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I've noticed that 解ける which means 'to be solved' and 溶ける, 'to dissolve' are
pronounced the same way. Furthermore the second one can be written using the
kanji of the first one. That relation between both words is really similar to
the one between the English word solve / dissolve, which made me ask that
question: was the use of the words 解ける / 溶ける influenced by the English
language? (e.g. solve a mystery as a metaphor coming from dissolving a
chemical)
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2018-03-20T14:33:26.630
57396
2018-03-20T15:02:03.467
2018-03-20T14:38:25.840
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question
verbs etymology homophonic-kanji
Is the couple 解ける / 溶ける related to the English solve/ dissolve?
I think the pair 解ける 溶ける was probably not influenced by the English language.

Rather, it is more likely a standard example of the very common phenomenon of
a (native Japanese) verb being written with different _kanji_ to differentiate
between various nuances/meanings. There are many, many such verbs

> みる → 見る "to see", 観る "to watch", 看る "to look after", 診る "to examine"
>
> きく → 聞く "to hear", 聴く "to listen", 効く "to have an effect", 利く "to function"

(Monolingual dictionaries will list these as 同源 "same origin".)

Of course you're correct in observing that this phenomenon is similar to the
one of a verb like _solve_ taking (in this case) a prefix to convey a more
nuanced meaning, such as _dissolve_ , _resolve_ , _absolve_. But of course,
correlation does not imply causation.
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2018-03-20T15:02:03.467
57399
2018-03-20T15:02:03.467
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer