Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 March 4

= March 4 =

adding Arabic language
how can i Add Arabic language to English article — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shitya (talk • contribs) 08:28, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * To some extent, it will depend on your software and its configuration, but you can use the tool below the Wikipedia edit form; by default, it's set to "insert", but you can use the pull-down menu to select other scripts, including Arabic... AnonMoos (talk) 08:39, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation: Do words like "13", "14", etc. have the emphasis on the first syllable, or on the last one?
As you see, I'm not a native speaker. My problem is with the dictionaries vs. what I hear. All the dictionaries I've seen (including audio-dictionaries like this one) - indicate that the stress is on the last syllable, but I often (or maybe even always?) hear people say those words with the accent being on the first syllable. Does that have anything to do with the variety of English? Would anybody like to remove the confusion? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 09:39, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't think it has anything to do with variety of English, but rather a desire to distinguish between "thirteen" and "thirty". In British English the stress is on the first syllable, but care has to be taken to enunciate both syllables properly to avoid this confusion. Hope this helps. --TammyMoet (talk) 10:47, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * So why do dictionaries mark the stress on the last syllable? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 10:56, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * This may depend on the variety of British English you're speaking. In my experience (as a native-born Brit from Northern England) the (slight) stress generally is on the last syllable unless you're simply counting (so "there were fifteen men on the pitch but "twelve, thirteen, fourteen..."). When counting the stress is marginally greater; possibly simply due to the rhythm of counting itself. OR, I know. Tonywalton Talk 12:18, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Your example of the men on the pitch, make me feel you disagree with the conclusion of this discussion user:NorwegianBlue has indicated. Am I correct? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 17:15, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * This discussion on Wordreference.com, concludes that stress may depend on the position of the word in the sentence, at least in General American English. --NorwegianBluetalk 11:08, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanx. BTW, the discussion you're taking about - was between two persons, one of whom was a Brit - being the one who answered the question. Anyways, what would user:TammyMoet (as a Brit) say about that?77.127.60.246 (talk) 11:19, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * As TammyMoet notes, the most important concern in all cases is to make the distinction between thirty and thirteen clear.


