Same Same but different
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 11:28PM Conversation overheard:
Little One : What mammu (food) are you going to make?
Grandma : Rasam
Jr. : What about More (More in Tamizh is buttermilk!)
Grandma : A little confused because she thought Jr. is mentioning the english word "more" for more Rasam rice..
then while I feed the kids, Grandma decides to start a game..
Kids, lets find out other words that say the same thing, but mean different things in English and Tamizh!
Jr. : Poo !
Grandma : How? (me looking puzzled as well, How?)
Jr. : Poo Poo means two flowers in Tamizh (saying the word twice apparently counts as two flowers!) and Poo Poo means what we go in the bathroom!
we started laughing out loud and that is when the little one chipped in with
"I have another word.. I have another word"
As the equal opportunity daddy, I ask Jr. to keep quiet and say
"Okay LO, your turn now! Tell us." and the response?
Potty! It means grandma in Tamizh and bathroom in english!
Jr.'s mention of Poo Poo led the little one to think Potty and she made a connection with Paati vs. Potti!
Slight pronunciation difference.. but she gets points for being creative!
Now the question for the readers.
Is there a single word for this in the english dictionary? Same phonetically sounding word, that means different things in different languages?!
Let me know. In the meantime we will explore more such words and hopefully we will move away from the bathroom to living room related words!
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English, Language, meaning, things kids say, words
Reader Comments (10)
I know one. In Maori, 'Kai' means food. In Tamizh, it means vegetable.
well, i know they are called homonyms within the english language.. not sure if it extends across other languages.
Very interesting! We do it with different local languages too, but I wonder if there is a word for inter-language homophones.
I believe it is Homonyms...from some long ago grammar lesson, I remember being taught that the reason for similar pronounciation is roots in different languages - which by extension should mean words in diff languages?
M
LoL-ed at this post.....
Super Vilayaattu. For the past 5 minutes I have been thinking and laughing to myself. I shall think leisurely and let you know if I come across or recollect.
what about 'payee'?
Homonyms...! Homonyms.
( Not to be confused with homo-nymphs !)
But both homonyms are amazing. Paati must have had some thinking to do !
:)
All (Thooya thamizh 'aal' for aala maram or in colloquial thamizh we could say andha aal meaning that man)
Pal (Friend in English and Milk in Thamizh)
And hey, Panni and Panini are close arent they? :D
"My" - kajal in Tamil