Cognate

Did you know that the English word "eat" and the German word "essen" (meaning "to eat") both come from the Indo-European root "ed"? Words that share the same word of origin are known as cognates. Cognates are a part of historical linguistics, which is the study of how language evolves over time. When looking at the origins of a language, we are able to form a deeper understanding of how different languages are connected and how they influence each other.

Cognate Definition

In linguistics, cognate refers to groups of words in different languages that come from the same word of origin. Because they descend from the same word, cognates often have similar meanings and/or spellings.

It is important to know that cognates do not always have similar meanings. Sometimes, a word's meaning changes over time as a language evolves (which can happen at different rates depending on the language).

Cognate Words

Before we get into some examples of cognates, let's discuss the etymology of words and what they can tell us about the history of English and other languages.

By looking at the etymology of a word, we can tell which language the word originated from and whether or not the word's form or meaning has changed over time. This helps us to understand how language evolves and the influences languages have on each other.

Fig. 1 - Etymology can help tell us about the history and evolution of a language over time.

As cognate words are derived from the same origin and are often similar in meaning, we can often guess the meanings of words from another language. This is especially helpful for those learning languages, as they will already know similar words from other languages. In particular, Romance languages (such as Spanish, Italian, and French) contain many words that are derived from Latin. Because of this, if you already know one Romance language, it is easier to pick up on the vocabulary of another.

Cognate Examples

Check out some examples of cognate words below:

• English: night

• French: niu

• Spanish: noche

• Italian: notte

• German: nacht

• Dutch: nacht

• Swedish: natt

• Norwegian: natt

• Sanskrit: nakt

All these words for "night" derive from the Indo-European root "nókʷt."

Let's look at some further examples.

From the Medieval Latin root "nutritivus."

• English: milk

• German: milch

• Dutch: melk

• Afrikaans: melk

• Russian: молоко (moloko)

From the Proto-Indo-European root "melg."

• English: attention

• Spanish: atencion

From the Latin root "attentionem."

• English: athiest
• Spanish: ateo/a
• French: athéiste
• Latin: atheos

From the Greek root "átheos."

Types of Cognates

There are three types of cognates:

1. Words that have the same spelling, e.g.,

• English "atlas" and German "atlas"

• English "cruel" and French "cruel"

2. Words that have slightly different spelling, e.g.,

• English "modern" and French "moderne"

• English "garden" and German "garten"

3. Words that have different spelling but sound similar - e.g.,

• English "equal" and Spanish "igual"

• English "bicycle" and French "bicyclette"

Linguistic Term for a Misleading Cognate

The linguistic term for a misleading cognate is "false cognate." A false cognate refers to two words in two different languages that have similar meanings and are spelled/pronounced similarly but have different etymologies.

False cognates are sometimes confused with the term "false friends," which refers to two words from different languages that sound similar or are spelled similarly but have different meanings (regardless of etymology).

False Cognates

False cognates can sometimes be confused with actual cognates, especially if you are unsure of a word's etymology. Below are some more examples of false cognates:

• The French "feu" (fire) is from the Latin "focus," whereas the German "feuer" (fire) is from the Proto-Germanic "for."

• The German "haben" (to have) is from the Proto-Germanic "habjaną," whereas the Latin "habere" (to have) is said to have come from the Proto-Indo-European "gʰeh₁bʰ-."

• The English "bad" is (perhaps) from the Old English "baeddel," whereas the Persian بد, (bad) is from the Middle Iranian "vat."

• The English "day" is from the Old English "daeg," whereas the Latin "dies" (day) is from the Proto-Italic "djēm."

Cognate Languages

Much like individual words, languages as a whole can originate from other languages. When two or more languages originate from the same language, these are known as cognate languages.