 * My immediate reaction to this question is to say that in my Estuary-ish BrE accent, thirteen has stress on its second syllable, while thirty has stress on its first syllable. Certainly, if you just add an  on the end of thirty, it still sounds like thirty.  That said, I think the stress pattern on thirteen is rather more even than it is on thirty: certainly, the first syllable of thirteen is not reduced for me (at least when I say the word in isolation). Pfainuk talk 12:40, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * So, may it have two stresses, i.e. a primary one and a secondary one? ?77.127.60.246 (talk) 14:59, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I live in London, and I believe that both stresses can be heard here, without any particular meaning attached to either. Alansplodge (talk) 16:58, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * As a Londoner, can you approve of the following: "13 years" tends (in London) more - to have the stress (of 13) - on the first syllable, while "my age is 13" tends (in London) more - to have the stress (of 13) - on the final syllable? Note that I'm asking about a general tendency, rather than about a constant rule. Additionally, do you agree with User:Tonywalton's claim above? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 17:08, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I'll leave it for Alan to answer for London, but I would have said that this is true in general British English. Here in the north, the /i:/ of thirteen is much longer than the /i/ of thirty.  As another northerner, I agree with Tony Walton, but I'm not convinced by the general rule in Wiktionary (with validity claimed over a much wider English-speaking population): that thirteen is stressed on the first syllable if the following word is also stressed on the first ("thirteen dollars"), but stressed on the last if the following word is stressed later ("thirteen antidisestablishmentarians").  I would still keep the stress on the first syllable for almost any following words regardless of their stress, and retain a final stress in thirteen only when it is a final word or when I wanted to clearly distinguish it from thirty.  Mileage may vary by region and culture.    D b f i r s   22:07, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Are you sure you agree with Tony Walton? Notice that he pronounces: "there were fifteen men on the pitch", as opposed to what you've just claimed. 77.127.60.246 (talk) 22:44, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I think 77.127 is probably right. Alansplodge (talk) 00:45, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I was half asleep! (I've struck my agreement above).  Perhaps the double stress is the best explanation, with the greater stress depending on the rhythm of the sentence and the occasional need to distinguish from thirty.  I can't find any consistent rule.    D b f i r s   07:45, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you. 77.127.60.246 (talk) 07:45, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I (GA speaker) agree with Dbfirs. There are thirteen men on the pitch, and there are thirteen examinations to pass.  But, at the end of a prosodic unit, the stress shifts to the second syllable: "How many days until the concert? Thirteen."  And, "The number of men at the table was thirteen, Jesus and the twelve apostles.".Atemperman (talk) 08:53, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you. 77.127.60.246 (talk) 12:02, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * In my experience, numbers under 21 being counted out loud tend to emphasize the first syllable. Even "12" kinda sounds like "TWE-lve". 21 and up tend to emphasize the trailing digit the same was in 1 through 9. The purpose would be to emphasize the part of the number that's different from the numbers preceeding and following. If mentioned standalone, the second syllable of 1-19 is more likely to be the one emphasized. 20 is TWEN-ty, although when counting out loud, the TWEN is usually more deliberately emphasized. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:24, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * So, do you say: "fifteen years"? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 07:45, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * In that phrase, "years" will get the emphasis, and "fif-teen" won't see either syllable noticeably stressed. If someone says "How old are you?" the answer is more like "fif-TEEN", though the "teen" is not stressed as much as the "fif-" when counting. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 10:21, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanx. 77.127.60.246 (talk) 11:56, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation: Is the last t in "restaurant" pronounced?
Some dictionaries (like this audio-dictionary) indicate that the last t is pronounced, while other dictionaries (like Collins Dictionary) indicate that the last t is not pronounced. Does that have anything to do with the variety of English? Would anybody like to remove the confusion? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 09:41, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I think that I pronounce the final "t" if it is followed by a vowel, but not if it is followed by a consonant. Bluap (talk) 11:08, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I guess (by looking at your userpage) you're a Brit. Next time, please indicate your variety of English, because it seems like the answer to my question depends on that. 77.127.60.246 (talk) 11:25, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * The only time I (a native South African English speaker) ever hear other SAE speakers say it without the final "t" is when the speaker is affecting a "Fake French" accent, which I suspect is an instance of hypercorrection. Roger (talk) 11:21, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * So it seems like there's a difference between the varieties of English. BTW, some dictionaries (like Collins Dictionary) indicate that the last t is not pronounced, so this doesn't look like a hypercorrection. Anyways. Thank you for your answer. 