Is there a reason why 嚥 (swallow -deglutition) and 燕 (swallow -bird) are similar like in English? I recently came across the kanji , and found out about today. According to jisho.org, both translate to "swallow", except that the first one means swallow bird and the second one (with the "mouth" radical) means the act of swallowing. Both kanji look very similar, and both English words are homonyms. After some research, I found that some people pointed out the fact swallows swallow insects and hold them in their throat to feed their youngs, which indicates this pair of words could be related at the other end of the world too. It still seems mysteriously coincidental to me, which is why I decided to ask.

I believe that the apparent relations are a coincidence.

* The English _swallow (deglutition)_ and _swallow (bird)_ are unrelated, according to the Proto-Germanic reconstructions given in Wiktionary:

* _deglutition_ ***swelganą**
* _bird_ ***swalwǭ**
* _Zhengzhang's_ Old Chinese phonetic series for( ***qeːns** ) suggests several semantic groups which are homonyms:

* Those relating to _food_ (, - _banquet_ )
* Those relating to the bird (, , possibly - _horse with a white backside_ )
* Those relating to a proper noun (, )
* A word meaning _beautiful_ ()



Coincidental homonyms for unrelated words are possible for any language, and it is likely that the Chinese words are just that.