English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates-A Cross-Linguistic Investigation [PP: 21-34] Amin Marzban Department of Foreign Languages, Sepidan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sepidan, Iran

Shahrzad Chahardahcherik Department of Foreign Languages, Sepidan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sepidan, Iran ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article History Different world languages have a lot of contact with each other and have had The paper received on: different influences on one another. Cognates, words which are similar across 15/01/2015 two or more languages in some aspects, especially with regard to Accepted after peer- pronunciation, portray an interesting and relevant aspect of foreign/second review on: language translation and research. This study intended to identify a type of 28/02/2015 cognate words called false cognates in Persian and English, words which have Published on: the same form in two languages but represent different meanings, and tried to 07/03/2015 study and determine the historical relations between English and Persian words. It also aimed to trace their route back from Proto Indo-European Keywords: languages to the modern languages. To this end, the related literature was gone Back borrowing, through and a sufficient corpus of information has been revealed. Afterwards, Borrowing, authentic monolingual dictionaries in both Farsi and English languages were Cross-linguistic consulted to provide definitions for the cognates and allow for their cross- investigation linguistic comparison. The findings revealed that most of such problematic False cognates, cognates with different meanings in Farsi and English as found through this True cognates, study are likely to be confusing and deceptive for Farsi-speaking EFL learners. The findings also pointed to the need for this line of research to receive more scholarly attention. The study of true and false cognates has some implications for contrastive analysts, error analysts, translators, translation theorists, foreign language teachers, curriculum designers, as well as lexicographers and lexicologists.

Suggested Citation: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates-A Cross- Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015

1. Introduction continuation of Latin. Old Persian was used 1.1 Linguistic Evidence in the Indo by Achaemenian kings for official European Family inscriptions engraved on imperial monuments or high on rock cliffs, in a A staggering consequence of linguistic th cuneiform script which practically nobody research in the 19 century was the could read. The administrative language was recognition that some languages show Aramaic. As to the possible oral literary use correspondences of form that cannot be of Old Persian, we know nothing. because of chance convergences, borrowing After the Greek rule and the among the languages, or the global subsequent period of Parthian domination, it characteristics of human language. Such reappears in the shape of middle Persian as similarities; therefore, can only be the result the dominant language in the South of Iran. of the languages in question having sprung In the third century A.D, the inscriptions of from a common source language in the past; the first Sasanian kings were written in three these languages are said to be related and languages; Middle Parthian, Middle Persian, belong to one language family. It can and Greek. Parthian was the language of the therefore be easy to model such linguistic Parthian rulers, who had progressively genetic relationships via ‘family tree’, extended their empire from northern showing the genealogy of the languages Khorasan throughout the whole country of claimed to be related. Persia (i.e. Iran) and eventually settled their Many such language families can be capital in Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. identified. The languages within each family Middle Persian was the language of the new exhibit interesting formal correspondences Sasanid rulers, who had risen in Pars, in their phonology, overall structure, and overcome the Parthian king. Both Parthian vocabulary that link them together. The and Middle Persia were official languages source language, generally called ‘Proto- and they were the most wide spread Indo-European’ was spoken 6500 years ago colloquial languages as well. and has provoked hundred languages, in ten During the four centuries of Sasanian major branches. It includes the Romance rule, there happened considerable changes in languages (Spanish, French, Latin, Italian, the language situation of Iran. Parthian Portuguese), the Slavic languages (Russian, dialect was soon removed from official use. Polish, Bulgarian, Illyrian), the Germanic From the fourth century on-wards, all languages (English, German, Swedish, inscriptions appear in Sasanid Persian only. Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, etc.), the Celtic There are still many Parthian-like dialects in languages (Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish the North-Western provinces of Iran. It is Gaelic), Baltic languages (Lithuanian, obvious that in the Sasanid period, Persian Latvian), Greek, Armenian, and Albanian. as a spoken language spread widely outside 1.2 Adventures of Persian southern Iran, towards the North and the The great historian James East, it completely replaced the Parthian Darmesteter (1883) in his 'Etudes original dialect. After the Arab conquest, the Iraniennes', demonstrated that New Persian colloquial use of Persian was extended till is the medieval and modern continuation of further East by Muslim soldiers and the old Persian language of Darius and merchants. Eventually, it superseded the Xerxes, just as Italian or French are modern original local languages. Literary middle Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 22

