How Long Will You Love Being “Upright”? The Danger of False Friends in Translation

Abstract

Working in related languages can be beneficial in that knowledge of one language can be applied to another without having to learn each one individually. Unfortunately, assumed equivalence often leads to mistakes and misunderstandings caused by false friends—often referred to as “false cognates”—that is, words that appear similar across language boundaries and are therefore assumed to have the same meaning. While the issue of false friends has been discussed with regards to language learning for decades, false friends are not always obvious and can single-handedly render translations inaccurate, unacceptable, or both. The goal of this paper is to apply insights from existing studies on false friends to translation among related languages and Bible translation in particular. To clarify the nature of the issue, relevant terminology is discussed alongside examples from Bible translation in South Asia. Finally, the paper proposes potential steps forward for Bible translation practitioners to avoid the potential pitfalls of false friends.