Complete False Cognates in Arabic and Turkish Languages

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the phenomena of complete false cognates in the Arabic and Turkish languages, words that appear identical but hold distinct meanings across the two languages. Methods: In this study, the descriptive approach was adopted as a methodological framework, while the contrastive analysis was adopted as an analytical process.  Results: The study found that a good part of Arabic loanwords in Turkish is used with a different meaning from their original one, which makes them false cognates between Arabic and Turkish. The study concluded that manufactures such as phonetic, morphological, and semantic changes played role in making these false cognates.  Conclusions: The study recommends taking false cognates into consideration when composing bilingual Arabic-Turkish dictionaries by emphasizing the different meanings in both languages between these pairs of words. Also, it increases the inter linguistic studies of the Arabic and Turkish languages because of the big interest in learning Arabic by the Turks and Turkish by the Arabs in light of the growing relations between Turkey and the Arab world.