Homonyms

In English "blue" and "blew" are homonyms.

A good example of homonyms in Portuguese are the words "sessão", "seção" and "cessão".

A great motivation for keeping sinograms in Oriental languages is to distinguish the multitude of homonyms.

Sinograms have been conserved because of the large number of homonyms in their languages.

A motivation for East Asians to conserve their sinograms is to distinguish many homonyms. In speech, context tells the listener what is the intended meaning. In the PRC, Pinyin documentation, Romanized Mandarin, is available for minorities who cannot read sinograms. Somehow, they make do.

There are problems with homonyms in a language. I was a participant in a Pali-language discussion group on the Web. I brought up a question about the "stress"—accentuation—in Pali words. Some people imagined that I was alluding to "stress"—like emotional distress—which was not my intention. Homonyms may be a problem in effective communication.

"Panpsychism" and "pantheism" are homonyms in Japanese—"hanshinron." They have different kanji.

There may problems with homonyms in a language. I was talking to a friend about how I detested the Western business suit with its "tie" that choked the neck. He thought that I was obliquely referring to "Thai," which was not my intention. In my head, I wanted to use the French word "cravate," but he did not know French. Homonyms may be a problem in effective communication.

A great motivation for Far Eastern languages to conserve sinograms is to distinguish their many homonyms.

"Weather" and "whether" are homonyms; be careful not to confuse them while writing. And of course neither should be confused with their other homonym, "wether", which refers to a castrated male goat.