags - Vomit, throw up ("Bags", b>d)
Dar - Body, skin ("Bar")
Last edited by Foolster41 on Mon Oct 13, 2014 5:03 am, edited 4 times in total.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by CatDoom »

The word for "knife" in Mhakh Thandim (one of my langauges in the 2024 reconstruction game) is frau [fraʊ̯], which I find absolutely hilarious for some reason. :P

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Imralu »

Ngolu:

nini - (to be a) mother, aunt
nana - (to be a) father, uncle

banini - (to be a) mother, true mother
banana - (to be a) father, true father
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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Matrix »

Oh, here's a good one.

Maja deth sounds like English death, but it means "grow" or "feed".
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Adúljôžal ônal kol ví éža únah kex yaxlr gmlĥ hôga jô ônal kru ansu frú.
Ansu frú ônal savel zaš gmlĥ a vek Adúljôžal vé jaga čaþ kex.
Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by kusuri »

TiikkGaahaak da has an awful lot of these for something with less than two hundred words.

robb - close, shut
bar - sell, hawk, peddle
fiit - make, create, construct
step - mark, label, assign
ladd - humanity, mankind, man (This one might have been intentional.)
ten - foreigner
haha - valley; neighborhood
tapp - bread
mull - dress; shirt, cloak
watt - belt
risk - true, real
kïd - period of time
spell - bird
mïtt - he, she

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by KathTheDragon »

Chattaiumas verbal roots seem to have quite a lot of these, depending on the grade of the root (mostly a-grade, though some i-grade and weak-grade)

hmais- ~ mouse
cart- ~ cart
pic- ~ peek (actual meaning's observe, watch)
pac- ~ pack
big- ~ big
bíd- ~ bead
baid- ~ bide
band- ~ band
bir- ~ beer
bar- ~ bar
buc- ~ book
brim- ~ brim
brink- ~ brink (actual meaning's fall off smth.)
barc- ~ bark

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Soap »

Hey Im back with more, this time from Pabappa. Pabappa is even more exploitable than Poswa, despite having a much smaller phonology. Like Poswa, many of the matches are not terribly meaningful, being compounds of words that happen to match up to spell an English word or phrase, often ending with -es. And as with Poswa, I've left out simple matches like "pap", "pep", "pip", "pop", "pup", all of which are well-defined words (mostly multiply defined) in Pabappa. Some of these words match Latin or Spanish instead of English.

abar prophecy
anna hard fruit like a melon
arat seen from behind
asabumper the most important item in a package
babel chin
bumbum reward, prize
dare net, filter
label a type of bomb-throwing warrior trained by Anaana
labor stinging insect (pabor?)
lapel wish, dream, fantasy
laser soldier in a foreign army (said of Pabaps who fight for other nations)
manta brow, forehead, brow ridge
manta to repeat
nippon desert (the same word as in Poswa)
nopasta back pocket (also the same word as in Poswa)
palpables leaves falling from a tree
pamper heart
panama harbor, port city
panel crutch
papel child that is with its mother (said of animals)
paper southern part of an area; "the South"
papua type of bird
parables bunch of grass
parabola unable to use a roof
paris of a cherry
passabit various types of shame
pasta muscles
pasta ceiling, barrier
pastapan animal that works outdoors being used as food
penis of the spirit
pepsi having a visible label
petites of a rose (archaic) ... it would be petitis in modern Pabappa, due to regularization of noun declensions, but I really liked this one
pimpables happy people
piper to fool, trick, decoy
pissinit fate of an orchard
pistontop animal cell
pita type of worm used to torture humans
plum between two of the same thing
plumbables group of honeycombs; beehive
plumbum victims
plumper most important holder
pompom drink made from a large plant
pompom bathroom
popper home base, shelter
popular Sun of the crab
porno long, straight claw
porta spiral, fingerprint
portables group of spirals
porto watermelon
postabit miscellaneous bottoms
pubis of the anchor
pudis at a point in time
pudis of the rib
pumpabellup to the son of the duck
pumpitup puddle of turtles
pumpitupabit miscellaneous turtle rains
pumpum silly, crazy
pumpup to the statue
pupal series of events, process, sequence
pupil excited, unable to contain oneself
purpura a bomb that is placed manually and not fired at something
sampler empty-handed
sipup to seduce
tenor using footprints
testa jewelry worn in hair
testapan jewelry used as ammunition
tipper fake, false, decoy
topup to wish for oneself
uranus of Surnu (a god)
wanda a child left in control of a situation; child hero
warpabit various pigtails
winner to educate
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Matrix
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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Matrix »

Here's a crazy one from Southlandic.

Second, pronounced [ˈset͡ʃn̩d], is the nominative plural of sixth.
Image

Adúljôžal ônal kol ví éža únah kex yaxlr gmlĥ hôga jô ônal kru ansu frú.
Ansu frú ônal savel zaš gmlĥ a vek Adúljôžal vé jaga čaþ kex.
Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by din »

That's a nice one!

Though when would you use a plural after "sixth" in you conlang?
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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by finlay »

Presuming it's as in two sixths (2/6).

I deliberately put the word "sixty" in one of my conlangs to mean "snake". But it's pronounced /sixt@/.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Chagen »

The Pazmat root for "pulsate" is śṛd-, which looks so uncannily similar to PIE ḱṛd "heart" that I banned myself from deriving "heart" from it.

