# Hebrew-Arabic false cognates



## elroy

Hello!

I think it would be cool to further explore the topic of Hebrew-Arabic false cognates.

It seems to me that there are at least 3 groups of false cognates:

-لحم/לחם: no semantic overlap (לחם can never mean "meat" and لحم can never mean "bread"), but obvious etymological connection
-عبد/עבד: partial semantic overlap (both can mean "worship" but only עבד can mean "work")
-شر/שר: sound the same, but etymologically unrelated

There are some, like ركض/רקד, whose categorization is less straightforward. There is no semantic overlap but on first glance there may appear to be an etymological connection. But I suspect there isn't, because ض usually corresponds to צ (as in بيضة/ביצה).

It would be cool if we could discuss different false cognates and try to group them into these different categories.

Thanks!

[Moderator edit: removed link to CC post.]


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## Drink

Not to mention that رقص is very similar to ركض and has the same meaning as רקד. There are therories that early in Semitic many three-letter roots were formed from smaller parts, leading there to be different three-letter roots that share two letters and have related meanings. This is still poorly understood, but that could explain the رقص/רקד connection.

Another false cognate I really like, which is of the first group according to your classification, is קודם (previous) and قادم (next).

Something that sort of fits in your third category is לילה and ليلة, because even though the words are related, unlike in the Arabic word, the ה in the Hebrew word is not the feminine suffix, but rather most likely a remnant of the accusative case (like ليلاً), which is why it has penultimate stress, ironically making it sound even more like the Arabic word.


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## origumi

Are طريق "tariq" and דרך "derek", both mean "road", true or false cognates?


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## Drink

origumi said:


> Are طريق "tariq" and דרך "derek", both mean "road", true or false cognates?



That's an interesting one. At first I thought for sure no, but then I guess there is a slim chance. The k/q interchange is quite common, but I don't think I've seen the d/T interchange anywhere else, even though they share a place of articulation... But then also the meanings of the Arabic root درك all seem like they could have a relation to roads, making it less likely that طريق is a cognate.


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## oopqoo

Here are some I can think of though I don't know how I'd classify them:
قسم (part) - (magic) קסם
 نخل/نحل (palmtree/bee)- נחל (river)
خاصة (special) - (lettuce) חסה
صوص (chick) - (horse) סוס
حلاق (barber) -(smooth) חלק
سرّ (secret) -(pot) סיר
كان (was)-(here) כאן
دليل (proof)-(dilute) דליל
صميم (core)- (drugs) סמים
خريف (autumn) - (spicy) חריף
صرصور (cockroach) - (pimp) סרסור


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## inquisitiveness1

elroy said:


> Hello!
> 
> I think it would be cool to further explore the topic of Hebrew-Arabic false cognates.
> 
> It seems to me that there are at least 3 groups of false cognates:
> 
> -لحم/לחם: no semantic overlap (לחם can never mean "meat" and لحم can never mean "bread"), but obvious etymological connection
> -عبد/עבד: partial semantic overlap (both can mean "worship" but only עבד can mean "work")


I'd call these two categories as "false friends", not "false cognates", as they actually are cognate.



oopqoo said:


> Here are some I can think of though I don't know how I'd classify them:
> خاصة (special) - (lettuce) חסה
> صوص (chick) - (horse) סוס
> صميم (core)- (drugs) סמים
> صرصور (cockroach) - (pimp) סרסור


These ones aren't even false friends, since Arabic ص and Hebrew ס sound different (although a Modern Hebrew speaker might confuse them since they don't maintain a distinction between plain and emphatic consonants...but objectively, they do not sound the same)



oopqoo said:


> حلاق (barber) -(smooth) חלק


I am not sure if the following is a false friend like حلاق might be, but that Hebrew word actually does have Arabic cognate with the same meaning (although a verb, not an adjective): (taken from page 800 of Lane's Lexicon, not sure on the vowels due to the font of the lexicon text) خلق can mean "he made it smooth"...in any case, خلاق would be a more related false friend than حلاق.



oopqoo said:


> قسم (part) - (magic) קסם
> خريف (autumn) - (spicy) חריף


These ones are false friends, yes, but if anyone was curious, قسم and קסם are cognate; and חריף is actually more related to the false friend حريف _ḥarīf_ (the root that word comes from also produced the clearly-cognate-but-not-false-friend word حريف _ḥirrīf_, which does also mean "spicy")


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## berndf

elroy said:


> It seems to me that there are at least 3 groups of false cognates:
> 
> -لحم/לחם: no semantic overlap (לחם can never mean "meat" and لحم can never mean "bread"), but obvious etymological connection


 لحم and לחם are maybe _false_ friends, but they are certainly _true_ cognates.