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015

Persian, however, was not yet out of use. It the continent were Germanic tribes, called was practically restricted to the Zoraostrian ‘barbarians’ by arrogant Romans. Theirs communities and their religious writings. was really a rather primitive stage of Nearly, at the same time, a new literary development, compared with the high instrument was created in the East on the civilization of Rome. They were primitive basis of the colloquial language of those cattle-breeders and knew nothing about land regions. Thus, Modern Persian is originally cultivation. Their language contained only an Iranian dialect of South-West which, as a Indo-European and Germanic elements. spoken language, progressively spread from Over the fifth century A.D., several of the South to the North and the East, until in the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons, the extreme North-East it became a literary and the Jutes) migrated across the sea now language, which in turn spread out to the known as the English Channel to the British West and South and ultimately was Isles. There they were confronted by the cultivated in a large part of Asia. Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. 1.3 English Language History The Celts violently defended their land Today, the extensive advances in against the invaders, but they were no match linguistics and in ELT and EFL require us, for the military-minded Teutons and teachers of English, to know well not only gradually yielded most of their territory. the language itself but also about the Through their numerous contacts with the language. The same is true for the English defeated Celts, the Germanic tribes absorbed vocabulary. Here, the reasons for the a number of Celtic words, such as bald, percentage of borrowings in the English down, bard, and cradle. Especially, language are explained. Explanations for numerous among the Celtic borrowings this should be sought in the momentous were place names, names of rivers and hills. history of England. If the origin of the The Germanic tribes occupied the English vocabulary is to be summarized, it land, but the names of many parts and can be approximately called Anglo-Saxon, features of their territory remained Celtic. Norman, Scandinavian and French. The seventh century A.D. was significant for However, the borrowings are not confined the Christianisation of England. Latin was only to these languages. There are the official language of the Christian borrowings from Arabic, Turkish, Indian Church, and consequently, the spread of and many others. Some of the borrowings Christianity was accompanied by a new have been fully adapted to the phonetic period of Latin borrowings. From the end of system of the English language, while others the 8th century to the middle of the 11th look and sound as loan words. century England underwent several The English language can be regarded Scandinavian invasions which inevitably left as the most hospitable language in the their trace on English vocabulary. Here are world. Explanations for this should be some examples of early Scandinavian sought in the history of the nation speaking borrowings: call, take, cast, die, law. In the language. A brief overview of some 1066, with the famous Battle of Hastings, historical facts is necessary here. In the first when the English were defeated by the century B.C., most of the territory, now Normans, we come to the eventful epoch of known to us as Europe, was occupied by the the Norman Conquest. The native language Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of was not completely driven out, leaving little Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 23

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 impression on the language of the broadening to mean ‘a covered vehicle with conquerors as had happened when the no side windows for transporting goods or Angles and Saxons conquered the Britons, people’. Then Persian again borrowed the nor modified by a related language, but newly formed word /vānet/. This version of instead a second language was established in borrowing, where one borrowed word is the country, in use side by side with the again the source of a new borrowing into the native language. original source/receptor language is called a England, then, became a bilingual back-borrowing. country, and the impact of the French 1.5 Borrowing language on the English vocabulary has English, like many other world been huge. French words penetrated every languages, is not from a pure language. In aspect of social life. In the Renaissance fact, it has borrowed numerous items, Period in England, as in all European including words and grammatical structures, countries, this period was marked by from many different languages, including significant developments in science, art, and French, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, culture and, also, by a revival of interest in Russian, Arabic, and Farsi. The process of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome borrowing words from other languages by and their languages. Hence, there occurred the English language has changed in the considerable number of Latin and Greek modern period and has become slower borrowings. Therefore, it was only natural considerably (Barber, 2000). Farsi, the that new words also entered the English official language of Iran, has also been vocabulary from other European languages. influenced by foreign languages. Prior to The most significant ones were French Arab Invasion of Iran, Farsi was in a borrowings. This time they came from the relatively closed environment with the least Parisian dialect of French and are known as contact with other languages, but Arab Parisian borrowings. Examples include: invasion in the middle of the seventh regime, routine, police, ballet, scene, etc. century changed the linguistic landscape of 1.4 Back-Borrowing Iran forever. Apart from historical In this type of borrowing, a word, influences on Farsi, it has also been affected which has been already borrowed, may by new inventions in technology, including again be the source of a new type of mobile phones, computers, social networks borrowing which is sent back to the source and the Internet. As a result, Farsi has been language from which the borrowing had influenced by many other languages, previously taken place. Here a change of especially English, and has borrowed many meaning will be observed throughout the lexical items from them. Foreign words, whole derivation. So, for example, the word which are borrowed and incorporated into a /Caravan/ was borrowed from Persian to language, are called loan words (Fromkin, mean’ a group of people with vehicles or Rodman &Hymas, 2010). animals travelling together for safety’ and 1.6 True Cognates/ False Cognates then underwent some semantic change to In the area of linguistics, cognates are mean ‘a large vehicle pulled by cars defined as words which have some equipped for living and sleeping in’. In turn, similarities with each other in different areas the word underwent the process of clipping such as spelling and pronunciation, but have to become’ Van’ with the semantic Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 24

