Why does Spanish use only end letter to distinguish different words?

Question

I've noticed several nouns in Spanish have the endings A or O, but very different meanings. For example acero and acera - one means steel and one means sidewalk. Is there a gramatical origin behind this? Or is it just a coincidence. Is it related to have adjectives have different endings?

Edit: Changed question wording to clarify.

Answer 1

Steel and steal have nothing to do with each other, either. There are thousands of English word pairs that differ by a single letter.

Why is that? I'm no linguist, but it seems that there are only so many letter combinations available to make a quarter of a million to a million (depending on how one "counts") English words.

Edit:

I'm still no linguist, but I suspect that the answer is: Accidents happen.

In the case of acero and acera, the etymologies are as different as etymologies can be, but the evolutions happened to converge to give us two very similar words. It is not as though someone took the root acer and decided to add different endings to form words with entirely unrelated meanings.

Nice links. :) - bosquederoble, Jun 21, 2016

Answer 2

I know I'm late on this and probably won't get any votes, but one thing I noticed when learning English was the proliferation of homonyms.

One great example.

Spring------the season before summer.

Spring------a coiled up piece of wire with tension on it.

Spring-----a small body of water.

Spring-----to jump.

This Spring, i'm going to spring into the spring that's behind my house and hope I don't land on a spring.

That's an awesome sentence Daniela:) - marksteve, Jun 22, 2016

:) - ian-hill, Jun 22, 2016

Hahaha, funny sentence, Daniela ;) - FELIZ77, Jun 22, 2016

This is another trait of English. You'll notice all of the words stem from the same base: the meaning of streaming from a source. Multiply these with external influences with different stem meanings and you can get big numbers: bar 30+ run 50+ break 70+ - jellonz, Jun 22, 2016

Answer 3

For Broca (and anyone else interested): "Why does English sometimes use no letters to distinguish completely different words?" I started to comment on this but soon realised there was way too much to say for the comment area. At least, in a way, what I will say is related to Grant's original question:

English is a mongrel language (which is why I love it, and why those learning it must hate it at times). Words from around the world have entered our language and been absorbed into it. There is a kind of open border policy with English. It is happy to let everything in and anything that finds a home is welcome to stay. As a result we have one of the most diverse (and troublesome) languages in existence.

This diversity allows intense flavour and character in literary works through language that can be honed to a point, or molded to fit any scene. It allows for brutal bluntness through to the slightest nuance. And, it allows for literary playfulness and ambiguity.

On the down side, what is playful and ambiguous can also be downright annoying and confusing. The willingness of English to absorb foreign languages means that in many situations "one" word could be derived from multiple foreign sources and hold multiple meanings. Take "bar" for example. It's etymology includes roots in German, French, Latin, Greek, Norwegian, Swedish, Frisian, and Russian to name a few. And, from these influences come different meanings (I can think of 5 distinct definitions but there are no doubt more).

Of course, within any language time and situation will see some homonyms and heteronyms develop without external influence. As Jtaniel suggests, there are only so many ways letters can be combined. It is therefore natural to expect homographs to exist even in a relatively pure language like Spanish. The introduction of external influences can only increase their number, which is what we find with the mutt that is English.

Very good answer, Jellonz :) - FELIZ77, Jun 22, 2016

Spanish(Castillian) is primarily from Latin, but it has Greek and Arabic influences as well. - Daniela2041, Jun 22, 2016

Too true. I think for a language to be "pure" it would have to follow a straight lineage (Icelandic?) or have its own isolated roots (Mongolian?), but every language is going to be influenced by outside sources to some degree. - jellonz, Jun 22, 2016

Answer 4

Why does English sometime use no letters to distinguish completely different words?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_homographs

Answer 5

"Edit: Yes, I'm aware English also has quarks as the commenter below is so keenly is aware. I'm actually curious about gramatical origins. If you're looking to exchange sarcastic quips you're welcome to talk to me in person and I'll oblige."

I am very sorry I came across as snippy, that was not my intention at all :( I do not know the answer to your question or the question I asked and I looked at your profile and I did not see any info that would give me a clue to what type of linguistic background you might have. I thought by asking a simple question it might shed light on how to go about answering yours; as it has. Again, my apologies.

No apologie...I agree with you. - rac1, Jun 21, 2016

It's cool dude, it's the internet. I naturally assumed you were trolling me. - grantcurell, Jun 21, 2016

OK, that's an English word I don't know. "trolling" I know what it means when fishing, but the slang implication I don't get. - Daniela2041, Jun 22, 2016

It's predominantly internet slang Dani, and is derived from the fishing term. You say something to someone in order to get them to bite. - jellonz, Jun 22, 2016

Now that's funny! :) - Daniela2041, Jun 22, 2016