homophone
A homophone or homophone ( ancient Greek ὁμόφωνος (-ον) homóphōnos (-on) "identical, coherent") is a word that has the same pronunciation as another with different meanings. The term is defined differently, so sometimes words with different genera are included, such as B. "the head" (device) and "the head" (function). With the same spelling, they are also homographs . According to Alfred Raab, words with the same spelling do not count as homophones.
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A definition of the terms equivocation , homonymy and polysemy |
One can differentiate between polysemous and homonymous homophones.
Like paronyms , homophones can lead to confusion. But that rarely happens. The meaning of the homophones results in the oral language from the context. In the written language, they can be distinguished by different spellings.
Homophones in different languages
German
Homophones are quite common in today's standard German . It should be noted, however, that words in certain regions can be homophonic that are not in the High German stage language according to Theodor Siebs . For example, the long vowels ä ( [ɛ:] ) and e ( [e:] ) are differentiated according to Siebs, but often not regionally, so that, for example, Ähre and Ehre become homophonic.
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English
In English there are many words that are pronounced the same but have completely different meanings. The number of possible homophones in English is increased by the fact that the worldwide spread of the English language has developed numerous varieties or mixed with other languages.
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French
In French , too, a large number of homophones developed in the course of its history. A different meaning usually corresponds to a different (historicizing) spelling.
sot (fool) | saut ( jump ) | sceau ( seal ) | seau ( bucket ) | |
his ( bosom ) | seing (signature) | sain (healthy) | saint (holy) | |
soi (himself) | soit ... soit (either ... or) | sois ([you] be, be!) | soie ( silk ) | |
au (dem), aux (whom) | eau (water), eaux (body of water) | skin (high) | aulx ( leek plants ) | os (bone) (pl.) |
foi (belief) | foie (liver) | (une) fois (once) | Foix (river or town name) | |
sou (sol (coin unit)) | sous (under) | saoul, soûl (drunk) | soue (pigsty) |
Chinese
In tonal languages, in which words are distinctive based on a tone , homophony is also defined by tone. In the Chinese languages, e.g. B., the words / characters whose pronunciation are identical for initial, final and tone are homophones. The words / signs from the same syllable but with a different tone are only counted as homophones in a few cases, e.g. B. in information processing. Phonetic evolution and vocabulary expansion are increasing the number of homophones in the Chinese languages. The probability of homophony is particularly high in standard Chinese .
The poem lion-eating poet in the stone cave by Zhao Yuanren , which consists only of the phonetic syllable "shi" and only varies in tone, is only understandable even for the Chinese based on the characters. In other, syllable-rich dialects of Chinese, the poem is then acoustically understandable again. Of the Chinese dialects, Cantonese deserves special mention, as it has preserved old readings particularly well.
Chinese | Pinyin | German |
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《施 氏 食 獅 史》 |
"Shī Shì shí shī shǐ" |
The story of Shi, the lion eats |
Japanese and Korean
Unlike the Chinese languages, neither Japanese nor Korean is a tonal language . Since many Chinese terms in the Japanese and Korean languages were adopted along with the writing (compare On reading in Japanese), the lack of tones and the relative simplicity of the syllables in both languages lead to a high number of homophones.
Trivia
Children are introduced to homophones in a game called Teekesselchen in German-speaking countries and Teapot in English .
See also
literature
- Fischer, Walter: English homophones. 3rd edition Munich: Hueber, 1970.
- Raab, Alfred: Homophone of the German language , Nuremberg: rab-Verlag, 1971.
- Riehme, Joachim: Spelled the same way - spelled differently: confusingly similar words and their correct spelling. 2nd edition Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1990. ISBN 3-323-00172-9
Web links
- The above (Chinese) lion story as a recording at the University of Hamburg on the occasion of Prof. Ternes' retirement
swell
- ^ Alfred Raab, Homophone der Deutschen Sprache , Nuremberg: rab-Verlag, 1971
- ↑ For example sentences with these and other homophones see Fausto Cercignani , Example sentences with German homophones .
- ^ Mary White: The Book of a Hundred Games. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York NY 1896, p. 117. Scan of the 8th edition under the new title The Book of Games. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York NY 1898, p. 129.