*Moderator note: Further discussion of this word pair moved to EHL (here).*


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## Drink

عنى to mean / ענה to answer
رجل man / רגל leg, foot, time
خيل horses / חיל army
حرب war / חרב sword

This one is also interesting because both words were borrowed into English (and other languages):
منارة minaret / מנורה menorah

Maybe this a new type of category where the words have a the same meaning, but the usage is different. For example, in Hebrew the word for sea is ים. Arabic also has the word يم, but seas are generally referred to as بحر (I don't know when يم would actually be used). I had another good example, but I forgot it...


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## momai

Drink said:


> رجل man / רגל leg, foot, time


rijl=leg or foot (mostly colloquial) , rajul=man



> خيل horses / חיל army


It is more likely a cognate of حول Hawl=power



> حرب war / חרב sword


The Hebrew word is definitely related to Harb, but also more probably to Arabic Harba



> This one is also interesting because both words were borrowed into English (and other languages):
> منارة minaret / מנורה menorah


Nice one.



> Maybe this a new type of category where the words have a the same meaning, but the usage is different. For example, in Hebrew the word for sea is ים. Arabic also has the word يم, but seas are generally referred to as بحر (I don't know when يم would actually be used). I had another good example, but I forgot it...


The only thing that I know, yamm is never used in modern Arabic nor has been used in medieval Arabic.

In addition to that, In the Quran Yamm can mean both river and sea, it's only possible through the context to know what yamm really refers to.


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## rayloom

In addition to the above, I just remembered that:
أمر means to command/order in Arabic while in Hebrew it means to say.
Also Arabic مدينة means city in Arabic while in Hebrew it means state. Although Arabic مدينة might be ultimately borrowed from Hebrew via Aramaic.


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## aavichai

the מדינה, as you said, cam from Aramaic
it is from the root דין - means Law and Justice

the "courts" were in the big cities
and therefore the big cities called מדינה

also in old Hebrew it is like that
in the modern time, when states were estblished, the word מדינה became the name for the state is the big place with a specific law for its territory.


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## Mahaodeh

Drink said:


> رجل man / רגל leg, foot, time



Rajul is man, but Rijl is leg. In the same root you also have the meanings of walking and standing. I don't speak Hebrew nor is this my speciality, but it seems to me like a true cognate.



momai said:


> rijl=leg or foot (mostly colloquial)



Why would you say 'mostly colloquial? The Quran mentions it meaning leg in more than one location. Example: الْيَوْمَ نَخْتِمُ عَلَى أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَتُكَلِّمُنَا 
أَيْدِيهِمْ وَتَشْهَدُ* أَرْجُلُهُمْ *بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ*. *It's used in both colloquial and standard Arabic.


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## momai

Mahaodeh said:


> Why would you say 'mostly colloquial?


You seem to have misunderstood me. In formal Arabic, rijl is only the leg while in colloquial Arabic it includes the foot, too.


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## Ihsiin

Drink said:


> This one is also interesting because both words were borrowed into English (and other languages):
> منارة minaret / מנורה menorah



Surely these are true cognates as they are both things that give light (منارة = lighthouse).


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## bazq

Ihsiin said:


> Surely these are true cognates as they are both things that give light (منارة = lighthouse).



Yes, based on the root n-w-r for "light". But what happened to the /w/ in Arabic? Is it a long [a]? (I presume in Hebrew it gave rise to the [o] by contracting [aw]).
I would have guessed something like [manaara] would be the Arabic cognate.


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## rayloom

bazq said:


> Yes, based on the root n-w-r for "light". But what happened to the /w/ in Arabic? Is it a long [a]? (I presume in Hebrew it gave rise to the [o] by contracting [aw]).
> I would have guessed something like [manaara] would be the Arabic cognate.



As you said, _manaarah _is indeed the Arabic form of the word. _manaarat _is the Arabic construct form which was borrowed into Turkish, then into the other European languages.
As for the _o _in _menorah_, my guess is that it was a long _a _which underwent the Canaanite shift to a long _o_.


