E Sources of homonyms

(1) Phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of their historical development. As a result of such changes, two or more words which were formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and become homonyms.

e.g. night and knight were not homonyms in Old English as the initial k in the second word was pronounced, and not dropped as it is in its modern sound form: OE. knight, OE nihi (night).

A more complicated change of form brought together another pair of homonyms:

to knead (OE cnēdan) 1) замішувати, місити (тісто, глину) 2) змішувати в загальну масу 3) формувати (характер тощо) 4) масажувати, розминати;

to need (OE nēodian)

(2) Conversion which serves creating of grammatical homonyms,

e.g. iron →to iron,

work→ to work.

(3) Shortening is a further type of word-building which increases the number of homonyms,

e.g. fan, n. in the sense of "an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer" is a shortening produced from fanatic. Its homonym is a Latin borrowing fan, n. which denotes an implement for waving lightly to produce a current of air.

Rep, n. denoting a kind of fabric (репс – тканина) has three homonyms made by shortening:

repertory → rep, n., (a building or place where a stock of things is kept; repository)

representative → rep, n.,

reputation → rep, n.

(4) Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing,

e.g. Lat. ritus → rite n. – write v. – right adj.;

OFr. pais → piece, n.

OFr. pettia → peace n.

(5) Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words,

e.g. bang, n. "a loud, sudden, explosive noise"

bang, n. "a fringe of hair combed over the forehead" (чубок)

mew, n. "the sound a cat makes"

mew, n. "a sea gull"

mew, n. "a pen in which poultry is kept"

mews, n."small terraced houses in Central London"