Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "F"

F = Waw (Semitic)

Waw = Hook

false friends In comparative linguistics, a term describing words in different languages which resemble each other in form, but which express different meanings; also called false cognates, and often known by the French equivalent expression faux amis. Examples include French demander, which translates into English as 'to request' not 'to demant', and Italian caldo which translates as 'warm' not 'cold'.

forensic linguistics In linguistics, the use of linguistic techniques to investigate crimes in which language data forms part of the evidence, such as in the use of grammatical or lexical criteria to authenticate police statements. The field of forensic phonetics is often distinguished as a separate domain, dealing with such matters as speaker identification, voice line-ups, speaker profiling, tape enhancement, tape authentication, and the decoding of disputed utterance.

fortition A term used in phonology to refer to a strengthening in the overall force of a sound, whether diachronically or synchronically; opposed to lentition. Typically, fortition involves the change from a fricative to a stop, an approximant to a fricative, or a voiced to a voiceless sound (as in the devoicing of final obstruents in German).

Definitions from: A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth edition, 2008
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