77.127.60.246 (talk) 11:25, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * For me, (American English from the South-East), both seem fine to me, but I usually drop the 't'. Then again, I often drop lots of consonants, such as the 't' in 'it' (who is i'?) for example. Falconus p  t   c 15:27, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't think you can compare - your dropping the t in "it" - to your dropping the t in "restaurant": When dropping the t in "it" - you just replace the t by a glottal stop (like the middle consonant in "bottle"), whereas, when dropping the t in "restaurant", you actaully replace the nt by ng, as if it were spelled "restaurong", i.e. "rest a wrong". Am I correct? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 16:57, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * What you and everyone else are probably referring to is an unreleased stop, that is, the "t" is pronounced, but not fully, as it would be in another position. Adam Bishop (talk) 18:53, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Are you talking about the t in "who is it", or about the final t in "restaurant"? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 19:06, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I believe he's referring to the t at the end of restaurant; as you mentioned, the t of it is often only a glottal stop. When I pronounce (I'm from SW Ontario) the final sounds of restaurant, my mouth closes and my tongue moves forward slightly to pronounce the n and my tongue touches my palate to make the t, but it often doesn't do the immediate drop down to accommodate the exhalation to make the sound complete. It's nothing like an eng sound; it's just an unreleased t that slightly colours the n. That typically occurs when the word is followed by a pause, as at the end of a sentence; if another word (that doesn't begin with t) immediately follows then the t is completed. At least in my case. :) Matt Deres (talk) 19:52, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Same for me (also from SW Ontario). And I can see how "who is it" might end in a glottal stop in certain circumstances, maybe if it is being yelled, but normally it's just an unreleased stop like in "restaurant". Adam Bishop (talk) 21:07, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * All right, so now I have your (user:Adam Bishop's and user:Matt Deres') testimony about SW Ontario accent. Anyways, as far as the RP accent is concerned, Collins Dictionary indicates that "restaurant" is pronounced just like "rest a wrong", so that (in the RP accent) this is not an issue of an unreleased t, but rather an issue of replacing the "nt" by "ng". 77.127.60.246 (talk) 21:45, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, RP speakers are more likely to retain the French pronunciation /ˈɹɛst.əˌɹɑ̃/, but here in the north we often anglicise to /ˈɹɛst.ˌɹɒnt/. (or /ˈɹɛst.əˌɹɒnt/), with the "t" sometimes fully released. Lots of variations are possible, and heard.    D b f i r s   22:28, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * But "Alice's restauRANT" is not the name of the restauRANT"
 * It's just the name of the song
 * Which is why I call this song
 * "Alice's restauRANT" -- Arlo Guthrie
 * --Trovatore (talk) 22:32, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh great! So it's a clear proof about the American accent of Brooklyn. BTW, how about GA? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 22:49, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't think that's what Guthrie is doing...it sounds like "-rant" with a "t" to me, especially when (in the actual song) it is rhymed with "want". Adam Bishop (talk) 22:59, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * It seems like you disagree with me, but I just said Guthrie's song "is a clear proof about the American accent of Brooklyn". Don't you agree that his song "is a clear proof about the American accent of Brooklyn"? 77.127.60.246 (talk) 23:12, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I was actually disagreeing with Trovatore. I don't know anything about Brooklyn accents aside from what I hear in TV shows and movies, and he doesn't sound like that stereotypical sort of accent...what is Guthrie's accent, anyway? Is that even the way he really talks? I've never heard him speak or sing, aside from Alice's Restaurant, and I imagined it was a parody of a "country" accent. But that's a different question... Adam Bishop (talk) 23:24, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not clear what you're disagreeing with. You said it was "-rant" with a t; nothing I wrote contradicts that.  To me the distinctive feature (that is, the thing most different from how I pronounce the word) is that Guthrie puts the principal stress on the last syllable. --Trovatore (talk) 00:37, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh, I thought you were saying the -rant part rhymed with "song" (in agreement with the apparent Received Pronunciation where "restaurant" ends with "ng"). Adam Bishop (talk) 09:58, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * It's definitely pronounced in Detroit, where it would be said as "rest Ur rawnt" or possibly "rest or rawnt". StuRat (talk) 04:59, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I've always heard it with a trailing "t" regardless of region in America. As for Arlo Guthrie, he's being funny. Americans will sometimes em-PHA-size the wrong syl-LAB-le for comedic effect or for making some particular point. When he actually sings the song's tag line, he says "REST-ur-ahnt", the normal way. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:24, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Interesting that it seems Americans pronounce it with three syllables. In South African English it has only two - rest-rahnt - with a barely perceptible schwa linking them. Roger (talk) 09:46, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry for not checking back here sooner; I definitely do not pronounce restaurant with an "ng" at the end; restaurong doesn't sound at all right to me. If anything, I drop the 't', and don't pronounce the 'n' very clearly.  Falconus p  t   c 12:07, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I think the "ng" was a misunderstanding. Wasn't /ˈɹɛst.əˌɹɑ̃/ intended, rather like the French /ʁɛs.tɔ.ʁɑ̃/?  Northern English has rest-rant like in South Africa, though it varies by "class" and culture.     D b f i r s   14:26, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Collins Dictionary indicates that "restaurant" is pronounced "rest a wrong", i.e. as if it were spelled "restaurong", and this is what I'd meant by "ng". As for the French pronunciation, its "ant" is pronounced as the English speakers of Canada pronounce the "ong" in "wrong". 77.127.60.246 (talk) 14:54, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

