Falsi amici - False friends. RE-Posted

[goldhands]

I know, maybe you read and commented the post a few years ago, but I think it is always interesting and cool. So I've decided to re-post it, hoping you'll enjoy again.

Comments

[brotherskeeper1]

It's interesting how some words with similar spellings can mean totally different things in these languages. When you had you info page written entirely in Italian, I read it using what little Spanish I remember to get a little information about you. I knew you had something to do with music and theology and where you lived, but I can't recall much else just now. Then I contacted daisydumont whom you had friended and fortunately she reads and speaks Italian and told me in full what you had written. Your English has become much better than when we first met, but then I don't think language is much of a barrier to you with all the languages you know. For some people that seems to come easy

[goldhands]

I read the Gospel of Judas, as well as the most famous other Pseudo-Gospels, and yes, I've a copy at home, since I was at the college. But there is a sort of recycle of the literature when there aren't new ideas and the scoop is a real scoop when you are trying to demolish the faith (it has been always so: see The Da Vinci Code, too). For the people who doesn't know the Christian history it could result a big scoop, but we know that during the centuries a lot of lyings lived fighting against the Church, and their target was the power, the fame and the money. Let me say: it arouses great interest for nothing.

[brotherskeeper1]

Let me say: it arouses great interest for nothing. Definitely.

Also, I refuse to read the Da Vinci Code nor will I see the movie when it eventually is available on digital cable TV. And I will not waste good money on piece of trash. It is making money for someone, but as far as I'm concerned, it is the work of trolls.

[aefenglommung]

One meets these "false friends" in all the Germanic languages. Tolkien got irritated with superficial scholars (especially French ones) who misunderstood Old English idiom, where druncen -- a frequent word in OE texts -- does not refer to someone's level of intoxication, but to the social event of conversation in a lord's hall, where beer would naturally be passed around.

And of course, in modern German, After does not mean what "after" does in modern English, which auf echtes Deutsch would be nach. And so on.

I read once of a young American woman visiting her Grandmother (I think) in Germany. She found herself lost, so she asked a gas station attendant for help, beginning with Entschuldigen Sie, wir sind verloren. The attendant broke out in laughter. When the driver got home, she asked her Grandmother why he laughed.

Well, a German would say, "I have misdriven myself," or "I made a mistake (einen Fehler gemacht)." Verloren is a theological word. What the young woman SAID was, "Excuse me, we're a carload of the damned."

[goldhands]

Oh yes, who, after a trip, doesn't tell story like yours, laughing? You know, in Italian language we have only a noun for "time and weather" or "Zeit und Wetter", it is "tempo". Well, a friend of mine, a waiter, answering to the call of an old German lady, said: "Madame, Madame, ich habe kein Wetter" (for the people doesn't understand the German language: "Sorry, I haven't weather").
And a lot of stories like this I could tell...

The Changing Face of Language

[forioscribe]

Hmmmmm. In England "flat" also means "apartment." This sort of discussion is endlessly fascinating!

BTW, my linguistics professor at Moravian College (er, boarding school) stressed that a major characteristic of all languages is change. He said change is not a corruption, but rather an enrichment, and also a sign of vitality.

Change is brought about by usage, and usage "rules." Which is to say that a word used contemporaneously in a way that's contrary to long-established custom becomes correct when it appears in at least three separate respectable main-stream publications.

Now, this takes me to our last discussion at Elio's when we exchanged stories about how our perceptions of a foreign language are altered by being in a state of disorientation. Seven years ago, when I first arrived on Ischia, I was confident that "informatica" meant "information!"

delusion: "illusione"; "delusione" means disappointment.Fascinating. When I delude myself, eventually it brings me great disappointment! And delusions are indeed

Re: The Changing Face of Language

[goldhands]

Ah, Ah, Ah!

BTW, my linguistics professor at Moravian College (er, boarding school)
It often happens between us. The last time we were at "La Piazzetta's" I told you about my father and I said you about his permanence by a "college": I meant "boarding school", I knew that the noun was inexact, but I didn't remember the exact noun, but now you are able to understand what I meant.

And I hoped you told the story of "Informatica" and "Information"... Ah ah ah! I always tell it to the friends who ask me about you...

[venetia]

This also works the other way. I was so confused at the opera as a child, because I always thought that I could understand more than I actually could!

"Distracted" also has the meaning of absent-minded, as well as having the mind drawn away. So perhaps that friend is not quite so false.

[goldhands]

Distracted" also has the meaning of absent-minded, as well as having the mind drawn away. So perhaps that friend is not quite so false.

Sure, but now a lot of friends are american friends, and no more English friends. I meant to tell something about our "aristocratic" English friends :)

[venetia]

Oh, I see! For me, it's hard to notice all of the "gaps" or differences in American english, or to remember them.

I speak New Zealand english, and it's probably more like British english.