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Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 different meanings in two languages in cognates are considered when a loan word in which they exist (Mancilla- Martinez, 2010). the foreign language may generally Cognate words in two or more languages experience the semantic process of have a common origin because of their narrowing. In other words, while they may developmental relationship through history have a variety of meanings in the mother and as a result they share some sort of language, these words can bring an formal and/or semantic correspondence. extremely limited set of their broader fields True cognate words can facilitate the foreign of meanings to the foreign language. For language learning process, they have similar example, the English word ‘fan’ can mean meanings. In other words, despite the /bādbezan/ and /pankeh/ and /fan/ in Persian passing of time, these words have kept their there is only the latter as a false cognate similarities in pronunciation and meaning. A shared with English. vast majority of cognate words in the 2. Literature Review languages of the world are normally 2.1 The Science of Etymology considered to belong to this category of As Dwight (1859) has stated, in 1786, a cognate words. Although various British judge in India, Sir William Jones, classifications of false friends have been himself familiar with the Greek and Latin proposed in the past, here we concentrate on language, declared that there was a strong two types of false friends: 1- chance false affinity among Latin, Greek, and Sanskrik. friends; and 2-semantic false friends. He postulated that they all sprang from a Chance false friends are those words common root, which was later referred to as that are equivalent graphically and /or the Indo- European family of languages. His phonetically in two or more given announcement marked the beginning of the languages, but without there being any modern science of linguistics. (PP.270-274) semantic or etymological reason for this Etymology is a branch of linguistics overlap. In fact, chance false friends could describing the origin of words, their change be considered to be equivalents, in two or and development. Our modern languages are more languages, of homographic words in a all derived from those of elder ages; and given single natural language. Take for these are found when subjected to thorough example ‘Korea’ which is the name of ‘a analysis, to have been derived, in their turn, country in the south east Asia’; in Persian, from those anterior to them. However, on a with wide and critical survey, all the languages in 'ﮐﺮه/that word is pronounced as 'Kore the meaning of ‘globe’ which is another the civilized world appear to be full of many sense of the word. Semantic false cognates, correspondences and connections. by contrast, are words that are graphically Therefore, world languages like the men and/or phonetically similar in various who have spoken them, have all been bound languages, but their meanings have together by a regular series of sequences, diverged. These types of words have the running link by link in shining beauty from same etymological origin but different any and every language now spoken upon meanings in each of these languages. For earth. These links would also relate to the that reason, semantic false friends could be first language in which listening angels, considered the equivalents, in two or more Adam and Eve had discourse with each given languages, of polysemous words in a other; and from that back to God Himself, given single natural language. Semi-false the great All-in-all, from whose own girdle Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 25