As an American of Southern Hillfolk dialect by upbringing, and Milwaukeean by adoption, I will admit that I'm gobsmacked by the idea that anybody would ever say "rest a wrong" except as a humorous gallicization! I've never heard it without the final 't' and with a full three syllables. As to Arlo Guthrie: in the song, he's speaking and singing in an idiolect derived mostly from his Oklahoman daddy, with only the slightist shading of the Northeast to it. He still has some of Oklahoma in his ordinary speech, and very little of the Brooklynese you credit him with. -- Orange Mike &#x007C;  Talk  20:39, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * All right. Oklahoma. As for "rest a wrong", this is how Collins Dictionary describes the way "restaurant" is pronounced in the British accent. I've never claimed that's relevant to the GA accent. 77.127.60.246 (talk) 21:39, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Mangled Hungarian braille inscription in logo
Look at the logo of Szól a Szív Alapítvány. This has a mangled braille inscription at the bottom. The baseline is curved and the spaces are compressed so it would probably be difficult to read without context, but from the context (the name of the foundation which is also shown on the top part of the logo) you can guess it wants to say “szól a szív”.

What I'm really puzzled about, though, is the very first character, the one before the sz. This looks like it's braille dots 4-6. What is that character supposed to be, and what does it mean? One guess is that it's supposed to be braille dot 6, meaning a capital letter, which would make sense because the foundation writes its name capitalized as “»Szól a szív…« Alapítvány”.

(I've seen this inscription on a bulletin board irl, but I didn't take a photo, for I thought their homepage would contain a suitable quality rendition of the logo.) &#x2013; b_jonas 18:33, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Update: I have now cross-posted this to w:hu:Wikipédia:Tudakozó. Feel free to reply in either place. &#x2013; b_jonas 16:54, 9 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Turns out, it is 4-6, and means capital letter prefix just like in French braille, only the article Braille-írás didn't know that. &#x2013; b_jonas 22:21, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Etymology of "Catathelasma"
Hello.

This is a question about Ancient Greek, not about mushrooms. I would like to understand the exact derivation of the name of the mushroom genus "Catathelasma". It is derived from a word or expression which means "running down" (referring to the way the lamellae run down the stem - they are "decurrent"). I have found that καταθἐω means "I run down", and I think that "Catathelasma" must be a noun formed from that verb. By the way, I also found that θῄλασμα means "breastfeeding", but I think that has nothing to do with the fungus.

Please could you explain exactly how the neuter noun "Catathelasma" would be formed? For instance, I can't understand where the letter "l" would come from. Thanks in advance for your attention.

