ImportMaster at 13:02, 14 February 2020

2020-02-14T13:02:59Z

New page

A '''cognate''' is a [[word]] [[Wikt:derive|derived]] from the same [[Wikt:root|root]] as another word. Cognates are words that have a common origin ([[Wikt:source|source]]). They may happen in a [[language]] or in a group of languages.

Example One:
:'composite', 'composition' and 'compost' are cognates in the [[English (language)|English language]], derived from the same root in Latin 'componere' meaning 'to put together'.

Example Two:
:the word 'composition' in English and the word 'composición' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and similar words in [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] are cognates because they all come from the same root.

The general rule is that cognates have similar meanings and are derived from the same root (origin). A fine example is the word for [[night]] in almost all [[Indo-European languages]]:<ref> Mallory J.P. & Adams D.Q. 2006. ''The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World''. Oxford University Press</ref>

''nuit'' ([[French language|French]]), ''noche'' ([[Spanish language|Spanish]]), ''Nacht'' ([[German language|German]]), ''nacht'' ([[Dutch language|Dutch]]), ''nag'' ([[Afrikaans]]), ''nicht'' ([[Scots language|Scots]]), ''natt'' ([[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]), ''nat'' ([[Danish language|Danish]]), ''nátt'' ([[Faroese language|Faroese]]), ''nótt'' ([[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]), ''noc'' ([[Czech language|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Polish language|Polish]]), ночь, ''noch'' ([[Russian language|Russian]]), ноќ, ''noć'' ([[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]), нощ, ''nosht'' ([[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]), ''ніч'', ''nich'' ([[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]), ''ноч'', ''noch''/''noč'' ([[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]), ''noč'' ([[Slovene language|Slovene]]), ''noć'' ([[Bosnian language|Bosnian]], [[Serbian language|Serbian]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]]), νύξ, ''nyx'' ([[Ancient Greek]], ''νύχτα''/''nychta'' in [[Modern Greek]]), ''nox/nocte'' ([[Latin]]), ''nakt-'' ([[Sanskrit]]), ''natë'' ([[Albanian language|Albanian]]), ''nos'' ([[Welsh language|Welsh]]), ''nueche'' ([[Asturian language|Asturian]]), ''noite'' ([[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[Galician language|Galician]]), ''notte'' ([[Italian language|Italian]]), ''nit'' ([[Catalan language|Catalan]]), ''nuèch/nuèit'' ([[Occitan language|Occitan]]), ''noapte'' ([[Romanian language|Romanian]]), ''nakts'' ([[Latvian language|Latvian]]), ''naktis'' ([[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]) and ''Naach'' ([[Colognian language|Colognian]]), all meaning "night" and being derived from the Proto-Indo-European nókʷts ("night").<ref>Pooth, Roland A. 2015. Proto-Indo-European Nominal Morphology. Part 1. The Noun, in Language Arts. [https://www.academia.edu/18213035/Proto-Indo-European_Nominal_Morphology._Part_1_The_Noun]</ref>

[[Basic English]] uses cognates, such as [[animal]], attention, night, [[apparatus]], [[experience]], [[brother]], [[invention]], [[metal]], [[etc]].

== History ==
The word 'cognate' is derived from the [[Latin]] word 'cognatus' meaning 'to be born with'.

In reading [[Churchill]]'s ''History of the English Speaking Peoples'', it would be well to keep in mind (remember) what [[George Bernard Shaw]] says: "[[England]] and [[United States|America]] are two countries divided by a common language."

Speakers of [[British English]] and [[American English]] face the problem of meeting ''false friends''.

== False friends ==
As a rule, similar-sounding words have the same meaning but when they do not, they are called "false friends".

Example one: Spanish 'actual' and English 'actual' are cognates because they have the same root (origin) but they are "false friends" because Spanish 'actual' means "of the present moment" while English 'actual' means "real".

Example two: German 'hell', Norwegian 'hell' and English 'hell' are not cognates, but are spelled the same. In German, 'hell' means 'light' and in Norwegian it means 'luck', while in English it means [[hell]].

== False cognates ==
Sometimes, two words look alike and it appears that they are cognates but they are not because they are not derived from the same root.

Example one: In the English language, the word 'light' (something that makes things visible) is not a cognate of the word 'light' (not heavy) because they are not derived from the same root.

Example two: The German word 'haben' and the English word '[[Wikt:have|have]]' mean the same thing and they appear to be cognates but they are not simply because they are not derived from the same root.

Example three: The Japanese word 'okiru' 起きる and the English word 'occur' have the same thing happening as example two.

== External links ==
{{Wikibooks|False Friends of the Slavist}}
*[[:en:List of words having different meanings in British and American English|List of words having different meanings in British and American English]]: on English Wikipedia
*[http://spanish.about.com/cs/vocabulary/a/obviouswrong.htm Common Spanish-English False Friends]
*[http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa030199.htm German-English False Friends]
*[http://french.about.com/library/fauxamis/blfauxam_a.htm French-English False Friends]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Linguistics]]

Cognate - Revision history

ImportMaster at 13:02, 14 February 2020