Talk:ἀειχάλας

Coincidence??? [] [] []


 * I know next to nothing about the (Ancient?) Greek term, which may not even exist, but the first syllable of the Arabic terms is just the definite article, "the", in Arabic, so the resemblance is less than it seems. Also, the Arabic items you linked to consist of two (really three) totally unrelated roots, one relating to purity and the other to either frying or hatred. Not only that, but "ق"‎ and "خ‎" are different sounds that have different origins. It looks like there isn't even a coincidence, just sloppiness and wishful thinking on your part.


 * In general, languages change so much over time that similarity of recent forms tends to belie much greater differences in the past. Language change isn't random, so you have to look at the general patterns of differences between different periods of time and between different languages to see if the two forms fit those patterns. Simply spotting a vague similarity doesn't get you anywhere without knowing something about the languages in question, their history and those patterns I mentioned.


 * The real connections are usually very hard to spot. For instance,, , , , , , , , , and are quite different from each other, but are all related and (aside from odd interactions between the first and final consonants of the root in some of the branches) are completely predictable to anyone who's studied Indo-European linguistics.


 * Besides: there are only only so many sounds used in the languages of the world, so the odds are quite high that any two languages will share at least a few words that sound the same, though unrelated. Chuck Entz (talk) 23:22, 7 March 2020 (UTC)