We explain what homonyms are, the differences between homophony and homography and various examples. Also, what are paronyms.
What are homonyms?
In linguisticsHomonyms are words that have the same form but a totally different historical origin and meaning. The term homonymy comes from the Greek words homo ("Equal") and nymos ("Name"), and can refer to the pronunciation and / or its spelling.
It is important to differentiate homonymy from polysemy. The latter consists of the same word acquiring different possible meanings, depending on its context of use, but that in all cases have the same etymological origin. Homonymy, on the other hand, implies the convergence of two totally different words under the same sign.
There are two possible forms of homonymy, each of which receives a different name:
- Homophony, when it comes to two words whose pronunciation is the same, but their spelling is different. This is the case of "vast" and "enough", since in most variants of Spanish the phonemes corresponding to the v Yet the b are pronounced interchangeably (that is, like the b).
- Homography, when it comes to two words with the same spelling, that is, they are written in the same way, although they do not necessarily coincide in their pronunciation. This is the case, for example, of "wine" (from the verb to come) and "wine" (the alcoholic substance).
Finally, the homonymous words they can be recognized because they have different entries in a dictionary of the language.
Examples of homonymous words
Here are some examples of homonymous words of different types in Spanish:
- Honda (slingshot) and Onda (wave) are homonymous homophones.
- Berry (edible fruit), Vaya (from the verb to go) and Valla (advertisement) are homophone homonyms.
- Wave (of the sea) and Hello (the greeting) are homonyms homophones.
- Voto (from the verb to vote) and Boto (from the verb to bounce) are homonymous homophones.
- Cola (of animals) and Cola (glue) are homonymous homographs.
- Seco (adjective meaning not wet) and Seco (from the verb to dry) are homonymous homonyms.
- Nada (no thing) and Nada (from the verb swim) are homograph homonyms.
- Vela (instrument to illuminate) and Vela (from the verb velar) are homonymous homonyms.
- Mira (from the verb look) and Mira (where it is pointed) are homonymous homonyms.
- Size (from the verb to carve) and Size (from clothing) are homograph homonyms.
Homonyms and Paronyms
Paronymous words are those that are similar in their sound but they have radically different meanings and etymologies. Its pronunciation is not necessarily identical. For this purpose it is known as paronomasia or paronimia, and just as it can lead to spelling mistakes, it can also be used in a literary sense.
A typical case of paronomasia is the one between “a” (preposition), “ah” (exclamation) and “ha” (from the verb have), which sound very similar, although they have different spellings and meanings. Paronyms may or may not be homonyms as well, as the case may be.