word-pair (X, Y) in French, German, Spanish...

[henh...@gmail.com]

i'd like to know some words (X, Y) in French, German, Spanish...

such that X and Y are pronounced exactly the same,

but X and Y share no letter in common (or look very different)


---------- such a pair would be SO hard in Japanese !


_______________________

which is the opposite of....

laughter and slaughter ------------- they look so similar but pronounced so differently.

[Mikko]

German; Hund, Hunt

In French many inflections are shown in writing but not in speach,
e.g. créer, créez, créai, créé.

Mikko

[henh...@gmail.com]

thanks!!!


Recently... one night... i was thinking :
SURELY there must be a pair longer than YOU and EWE, and found:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ewer
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/youah

(no letter in common)

[Daud Deden]

I don't get it, but here's my contribution:
Ewe you yew U

[Helmut Richter]

> On 2023-02-23 18:16:01 +0000, henh...@gmail.com said:
>
> > i'd like to know some words (X, Y) in French, German, Spanish...
> >
> > such that X and Y are pronounced exactly the same,
> >
> > but X and Y share no letter in common (or look very different)

> German; Hund, Hunt

As "Hunt" is only an alternate spelling of "Hund" (not a dog, but a
vehicle used in mining or for the transport of other bulky goods), one
could replace it by an example where the words are better known and more
clearly distinct: Bund–bunt, wird–Wirt, Werg–Werk, ...

I consider these an artefact of the somewhat weird usage of IPA symbols in
dictionaries. There they use [d] for indicating voice, and [t] for
indicating voicelessness. As a final consonant is never voiced at the
word end, they denote a [d̥] as [t] regarding only voice, and disregarding
the much more distinctive features of laxness and lack of aspiration.

> In French many inflections are shown in writing but not in speach,
> e.g. créer, créez, créai, créé.

Both examples do not meet the original challenge that they have no letter
in common or look very different.

I offer French: ô (oh) versus any of
au (to the (sg)), aux (to the (pl)), eau (water), eaux (waters)

And a bilingual one: English "choir" loaned into Swahili, there
written phonetically as "kwaya" with no common letter.

--
Helmut Richter