Strobilomyces (talk) 19:05, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Actually cata- is a prefix in Greek, meaning "down". I don't know anything about the mushroom but for whatever reason it's a combination of the word for "breastfeeding" and the prefix for "down". Adam Bishop (talk) 21:05, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * The root is actually θηλυς "female", as far as I can determine, though there is another verb θελεω "to flourish, be abundant with"... AnonMoos (talk) 02:20, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * For θήλασμα, the root is actually just θη, the lambda being part of a suffix (see Smyth § 860 and Chantraine's entry for θηλὴ at pp. 434-435).
 * Strobilomyces, may I ask, how do you know that the word derives from something meaning "running down"? If that is the case, then θήλασμα is not part of the etymology but καταθέω would be as you surmise, although for such a case I could not fully explain the construction with -lasma except to guess that whichever biologist named it was just being creative with Greek suffixes.  However, Adam Bishop's derivation from κατα + θήλασμα seems like a good guess to me.  If you want a deeper etymology than that, please ask. -- Atethnekos (Discussion, Contributions) 05:29, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The author of the genus is Ruth Ellen Harrison Lovejoy, and her original description of the genus [ ] is on-line at .  As Iblardi found and quoted below, Mrs. Lovejoy says that the name is based on the decurrent character of the gills (i.e. they run down the stem.  Here is a photo of another type of Catathelasma, showing how the gills run down the stem (I think there are no photos or drawings of the species which Mrs. Lovejoy found and described - Catathelasma evanescens).  What I would really like is either a deeper etymology based on running down, or an explanation of what under-breastfeeding has to do with the mushroom. Strobilomyces (talk) 22:01, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * The snippet included in the top search result here (Gender of generic names . . .) indicates that the paper's author definitely considered the name to be derived from κατα + θήλασμα. Deor (talk) 18:19, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't have access to the body of the paper. Could you quote what the author says which indicates the meaning in relation to the mushroom? Strobilomyces (talk) 21:47, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * [e.c.] The source is Lovejoy (1910): "Catathelasma, gen. nov. . . The ring and volva, together with the very decided decurrent gills (upon which character the generic name is based), are telling characteristics of this genus of the Leucosporae." I must say that the connection with suckling is lost on me too. There does exist a genus called Lactarius which is able to leak a milky substance. Could this also be the case with Catathelasma? Iblardi (talk) 18:23, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * No, it certainly doesn't exude milk like Lactarius - Mrs. Lovejoy would have had to have said so. Strobilomyces (talk) 21:47, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks a lot to everyone for all the answers! Well, I think I am still left with two possibilities:


 * 1) the name means "running down(wards)" and is a false (fanciful) formation from καταθέω, or
 * 2) the name means "down/under breastfeeding", from κατα + θήλασμα.


 * In the latter case, I would still like to understand what the etymology has to do with the mushroom. I think there are no photos or drawings of Lovejoy's species Catathelasma evanescens, but here is a photo of a related species, showing how the gills run down the stem.  I must admit that the stem of the C. evanescens is described as being extremely short (Lovejoy says only 1cm long by 4cm thick, but that is impossibly short, it must be a mistake), so perhaps the whole mushroom upside-down might look a bit like a breast?  But how could that tie in with Mrs. Lovejoy's comment that the name is for the decurrent gills?  There is a type of fungus called "trumpets of the dead", the idea being that they are like trumpets being played by dead people under the ground.  Are the Catathelasma mushrooms supposedly being suckled by babies under the ground?  This explanation seems wildly implausible to me, so I still think that the first possibility is more likely.


 * Anyway, thanks again and I would still be interested in any further clues which anyone could bring to the subject.

