In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.[1] Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word, cognates may not be obvious, and often it takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the comparative method to establish whether lexemes are cognate. Cognates are distinguished from loanwords, where a word has been borrowed from another language.
Diagram showing relationships between etymologically-related words
The term cognate derives from the Latin noun cognatus 'blood relative'.[2]
Cognates need not have the same meaning, which may have changed as the languages developed independently. For example Englishstarve and Dutchsterven 'to die' or Germansterben 'to die' all descend from the same Proto-Germanic verb, *sterbaną 'to die'.
Cognates also do not need to look or sound similar: English father, Frenchpère, and Armenian հայր (hayr) all descend directly from Proto-Indo-European*ph₂tḗr. An extreme case is Armenian երկու (erku) and English two, which descend from Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁; the sound change *dw > erk in Armenian is regular.
False cognates are pairs of words that appear to have a common origin, but which in fact do not. For example, Latin habēre and German haben both mean 'to have' and are phonetically similar. However, the words evolved from different Proto-Indo-European (PIE) roots: haben, like English have, comes from PIE *kh₂pyé- 'to grasp', and has the Latin cognate capere 'to seize, grasp, capture'. Habēre, on the other hand, is from PIE *gʰabʰ 'to give, to receive', and hence cognate with English give and German geben.[3]
Likewise, English much and Spanish mucho look similar and have a similar meaning, but are not cognates: much is from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz < PIE *meǵ- and mucho is from Latin multum < PIE *mel-. A true cognate of much is the archaic Spanish maño 'big'.[4]
Distinctions
Cognates are distinguished from other kinds of relationships.
Loanwords are words borrowed from one language into another, for example English beef is borrowed from Old French boef (meaning "ox"). Although they are part of a single etymological stemma, they are not cognates.
Doublets are pairs of words in the same language which are derived from a single etymon, which may have similar but distinct meanings and uses. Often one is a loanword and the other is the native form, or they have developed in different dialects and then found themselves together in a modern standard language. For example, Old French boef is cognate with English cow, so English cow and beef are doublets.
Translations, or semantic equivalents, are words in two different languages that have similar meanings. They may be cognate, but usually they are not. For example, the German equivalent of the English word cow is Kuh, which is also cognate, but the French equivalent is vache, which is unrelated.
Related terms
The etymon, or ancestor word, is the ultimate source word whence one or more cognates derive. For example, the etymon of both Welsh ceffyl and Irish capall would be the Proto-Celtic *kaballos (all meaning horse). Outside of historical linguistics, a parallel term for an etymon is a root or root word. In this usage however, the analysis is limited to within a single language rather than across separate languages. Run, as such, can be said to be the root of both running and runs, while happy would be the root word of such others as unhappiness or happily.
A derivative is any word coming from a particular etymon. Similar to the distinction between etymon and root above, a nuanced distinction can sometimes be made between a derivative and a descendant. Descendant can be used more narrowly within the context of historical linguistics to emphasize a word inherited across a language barrier. For example, Russian мо́ре and Polish morze are both descendants of Proto-Slavic *moře (meaning sea). By contrast, within the study of morphological derivation, unhappy, happily, and unhappily are all derivatives of the word happy.
^"cognate", The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.: "Latin cognātus: co-, co- + gnātus, born, past participle of nāscī, to be born." Other definitions of the English word include "[r]elated by blood; having a common ancestor" and "[r]elated or analogous in nature, character, or function".
