How likely are chance resemblances between languages?
[Previous] [Next] [Index] [–markrose] It depends– to an astonishing degree– on the amount of phonetic and semantic leeway you allow for a match. But in general the answer is “Quite likely.” For the sort of comparisons that are often posted to sci.lang, where perhaps just two consonants match, or nearly match, and the semantic matchups are quirky, one can expect literally hundreds of random matches.