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 the golden chain of human speech divine to illustrate more fully its place in the great was dropped lovingly down to man, in order family to which it belongs. to bind him to him-self and all nations in "Etymology" is the salt or spice of a heavenly sympathy with each other. dictionary, without the addition of which the The etymological intuition is common eating of it would still remain tasteless. to all nations, among the thinking classes. It Today, the far reaching advances in is as natural and pleasant for those who linguistics and in ELT and EFL require us, reason at all; those who think about the teachers of English to know well not only origin and connection of words, as about the language itself but about the language as relation and dependence, antecedents and well. Umbach (1985), in the introduction to consequents, cause and effect, in any other Webster’s Dictionary, has emphasized the direction. There is full scope here for the importance of etymology which studies the play of all those faculties that demand origin and development of words, their adventure and enjoy invention. The forms and meanings. Sometimes this is principles that exist among people at a necessary and expedient. But to do so can be certain time in respect to the specific like treating a diamond simply as a material etymology of any individual language, under for the cutting of refractory substances. Seen the influence of comparative etymology, are as the product of perhaps three thousand listed as: 1.The origins of words in the given years of human experience, a word may not language, and their meaning, must be only have many facets, but many somehow furnished, whether in the language or out of reflect with brilliant intensity the it. 2. Comparative forms, in other kin concentrated experience or insights of the languages, must be given, serving to generations. It is still true that words can illustrate more fully its place in the great have a mysterious power to conjure up family to which it belongs. images, or produce visions, or stir up Derived forms have, most of them, emotions deep-seated in the shared analogies in the various Indo-European experience of mankind. languages; and a thorough, comprehensive Etymology is a strong feature of great system of etymology and lexicography dictionaries. Webster’s New World demands that such equivalents should also Dictionary states that “insights into the be exhibited. In all those derivatives, of current usage of a word can be gained from whatever class or style, in each language, a full knowledge of the word’s history and which have no similarities in other that a better understanding of language languages, we can best discover the generally can be achieved from knowing distinctive genius of the specific language in how in other Indo-European languages”. which they occur and these are of great Different dictionaries and encyclopedias of value to us, by way of revealing the inward linguistics provide almost similar definitions principles to our view of its own separate of false cognates. For example, a word home growth. The whole interior logical which has the same or very similar form in etymology of each language, in its separate two languages but which has a different words, must be carefully traced by the meaning in each. (Richards, J., J. Platt, & H. lexicographer himself, and as carefully set Platt, 1992, p.136). Each dictionary forth in full detail. Comparative forms in provides its own example of false friends other kin languages must be given, serving cross-linguistically. Apart from dictionaries, Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 26

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language developed from its Indo-European origins also makes a list of thirty French-English and how diverse influences on the languages false friends and also from other languages have mixed. including Danish-English and British- 3. Present Study English available. Newmark (1988) has In the present study, the researchers warned about the importance of false friends aimed to show that a low percentage of the saying that the translator must never cognate words in English-Persian and translate any word he has not previously Persian-English examples, exhibit a seen without checking it, and this is when different meaning in either of the two cognates are misleading (i.e. they are not languages despite their similarity in form. true cognates) ( p.182). Larson (1984), The researchers also tried to study and devoted a chapter to problems in finding determine the historical relations between lexical equivalents. In one section of this English and Persian words and to trace their chapter, she brings into focus the topic of route back from Proto Indo–European false friends. There, she asserts that the language to the modern languages. To this translator must be careful not to think that a end, the related literature was gone through loan word has the same meaning as it has in and a sufficient corpus of information had the language from which it is borrowed. been revealed. Afterwards, authentic Mollanazar (1997) also speaks about monolingual dictionaries in both Farsi and problems when borrowing loan words. English languages were consulted to provide Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) have asserted definitions for the cognates and allow for that ˝one must remember that many their cross-linguistic comparison: and the borrowings enter a language through cognate pairs were selected on the basis of translation. Textbooks on contrastive their formal similarity while their meanings analysis and error analysis may also were contrasted as well. Thus, this piece of recourse to the false cognates˝(p.34). As an research has been completed through example, in classifying the sources of errors, document reviewing. Data has been inter lingual errors which result from the analyzed through descriptive analysis. transfer of phonological, morphological, Different articles, comparing special grammatical, lexico-semantic and stylistic cognates or false friends, were examined elements of the learners’ mother tongue to carefully based on some predetermined the learning of the target language are factors. In this study, analytical and dynamic always happening (Keshavarz, 1993). methodology was used, and the field study According to Jahanbakhsh (2004), A great tools were not used. number of talented linguists had been 3.1 Aim of the Study educated in India and Turkey; in India, very clear and well-organized encyclopedias have The purpose of the study was to been written such as 'Anendrāj, Jahāngiri, recognize and list the false friends and true Borhān-e-Qāteé', and the like, which are in cognates of the two Indo-European namely, the field of the etymology of Persian, Persian and English. It also aimed to Arabic, and Turkish words. The dictionary investigate and specify the historical of Word Origins written by John Ayto also relations between English and Persian words uncovers the interesting connection between and tracing their route back from the Proto words. It shows how modern English has Indo-European language to the modern Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 27