Strobilomyces (talk) 21:47, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Well, since Lovejoy named it, we cannot doubt that she did intend to derive the name from καταθέω. You're not going to get better than her first hand account.  My first guess in that case was that she would have used creative suffix-additions to arrive at a novel noun καταθέλασμα (whether she intended this to be feminine or a neuter with genitive καταθελάσματος, I do not know; what Deor cites shows that it was later understood to be neuter). Another possibility is that she knew of καταθέω but checked a lexicon for its derivatives and saw καταθήλασμα and mistook it for one of these derivatives (maybe she even fully recognized the definition of "breastfeeding" but erroneously explained away the connection as the milk, sort of, "runs down" from the breast to the infant) . So, either she derived the name more directly from καταθέω with a creative back-formation or more indirectly from καταθέω erroneously via the unrelated καταθήλασμa . -- Atethnekos (Discussion, Contributions) 00:43, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I confused the issue. I should have said: Another possibility is that she looked for derivatives of θέω and saw θήλασμα and mistook that as one of these derivatives, then she merely added κατα to match up with the derived καταθέω which had the derived meaning she wanted.  Here's some speculation: Suffixing with λα and then μα or ματ (including sigma insertion) just seems very unlikely since, as far as I can tell, this has only ever occurred with θήλασμα.  So then she would have gotten the suffixing from θήλασμα? But if she was looking at θήλασμα isn't it more likely that she simply mistook this as being related to θέω due to the similarity and so used it for the name? -- Atethnekos (Discussion, Contributions) 05:24, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Catathelasma is definitely taken to be neuter; that is important as it affects the endings of the species, such as C. ventricosum. evanescens must be invariant.  I think you have answered the question as well as it can be - the name must be a mistaken construction starting from καταθέω, but influenced by θήλασμa.  Where people say that the etymology is κατα + θήλασμα (for instance Deor's reference and in the entry in the French wikipedia), I can't really say that that's wrong.  Thanks in any case. Strobilomyces (talk) 21:13, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The German Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen (1996) offers the following explanation: "Catathelásma (...): wohl zu gr. katá und thēlasma : Benennungsmotiv unklar; wahrscheinl. werden die bis auf den Stiel herablaufenden, schmutzig-weiß bis blaß-gelblichen Lamellen mit dem Bild einer beim Saugen gestreckten Milchzitze verglichen." - "Catathelásma (...) probably from Greek katá (down) and thēlasma (the [act of] sucking); naming motif unclear: probably the dirty-white to bleak-yellowish lamellae, which run down onto the stalk, were compared to the image of a nipple being stretched out during suckling." See here. Iblardi (talk) 12:17, 7 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, I don't suppose anyone can find a more pertinent reference than that. I don't actually have access to the relevant page - anyway Genaust must have thought about it and must have known about Lovejoy's explanation mentioning the decurrent gills.  I don't understand why he says "dirty white to pale yellowish" for the gills; Lovejoy just says "white" for everything (only the cap centre was cream, and the internal flesh whitish).  Perhaps Genaust had access to another description.  I find the whole picture very far-fetched and difficult to reconcile with Lovejoy's account.  Strobilomyces (talk) 20:54, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

More about sentences that are pronounced similarly and mean the same thing in unrelated languages
I previously asked about sentences that are pronounced similarly and mean the same thing in unrelated languages, such as Ki ez? in Hungarian and Qui est-ce? in French, which both mean "Who is that?". Now I remembered the Finnish word for tow truck, hinausauto (literally "towing automobile", from hinata "to tow" and auto "automobile"). This both looks and sounds identical to a (hypothetical) German word hinaus-Auto, meaning "away from here automobile", from hinaus "away from here" and Auto "automobile". Now obviously auto in both languages is a loanword from Greek, but I find it interesting that hinaus means "towing" in Finnish and "away from here" in German, and the overall meaning is pretty much the same, as tow trucks move vehicles away from accident sites. Are there any more examples of this? J I P &#124; Talk 20:10, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Examples of what? Of being able to concoct a non-existent word in a language and give it a remotely plausible meaning that is somewhere in the same region of semantic space as a similar-sounding word in another language? --ColinFine (talk) 20:31, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You might be interested in our article on false cognates. - file lake shoe 22:42, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I think "hinaus" would be an odd word to use in German for towing, unless you were towing a car out of a garage or, perhaps, off the road. Something based on the word "Weg" might make more sense for this hypothetical analytically-named tow truck. Hinwegauto? Anyway, as Filelakeshoe says, this is simply a false cognate, with wordplay not unlike a backronym. Smurrayinchester 00:28, 5 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Two of the more famous examples (or at least included in several introductory linguistics books ca. the 1960s) are modern Greek μάτι and Indonesian mata (both meaning "eye"), and English "bad" and Persian bæd or bad with the same meaning... AnonMoos (talk) 02:17, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Anta is Kansai dialect Japanese for 'you', and also Egyptian dialect Arabic for the same word. 'Iraira' means 'angry' (or anxious) and in Latin they have 'ira' (where we get 'irate' from). KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 06:31, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Not only "Egyptian" Arabic, but also Classical - as well as Modern Standard - Arabic. See here. 87.68.76.220 (talk) 11:56, 5 March 2012 (UTC)