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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: German/English words
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References: <E4D9xu.Lvs@midway.uchicago.edu> <32e5cc89.19371955@news.exodus.net> <32f467e8.4685442@newsreader.digex.net> <5cedq1$12o_001@actrix.gen.nz>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 06:08:29 GMT
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In article <5cedq1$12o_001@actrix.gen.nz>,
Paul J Kriha <kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:
>In article <32f467e8.4685442@newsreader.digex.net>, kcivey@cpcug.org (Keith C. Ivey) wrote:
>>bill@osisoft.com (Bill Vaughan) wrote:
>>
>>>BTW, my favorite German loanword is "kluge."
>>
>>What reason do you have for believing that "kluge" is a German
>>loanword?  Certainly German has a word spelled "kluge", but its
>>pronunciation (/'klu g@/) and meaning ("clever") are completely
>>different from those of the English word.  What's the
>>connection?
>
>Does it really matter if it is a German loanword or not.

Matter?  Matter how?  Discovering the true origins of "kluge" certainly 
won't save any lives, but it would satisfy the curiosity of Mr. Ivey,
myself, and some other readers.  It might even give us a modicum more
insight into language contact, spelling pronunciations, and other
interesting linguistic phenomena.

>This thread started by listing false friends and if the
>word is spelled the same but means something different
>then that's what it is. Isn't it?

Yes, it is a false friend.

>Know what's weird? Day by day nothing seems to
>change, but pretty soon everything is different.

Sounds like an accurate description of Usenet discussions to me:  The
subject may seem consistent from post to post (esp. if you go by subject
headings), but pretty soon, the topic has changed completely.

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