^Ringe, Don. (PDF). Univ. of Pennsylvania: Linguistics 001 (Fall 2011). ¶ 29. pp. 11–12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
External links
Look up cognate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
May 04, 2023
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For other uses see Cognate disambiguation In historical linguistics cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language 1 Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word cognates may not be obvious and often it takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the comparative method to establish whether lexemes are cognate Cognates are distinguished from loanwords where a word has been borrowed from another language Diagram showing relationships between etymologically related words The term cognate derives from the Latin noun cognatus blood relative 2 Contents 1 Characteristics 2 False cognates 3 Distinctions 4 Related terms 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksCharacteristics EditCognates need not have the same meaning which may have changed as the languages developed independently For example English starve and Dutch sterven to die or German sterben to die all descend from the same Proto Germanic verb sterbana to die Cognates also do not need to look or sound similar English father French pere and Armenian հայր hayr all descend directly from Proto Indo European ph tḗr An extreme case is Armenian երկու erku and English two which descend from Proto Indo European dwoh the sound change dw gt erk in Armenian is regular An example of cognates from the same Indo European root are night English nicht Scots Nacht German nacht Dutch Frisian nag Afrikaans Naach Colognian natt Swedish Norwegian nat Danish natt Faroese nott Icelandic noc Czech Slovak Polish noch noch Russian noќ noc Macedonian nosh nosht Bulgarian nos Welsh Cymraeg nich nich Ukrainian noch noch noc Belarusian noc Slovene noc Serbo Croatian nakts Latvian naktis Lithuanian ny3 nyx Ancient Greek nyxta nychta Modern Greek nakt Sanskrit nate Albanian nox gen sg noctis Latin nuit French noche Spanish nueche Asturian noite Portuguese and Galician notte Italian nit Catalan nuet nit nueit Aragonese nuech nueit Occitan and noapte Romanian These all mean night and derive from the Proto Indo European nokʷts night The Indo European languages have hundreds of such cognate sets though few of them are as neat as this The Arabic سلام salam the Hebrew שלום shalom the Assyrian Neo Aramaic shlama and the Amharic selam peace are cognates derived from the Proto Semitic salam peace False cognates EditMain article False cognate False cognates are pairs of words that appear to have a common origin but which in fact do not For example Latin habere and German haben both mean to have and are phonetically similar However the words evolved from different Proto Indo European PIE roots haben like English have comes from PIE kh pye to grasp and has the Latin cognate capere to seize grasp capture Habere on the other hand is from PIE gʰabʰ to give to receive and hence cognate with English give and German geben 3 Likewise English much and Spanish mucho look similar and have a similar meaning but are not cognates much is from Proto Germanic mikilaz lt PIE meǵ and mucho is from Latin multum lt PIE mel A true cognate of much is the archaic Spanish mano big 4 Distinctions EditCognates are distinguished from other kinds of relationships Loanwords are words borrowed from one language into another for example English beef is borrowed from Old French boef meaning ox Although they are part of a single etymological stemma they are not cognates Doublets are pairs of words in the same language which are derived from a single etymon which may have similar but distinct meanings and uses Often one is a loanword and the other is the native form or they have developed in different dialects and then found themselves together in a modern standard language For example Old French boef is cognate with English cow so English cow and beef are doublets Translations or semantic equivalents are words in two different languages that have similar meanings They may be cognate but usually they are not For example the German equivalent of the English word cow is Kuh which is also cognate but the French equivalent is vache which is unrelated Related terms EditThe etymon or ancestor word is the ultimate source word whence one or more cognates derive For example the etymon of both Welsh ceffyl and Irish capall would be the Proto Celtic kaballos all meaning horse Outside of historical linguistics a parallel term for an etymon is a root or root word In this usage however the analysis is limited to within a single language rather than across separate languages Run as such can be said to be the root of both running and runs while happy would be the root word of such others as unhappiness or happily A derivative is any word coming from a particular etymon Similar to the distinction between etymon and root above a nuanced distinction can sometimes be made between a derivative and a descendant Descendant can be used more narrowly within the context of historical linguistics to emphasize a word inherited across a language barrier For example Russian mo re and Polish morze are both descendants of Proto Slavic more meaning sea By contrast within the study of morphological derivation unhappy happily and unhappily are all derivatives of the word happy See also EditFalse friend Language portal Linguistics portalHomology biology Indo European vocabularyReferences Edit Crystal David ed 2011 cognate A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics 6th ed Blackwell Publishing p 104 418 ISBN 978 1 4443 5675 5 OCLC 899159900 cognate The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 4th ed Latin cognatus co co gnatus born past participle of nasci to be born Other definitions of the English word include r elated by blood having a common ancestor and r elated or analogous in nature character or function Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben Ringe Don A quick introduction to language change PDF Univ of Pennsylvania Linguistics 001 Fall 2011 29 pp 11 12 Archived from the original PDF on 20 June 2010 Retrieved 15 June 2014 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint location link External links Edit Look up cognate in Wiktionary the free dictionary Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cognate amp oldid 1153122610, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
