False Cognates in Kermanshahi Persian

One of the categories of linguistics that has entered the field of studies of this knowledge in the last one hundred years is the field of  “false cognates”. This term refers to words that appear to be the same, but have different meanings in one or two languages. Not paying attention to the different meanings such words have, may lead to misunderstanding, and/ or miscommunication. Kermanshahi Persian is one of the dialects of the Persian language that has been used in the city of Kermanshah along with Kermanshahi Kurdish for centuries. In a different way, there are some words, phrases or sentences in the quality of those words, phrases and sentences that are used in a different sense. In this article, after stating the definition, history and characteristics of the false cognates, examples of them in Kermanshahi Persian have been provided and analyzed. The findings of the research show that 65% of the false cognates analyzed in this article were associated with semantic expansion, and 25% were associated with semantic degradation. In terms of expressive usages, the most usage is related to similarity (32.5%) and then it is related to total and partial permission (15%). From the point of view of semantic relationships, the highest frequency (32.5%) is related to the relationship of proportionality and the lowest frequency is related to contrast (7.5%).
 
Extended abstract
1.Introduction
The Persian equivalent of the term “false cognates” was coined 35 years ago by Ahmad Samei (Gilani) on the contrary with the French term "faux amis" which was coined 95 years ago.Despite such a history, there are few researches done in Persian language in this field.This is while the dozens of languages, and dialects in Iran, especially in the vast area of cultural Iran, have made inevitable the existence of many words of the same pronunciation, but with different meanings. This huge capacity, like an untapped treasure, has provided a resource and a huge capital for the researchers, which besides showing the beauty of this diversity and sometimes showing the unique sources and clarifying the reasons for the semantic diversity, helps lexicographers in writing lexicons and language learners in learning the languages in question more quickly.
The ancient city of Kermanshah, being placed on the highway of travelers along the history, has found the characteristic of being the meeting place of different cultures, religions, and languages. One of the long-standing languages in Kermanshah is Kermanshahi dialect of Persian. The present study is an attempt to introduce a group of words that are used in this dialect and standard Persian with the same or similar pronunciation but with the different meanings. It is important to mention that in some of these words, the historical meanings (what is inferred from the word in literary texts) or the local meanings (meanings of the word in other  Iranian dialects and dialects of Persian) may be the same as the meaning of the word in Kermanshahi Persian. In this study, we have tried to measure the meaning/ meanings of the words in Kermanshahi Persian and today's standard Persian.
 
2.Theoretical framework
As mentioned before, the term Persian equivalent of “false cognates” was coined and used first in Persian by Ahmad Samei Gilani in 1988 through publishing an article with the same title. False cognates in that article and the subsequent essays of that researcher are elements of living literary language that are used in today's literal texts in an obsolete or abandoned or little used sense in the language. The second use of this term was in an article by Ali Ashraf Sadeghi. From his point of view, the term false cognate is used in the study of dialects of a language or two varieties of a language that are used in two different countries. Apart from these two concepts that we know for this term, we must say that the first global use of this term was about seemingly identical words that exist in two different languages. This term is used in the translation of the French term “faux amis”. This French term was first used in 1928 in the book “Faux amisou les Iranisons du vocabulaireanglais”, by Maxime Kocssler and Jules Derocquigny for those English and French words that have the same vocabulary but different meanings. Against “faux amis” in English, “deceptive cognates”, “false cognates”, and “misleading words” are used.
 
3.Methodology
The present article has been compiled using descriptive and analytical method, and it is based on library studies. Also, its methodology is based on the author’s knowledge in Kermanshahi Persian, and referring to Kermanshahi dictionaries. Accordingly, the target words have been extracted and matched with their counterparts in Persian dictionaries, and in the next step, the necessary analyzes have been provided.
 
4.Results & Discussion
False cognates can be examined from various aspects. From the perspective of interlanguage communication, false cognates may appear in comparison of two languages or in the heart of one language; therefore, from the point of view of interlinguistic communication, false cognates can be divided into “interlingual” and “intralingual” types. There are several types of intra-language deception: a) among the subsets of a language; b) historical transformations of a language. This issue also can be addressed from the point of view of structure. From the point of view of language structure, deception is manifested in the form of “false cognates” or “false phrases or sentences”. Also, false cognates can be classified from the perspective of the origin of the language. In this sense, it is possible that the two words between which there is a relationship of deception may be from the same origin, or it is possible that no connection exist between them (non-co-root).
 
5.Conclusions & Suggestions
The use of false cognates, phrases and sentences in a language has consequences, we call them false functions of language. One of these functions is automatic functions. The result of such a function is slander. Self-conscious functions are another type of false functions of language. This exploitation is usually a positive feature that poets and writers use to create some arrays, such as allusions or literary types such as satire. Part of Kermanshahi's Persian, false cognates are formed based on the expansion of meaning; these words include “ananias”, which means a kind of sweet and delicious cantaloupe or melon; “owleya” that means a good person and a gentle person; “paša” that means fly; “Jam” that means bowl; “jarah” that means experimental surgeon ; “Čangāl” that means a type of food composed of bread, oil and sugar; “Xejālati” that means shyness; “Xatar” thta means dangerous; “Xatarnāk” that means a strong and clever person; “Rāhati” thta means a funnel; “Zud” that means a long time ago, earlier and earlier; “Seyl” that means to look and stare; “Šar” that means clever and skillful; “Šeytān” thta means spider (equivalent to “devil” in Persian), and also means a violent and passionate child (equivalent to “Šeytun” in common usage); “ebrat” that means pointing fingers; “alāmat” that means an ugly person; “qul”  that means deep; “faqir” that means a quiet and calm and oppressed person; “qad: that means on, above; “koštan” that means to beat; in Kurdish, it means tight muscle; “kufta” that means Šāmi kebāb; “gol” that means the unit of counting foods such as Kuku and Šāmi kebāb; “golgoli” that means a small type of Šāmi Kebāb; “la” that means near and in front of someone or something.
Another section of the obtained words are based on the meaning breakdown; including “ālat” meaning pepper; “Jenās” meaning devil; “Čenja” means core and seed; “hamla’I” means someone who suffers from seizure and epilepsy; “xarābkār” that means a bad woman; “Šāmi” means watermelon; “Šowq” means sun flame, lamp and fire; “shoot” means whistle; “qāl” means noise; “qeymāq” means a kind of liquid halva; “kadbānu” means old woman; “luti” means singer and musician with a negative connotation; “melāyekat” means  elf and demon; “mowakel” means elf.
A random search led to finding 40 words in Kermanshahi Persian. Out of the total of 40 false cognates which are analyzed in this article, 26 words (65%) were associated with semantic expansion, and 14 words (35%) were associated with semantic decline. The fact that nearly two-thirds of the words of the false cognates have been faced with the expansion of meaning show that most of the common words of Persian and Kermanshahi Persian have a common meaning.
In terms of expressive uses, simile (metaphor) with 13 words (32.5 percent) is mostly used, and after that, it is related to total and partial permission with 6 words (15 percent). Metonymy, cause and reason metonymy, allowed necessity metonymy and proximity metonymy, each of them has only one word which had the least use. In general, metonymy (in its linguistic not literary sense) has played the biggest role in the formation of false cognates. From the point of view of semantic relationships, the highest frequency is with 13 words (32.5 percent) of that relationship of proportionality and the lowest frequency is related to contrast with 3 words (7.5 percent). This finding indicates that semantic relationships play a greater role in the formation of false cognates.
 
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