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## Ihsiin

Indeed. In addition we should note that _w_ is a weak radical and therefore may manifest itself as any long vowel. As such, though the root is _n-w-r_, the form _manārah_ is perfectly acceptable and I would agree that Canaanite _ā_ -> _ō_ seems most likely in this case.


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## Drink

Yes, it's the Canaanite shift. But more generally we can say that the Arabic maqtal / Hebrew miqTāl pattern manifests itself as Arabic maqāl / Hebrew māqōl (feminine məqōlā), when the middle radical is w/y. E.g. مقام / מקום.



Ihsiin said:


> Surely these are true cognates as they are both things that give light (منارة = lighthouse).



They would be in the false friend category. They are certainly true cognates. Same for most, if not all, of what I listed.


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## samuel12345

oopqoo said:


> صميم (core)- (drugs) סמים
> خريف (autumn) - (spicy) חריף


Actually, the first one might be more related to sam(poison) in arabic and the second to חורף horef(winter) in hebrew


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## oopqoo

I know that the cognates I brought I are neither cognates nor false cognates according to all of you guys' criteria but these are Arabic words that made me question "Huh, is there a relation here?" while learning them - so I feel like words where I equated a ص to a ס are still words that a Hebrew-speaker (who does or does not learn Arabic) could confuse, so it would be important mentioning them.
Another word that sounds similar is ירתח (boil) and يرتاح (feel comfortable) - while obviously the root in Hebrew is R-T-7 and in Arabic R-A-7 (or just R-7?) and it's just the verb form in Arabic that makes it sound like the Hebrew, it's still worth mentioning.


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## Malki92

How about עם and عم? What category (if any) would that fit in?


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## Drink

Malki92 said:


> How about עם and عم? What category (if any) would that fit in?



I think these would be the first category, no semantic overlap, but etymologically related.


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## momai

> خاصة (special) - (lettuce) חסה


خسة is the right cognate



> صوص (chick) - (horse) סוס


Arabic originally had the verb saasa (to take care of horses), the verb then extended to include people, too. So we ended up with words like سياسة(politics: which simply means taking care of the issues of people)



> كان (was)-(here) כאן


Very similar to the demonstrative pronouns in Aleppian Arabic 



> صرصور (cockroach) - (pimp) סרסור


In lissan Al-Arab you find: ويقال: فلان سُرْسُورُ هذا الأَمر إِذا كان قائماً به  which roughly translated means a Fulan(such and such) is called the _sursuur_ of the matter if he was the one to curry out this matter. In other words it means _mediator_. In modern Arabic this is called سمسار _simsaar_, instead


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## Malki92

Drink said:


> I think these would be the first category, no semantic overlap, but etymologically related.



Same case with משלם/مسلم, right?


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## arbelyoni

momai said:


> In lissan Al-Arab you find: ويقال: فلان سُرْسُورُ هذا الأَمر إِذا كان قائماً به  which roughly translated means a Fulan(such and such) is called the _sursuur_ of the matter if he was the one to curry out this matter. In other words it means _mediator_. In modern Arabic this is called سمسار _simsaar_, instead



Interestingly, سمسار seems to be related to the Hebrew סַפְסָר _safsar _meaning mediator in the Talmud and scalper in modern usage. The origin of ספסר is Aramaic.


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## amikama

arbelyoni said:


> The origin of ספסר is Aramaic.


Not Greek?


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## Suqutra

אי island, where, if, no, oh
إي yes


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## a-cube

I wanted to ask you whether *عود* and *עץ* can be cognates.

Moderator note: replies to this post have been moved to a new thread in EHL.


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## Albert Schlef

Are اِنْدَلَعَ and הִתגַלֵעַ related?

They both mean "[a quarrel] has broke out".


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## Drink

Albert Schlef said:


> Are اِنْدَلَعَ and הִתגַלֵעַ related?
> 
> They both mean "[a quarrel] has broke out".



It's possible that they are distantly related back to the time when three-letter roots were not yet solidified.

But also I think اندلع might be related to דלעת. There is apparently an Arabic word دَلَّاعَة which means watermelon.


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## eskandar

Drink said:


> خيل horses / חיל army


خيل is also used in the sense of "cavalry" in Arabic; the connection to "army" is not far off.


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