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Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 languages. In other words, to make an cognates)exceed the number of common analogy of Persian words and other Iranian words of the two languages, which are based languages with European languages such as on borrowings, and/or structural similarities Greek, Latin, German, English, and French. (false cognate)? Because it is only possible through the 3.2 Procedure and Material representation of the relationship between The introduction of European words Iranian words with the words of other Indo- into Persian has recently taken a particular European languages and tracing all of them direction and received the attention of back to their Indo-European origin. This is philologists and linguists. This means that it done in order to have a thorough picture of has investigated the historical relations of Persian and English development. The Persian and English languages through current study seeks to build upon already- studying the ancient texts of those languages conducted research on the topic and use of with regard to the linguistic rules and highlights of the existing literature to specified these types of words relying upon provide another list of false cognates in authentic etymological resources. Farsi and in English, explain how they differ Furthermore, according to the logic and from each other in terms of their meanings methodology, deductive logic has been used and what problems they can present Farsi- in the comparison of words and their speaking learners with. Cognate pairs are etymology; and in the field of semantics, introduced as true or false cognates. True inductive logic has been used to study the cognates are found when those related words semantic evolution of words throughout have more or less the same meanings as they history of Persian and English languages. form may suggest similar senses in the two The Persian words, which were cognate languages. For example, /Mādar/ etymologically the same as English words, and /mother/ are examples of true cognates; were arranged alphabetically. Each glossary they both refer to the female parent. entry discussed the origin and the On the other hand, false cognates development of every single word; and disobey such relations. They are defined as explained the relationship between that word terms that denote word pairs from different with other words in Persian and English languages that, in spite of their formal languages as well. However, this article did similarities, they may have different not include a thorough description of all the meanings cross-linguistically. In other words, because it was not to provide a words, they resemble each other in form but complete list of words with unknown express different meanings in each of the origins. The etymological description of two languages. The present study, thus, each word was arranged in chronological addresses the following research questions: order, from past to the present era. In other 1-Are the similarities among some of the words, the Indo-European origin was first Persian and English words, as the result of introduced and then listed its derivatives in their common Indo-European origin or they Farsi and English. The study also identified are due to the chance, and/or superficial a type of cognate words, called false cognate analogies? In English-Persian data. To do so, the 2-Does the number of the English and lexicon system of these languages and some Persian cognates which are based on kindred pairs of cognate words were contrasted by relationships of the two languages (i.e. true Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 28

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Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 referring to etymological dictionaries and forced to accommodate themselves other researchers' works. gradually to the need to make a choice, 4. Results and Discussion which may be contextually determined. This Although a cross-linguistic examination approach will add depth to the lexical of false friends should be interesting in itself representation and make it possible for the to anyone interested in linguistics as an learners to identify the differing contexts independent discipline, the sociology of that support the shared and non-shared language, and the psychology of language, it meanings of the partial cognate. The present is commonly thought that such an analysis study suggests that it is easy to recognize a has wider implications for other fields of given word and it depends on the word language study especially for translation itself, as well as on factors related to the studies. Due to the fact that false cognates reader and the context. In other words, as are perhaps the main enemy of translators, learners become exposed to the different they must know their enemies thoroughly so contexts in which the two competing as to be able to make them defeated. meanings are used, they will be able to build Comparative linguistics provides the basis links to both meanings, which can be for positing an Indo-European family and quickly identified and regained from the for relating the various above-mentioned lexicon. They will, thus, become stronger L2 languages and shows a set of unusual and readers. interesting correspondences of form among In this study, as mentioned earlier, all these languages. These affinities come at etymological correspondences between all levels of grammar, involving the sounds, Persian and English vocabularies and their the morphology, the lexicon, and the syntax. diachronic development were investigated A significant aspect of these affinities is that and identified. The direction of the study those involving sounds are regular, was from past to present; In other words, a consistent (in the sense that they generally typical Indo-European root is introduced and do conflict with one another), and each have then its counterparts in other related an example by a large number of matching languages are identified. The advantage of words and morphemes across the various this kind of study is that, a cluster of languages, and that the matching words and derivatives of a single Indo-European root morphemes show relationships and can be provided in this way. In doing so, the similarities in meaning and/or grammatical researchers pay special attention to historical function. and social facts and considerations; because We also suggest that when teaching the similarities of some words may be as a cognate forms, L2 teachers focus not only result of chance or superficial affinities. on building powerful connections to The other point of focus in this study, is meanings that are shared across L1 and L2, to consider the historical and social facts but also to meanings that are not shared. which evoke the changes of meaning in the Vocabulary teachers might first focus on related languages; for example, the English 'Boz /ﺑﺰ' shared semantic merits before introducing word 'buck' and the Persian word values that are not shared. In the case of which in English denotes 'an animal that has values that are not shared, learners will be horns on top of its head and long hair under faced with the competing meaning its chain and can climb steep hills and representations of the cognate and will be rocks'; both of them have the same Indo- Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 29