Less similar to a PIE word is klēgō "wheel".
Nūdhrēmnāva naraśva, dṛk śraṣrāsit nūdhrēmanīṣṣ iźdatīyyīm woḥīm madhēyyaṣṣi.
satisfaction-DEF.SG-LOC live.PERFECTIVE-1P.INCL but work-DEF.SG-PRIV satisfaction-DEF.PL.NOM weakeness-DEF.PL-DAT only lead-FUT-3P

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by din »

Found some more in Tormiott:

anual /ˈɛnwal/ (v) to heat up, to warm up (e.g. food)

eden /ˈɛðən/, plural of ey /əj/ (n) sheep
(I'm sure Adam's not going to have to mow the lawn any time soon)

toch /tox/ (v) to shoot, to fire (with a weapon); (n) shot, discharge of a weapon
(spelled the same as Dutch 'toch', anyway, after all)

node /ˈnoðə/ (n) mythical creature that manifests itself through the weather and other natural phenomena

dagen /ˈdaʁən/ (v) to carry in one's hands; to bring with, to take with
(spelled the same as Dutch 'dagen', days)

wâldo /ˈwaːldʊ/, passive participle of wald /wal/ (v) to fell (tree); to tear down, to demolish, to wreck
(which is also funny because German 'Wald' means forest)

nâcho /ˈnaːxʊ/ (n) past, history (period of time)

omgot /ˈomʁət/ (n) rapids (v) to swish; to flush (a toilet); to swat; to whip
(doesn't really resemble a word, but always makes me think of 'oh my god')

open /ˈowən/ (n) division; half; separation; shore, coastʲ (v) to divide; to cut, to slice; to pare, to cut off
and the words derived from itː
manopen /ˈmɛnowən/ (n) beach
penopen /ˈpənowən/ (n) racial segregation, apartheid; racism

odd /on/ (n) finger

manchen /ˈmaŋxən/ (n) waiter, waitress; servant; clerk (at stores or hotels), attendant
(resembles German 'männchen' and was pronounced similarly until I decided to assimilate nasals to the following consonant, which sadly affected the pronunciation of the vowel)

câiro /ˈkɛːɾʊ/ (n) script, writing system
— o noth sidiritt Tormiott

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Chagen »

Well, once again, I have nearly recreated an english noun--house. The same word in Pazmat is ḥesō, from the root ḥes- "to live in/at (+LOC)". To be fair, the pronunciation is [ʀe.soː]. Other words derived from that root include ḥīsan "citizen, homeowner (required to be a citizen in old Paz society), ḥīsnī- "civic", ḥīsnayyō "citizenship".

Also, wṛthī- "beautiful", awful close to English "worthy". Note that wṛthī- only means "beautiful" as pertaining to human form; "beautiful" when referring to technique is drixī-, which can also mean "competent".
Nūdhrēmnāva naraśva, dṛk śraṣrāsit nūdhrēmanīṣṣ iźdatīyyīm woḥīm madhēyyaṣṣi.
satisfaction-DEF.SG-LOC live.PERFECTIVE-1P.INCL but work-DEF.SG-PRIV satisfaction-DEF.PL.NOM weakeness-DEF.PL-DAT only lead-FUT-3P

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by alynnidalar »

One I somehow didn't notice for months in Tirina is liki, "likable, pleasant, good". It's derived from lise, "to enjoy", so it really was just coincidental that it ended up so similar.
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Chagen »

I have just added the word urban "stone, rock" to my Pazmat dictionary. The word is a derivation from the adjectival root ṛb- "hard, tough, strong (of form)". The suffix -an is added to form a noun from it, which lengthens the root. Normally this would result in *arban but labials, and especially labial stops, have a tendency to make syllabics lengthen into uR (compare the root mṛd- "clear" and the derived noun murdan "logic").
Nūdhrēmnāva naraśva, dṛk śraṣrāsit nūdhrēmanīṣṣ iźdatīyyīm woḥīm madhēyyaṣṣi.
satisfaction-DEF.SG-LOC live.PERFECTIVE-1P.INCL but work-DEF.SG-PRIV satisfaction-DEF.PL.NOM weakeness-DEF.PL-DAT only lead-FUT-3P

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by PVER•PVERVM•AMAT »

My (as yet unnamed) conlang has jade [jade]: 'refined gold', which of course resembles English jade [dʒeɪd]: 'green stone out of nephrite or jadeite'.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by KathTheDragon »

Under my pre-PIE, the word 'you (pl) are' is hasté [həs'te]

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Tiamat »

my Proto-Karasuk word for she-wolfe ōrčī kinda like looks like Orc.

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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Arzena »

Wippwo has shit, which just means 'as for'.
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Re: Conlang words that happen to resemble real words

Post by Chagen »

Pazmat has the verbal root ars- "to create, make" which is rather similar in form and semantics to Latin ars, artis "art, skill, craft".

Some words derived from it are arsō "creation", arsrī- "artificial, man-made", ōsan "story", ōsnī- "fictional, fantastic, bizarre", ausam- "fictional", ausēman "fictional story, fiction (in the plural)", awarsat "natural thing, something organic", arsuśir "tool, implement, creativity"

On a less similar note, it has the adjectival root pruf- "smart", somewhat like English "proof".
Nūdhrēmnāva naraśva, dṛk śraṣrāsit nūdhrēmanīṣṣ iźdatīyyīm woḥīm madhēyyaṣṣi.
satisfaction-DEF.SG-LOC live.PERFECTIVE-1P.INCL but work-DEF.SG-PRIV satisfaction-DEF.PL.NOM weakeness-DEF.PL-DAT only lead-FUT-3P

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