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European root (bhūgŏs) but their meanings important characteristics like those of in two languages are different (Ayto, Chemistry, which have embedded in 1993).The data is collected through themselves a volume of historical reviewing of other scholars' works in the background to the philologist. field of etymology. It includes examining The methodology and design of the present written materials that show information study has to some extent concordance to regarding the topics to be investigated or a some other Iranian and European scholars descriptive analysis. and writers; as for example, Nourai and A comprehensive survey has been done Aryanpoor are among those who have of the literature on the historical relations published the etymological dictionaries of between Persian and English languages Persian and English vocabularies. Knowing through studying the linguistic rules and the fact that English and Persian are from a features of those languages; in doing so, the language family which have had reciprocal etymological dictionaries of Iranian scholars relationship and have impact on one another, such as Aryanpoor, Nourai and scholars it is not unbelievable for these two from other European countries around the languages to have false cognates in their world, like American heritage dictionary of lexicon. Table 2 offers a list of false English words, have been referred to and the cognate, that despite passing the time, they relevant materials are consulted in those have kept their affinities in pronunciation dictionaries, in order to make an analogy of and spelling, but their meaning is different Persian words with other kindred languages in the two languages. like English. Table 1: True cognates This study also investigates another group of words as false cognates of English and Persian; which are wildly different from each other in terms of their meaning aspect across English and Persian. With this aim in mind, a list of some of false cognates has been offered. The words which have been examined in this study are arranged alphabetically in two tables; in table1 or the etymological box, the word box has been divided into two parts; the roots (the Left side) and derivatives in Persian and English (the Right side). Persian words are written in Persian alphabet and their English phonetic feature is also accompanied. In tracing the Indo-European roots to their modern derivatives, a detailed discussion of the cognates of these words in other sister languages must be considered, which is beyond the scope of this study. Such etymological counterparts standing in a line in silent array with other words, are so Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 30

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commonly met false cognates during the English classes. Thus awareness is ensured. The study promotes a greater understanding of the importance and value of the similarities and variances among different languages and cultures, and develops more appreciation among those people who speak different languages. The discussion of false and true cognates has a lot of pedagogical connotations for error analysts and foreign and second language learners and teachers. Given the importance attached to cognates, on the one hand, and the fact that Farsi and English share a sizeable number of cognates (Lems, Miller &Soro, 2009), there is the need for research attention to be devoted to this area of investigation.

Table 2: False cognates Through the study of such equivalents and false cognates of the two languages, one can best find out the distinctive intelligence of the specific language in which they occur; and these are of great importance, because they reveal the inward principles of those languages. The findings of the study also reveals that, those type of common words of English and Persian which are in the category of false 5. Conclusion and Implications cognates, have the potential to be very Pursuing the topic of cognates and false confusing and difficult to understand; cognates is of importance for a few reasons. however, it has been found that, because of The main reason is to provide language the remote relationship between those two teachers with extra information. The results languages, the number of false cognates of the research may also have good does not exceed that of true cognates in the advantages for students as they may become lexicon of English and Persian. more aware of lexical and/or linguistic One limitations of this study was that, differences between English and Persian. the Indo-European is not a written language; Given the fact that such words are deceptive, however, about two thousands of its root teachers should raise students’ awareness of words have been rebuilt by comparing words looking familiar, and clearly mention words of similar sound and meaning among that there is a certain number of words that its derived languages. Therefore, there was are false cognates that have to be identified; not an easy access to all the roots. Moreover, and the mistakes can be avoided by the use with few exceptions, Persian and English of synonyms. However, the equivalent to the dictionaries which are written for the best solution, would be teaching the most information on etymology of the words of Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 31

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015 those languages exist only in small amounts, References and are scattered in dictionaries written; Aryanpur, M. (1973).A history of Persian however, gathering this information is literature. Tehran: Kayhan Press. difficult and time consuming. Many of those Ayto, J. (1993). Dictionary of word origins. books, neither make an index of Persian and Arcade Publishing. English words available, nor trace the Baldi, P. (1982). An introduction to the Indo- derivations up to the forms which are in use European languages. Illinois, Southern Illinois: in modern languages. It took a long time to University Press. search different references and discover the Barber, C.L.(2000).The English language: A historical introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge word relations presented in this study. University Press This study has some implications for Bengtson, J.D., & Ruhlen, M.(2012).Global further researches; first, regarding the Etymologies. In Nathan Hayhoe (Ed.), On the lexicography, the history of each root should origin of the languages (pp.278-290).Stanford: as far as possible be displayed on the Stanford University Press. following range of equivalents and in order Carroll, S.E. (1992). On cognates: SAGE which is here proposed: the Sanskrit, Old Journals of Second Language Research, 8(2), Persian, Avestan, Middle Persian, Modern 93-119. Persian, Latin, Greek, Old Persian, Middle Cetina, C.M. C., & Ballester, M.G. (1994).A and Modern Persian, German, Dutch, semantic overview of Anglo-Indian borrowing: Danish, Sweden, and other related Linguistic areas and contact effects. Retrieved from http://mural.uv.es/mgaba/Anglo- languages. Second, in other studies a similar Indian%20borrowing.pdf list of false cognates, with which Persian Chamizo Dominguez, P. J., & Nerlich, and English languages have affinity and B.(2002). False friends: Their origin and kinship relations, can be conducted. semantics in some selected languages. Journal of About the Authors: Pragmatics, 34, 1833-1849. Amin Marzban holds a Ph.D. degree and is Cheung, J.(2007). Etymological dictionary of currently an assistant professor in Applied the Iranian verb: Language and linguistics. In Linguistics. He has been teaching English to A. Lubotsky (Ed.), Vol. 2. Boston. major and non-major students of B.A. and M.A. Fortson, B.W.IV. (2004). Indo- European programs in different universities such as Shiraz language and culture: An introduction. and Sepidan Branches of IAU along with Massachusetts, Oxford: Victoria. supervising and consulting ELT and Translation Fortson, W.B. (2002). The American heritage students in their M.A. researches. He has also college dictionary. Boston, New York: been working as the president and founder of Houghton & Mifflin. Shamim Arghavan Language Academy and Fromkin, V. A., Rodman, R., &Hymas, M. Shamim Danesh International Student (2010).Anintroduction to language. New York: Recruitment Center in Shiraz, Iran. He has also Heinley. published articles in various international Graves, M., August, D.,&Mancilla-Martinez, journals. J. (2012).Teaching vocabulary to English Shahrzad Chahardahcherik holds an MA in language learners: Language and literacy TEFL and works as an English instructor with series. Amsterdam: Teachers College Press. Islamic Azad University and Scientific and Hall, C.J. (2002).The automatic cognate form Applied University of Gachsaran branch, Iran. assumption: Evidence for the parasitic model of Her research interests include translation studies vocabulary development. IRAL 40 (2), 69-88. and teaching methodology. Hall, C. J. (1992). Making the right connections: Vocabulary learning and the Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 32

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

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International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460

Volume: 03 Issue: 01 January-March, 2015

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Cite this article as: Marzban, A. & Chahardahcherik, S. (2015). English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates- A Cross-Linguistic Investigation. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 3(1), 21-34. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Page | 34