Cognate: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Words inherited by different languages}} |
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'''Cognates''' are words that have a common origin. |
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{{other uses}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} |
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{{More citations needed|date=December 2023}} |
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[[File:etymological_relations_tree.svg|thumb|240px|Diagram showing relationships between etymologically related words]] |
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In [[historical linguistics]], '''cognates''' or '''lexical cognates''' are sets of [[word]]s that have been inherited in direct descent from an [[etymology|etymological]] ancestor in a [[proto-language|common parent language]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Crystal |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Crystal |date=2011 |title=A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics |edition=6th |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZPQVuSgDAkC&pg=PT104 |chapter=cognate |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |pages=104, 418 |isbn=978-1-4443-5675-5 |oclc=899159900}}</ref> |
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Because [[language change]] can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word, cognates may not be obvious, and it often takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the [[comparative method]] to establish whether [[lexeme]]s are cognate. |
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Examples of cognates are the words ''night'' (English), ''nacht'' ([[German language|German]]), ''noc'' ([[Czech language|Czech]]), and ''nox'' ([[Latin]]), all meaning ''night'' and all deriving from a common [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] origin. [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] ''shalom'' and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] ''salaam'' are also cognates deriving from a common [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] root. |
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Cognates |
Cognates are distinguished from [[loanword]]s, where a word has been borrowed from another language. |
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{{anchor|Origin|Etymology|Names}} |
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Cognates may often be less easily recognised than the above examples and authorities sometimes differ in their interpretations of the evidence. The English word ''milk'' is clearly a cognate of German ''Milch'' and of [[Russian language|Russian]] ''moloko''. On the other hand, French ''lait'', [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''leche'' (both meaning "milk") are less obviously cognates of [[Greek language|Greek]] ''galaktos'' (genitive form of ''gala'', milk). |
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==Name== |
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Cognates ''dish'' (English) and ''Tisch'' (''table'', German), or ''starve'' (English) and ''sterben'' (''die'', German), or ''head'' (English) and ''chef'' (''chief, head'', French) serve as examples as to how words may [[semantic drift|diverge in meaning]] as languages develop separately. |
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The English term ''cognate'' derives from [[Latin language|Latin]] {{lang|la|[[:wikt:cognatus|cognatus]]}}, meaning "blood relative".<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/cognate "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".</ref> |
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==Examples== |
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One may also find cognates that mean similar things, but through processes of linguistic change no longer resemble each other phonetically: ''cow'' and ''beef'' both derive from the same Indo-European root, ''cow'' having developed through the Germanic language family while ''beef'' has arrived in English from the Italo-Romance family descent. |
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An example of cognates from the same [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] root are: ''night'' ([[English language|English]]), ''Nacht'' ([[German language|German]]), ''nacht'' ([[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[West Frisian language|Frisian]]), ''nag'' ([[Afrikaans]]), ''Naach'' ([[Colognian dialect|Colognian]]), ''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'' ([[Serbo-Croatian]]), ''nakts'' ([[Latvian language|Latvian]]), ''naktis'' ([[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]), ''nos'' ([[Welsh language|Welsh/Cymraeg]]), νύξ, ''nyx'' ([[Ancient Greek]]), ''νύχτα'' / ''nychta'' ([[Modern Greek]]), ''nakt-'' ([[Sanskrit]]), ''natë'' ([[Albanian language|Albanian]]), ''nox'', gen. sg. ''noctis'' ([[Latin]]), ''nuit'' ([[French language|French]]), ''noche'' ([[Spanish language|Spanish]]), ''nochi'' ([[Extremaduran language|Extremaduran]]), ''nueche'' ([[Asturian language|Asturian]]), ''noite'' ([[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[Galician language|Galician]]), ''notte'' ([[Italian language|Italian]]), ''nit'' ([[Catalan language|Catalan]]), ''nuet/nit/nueit'' ([[Aragonese language|Aragonese]]), ''nuèch'' / ''nuèit'' ([[Occitan language|Occitan]]) and ''noapte'' ([[Romanian language|Romanian]]). These all mean 'night' and derive from the Proto-Indo-European {{lang|ine-x-proto|[[:wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/nókʷts|*nókʷts]]}} 'night'. The Indo-European languages have hundreds of such cognate sets, though few of them are as neat as this. |
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The [[Arabic]] {{lang|ar|سلام}} ''salām'', the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] {{Script/Hebrew|שלום}} ''shalom'', the [[Assyrian Neo-Aramaic]] ''shlama'' and the [[Amharic language|Amharic]] ''selam'' 'peace' are cognates, derived from the [[Proto-Semitic]] [[:wikt:Appendix:Proto-Semitic/šalām-|*šalām-]] 'peace'. |
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Cognates may thus also arise through borrowings into languages. So the resemblance between [[English language|English]] ''to pay'' and [[French language|French]] ''payer'' originates through English borrowing ''to pay'' from [[Norman language|Norman]] which, like French, had derived its word from Gallo-Romance. |
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The [[Brazilian Portuguese]] ''panapanã'', (flock of butterflies in flight), the [[Guarani language|Paraguayan Guarani]] ''panambi'', the [[Eastern Bolivian Guaraní language|Eastern Bolivian Guarani]] ''panapana'', the [[Cocama language|Cocama]] and [[Omagua language|Omagua]] ''panama'', and the [[Sirionó language|Sirionó]] ''ana ana'' are cognates, derived from the [[Tupi language|Old Tupi]] ''panapana'', 'butterfly', maintaining their original meaning in these [[Tupi languages]]. |
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Another example is French ''venir'' and [[Latin]] ''venire'' (both meaning "to come"). These words are cognates since French ''venir'' evolved from [[Vulgar Latin]]. |
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==Characteristics== |
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Cognates need not have the same meaning, as they may have undergone [[semantic change]] as the languages developed independently. For example [[English language|English]] ''[[wikt:starve#English|starve]]'' and [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ''[[wikt:sterven#Dutch|sterven]]'' 'to die' or [[German language|German]] ''[[wikt:sterben|sterben]]'' 'to die' all descend from the same [[Proto-Germanic]] verb, ''[[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Germanic/sterbaną|*sterbaną]]'' 'to die'. |
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Cognates also do not need to look or sound similar: English ''[[wikt:father|father]]'', [[French language|French]] ''[[wikt:père#French|père]]'', and [[Armenian language|Armenian]] [[wikt:հայր|հայր]] (''hayr'') all descend directly from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] ''*ph₂tḗr''. An extreme case is Armenian [[wikt:երկու|երկու]] (''erku'') and English ''[[wikt:two|two]]'', which descend from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] ''*dwóh₁''; the sound change ''*dw'' > ''erk'' in Armenian is regular. |
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Paradigms of conjugations or declensions, the correspondence of which cannot be generally due to chance, have often been used in cognacy assessment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |date=1976-01-01 |title=Two principles of genetic reconstruction |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0024384176900747 |journal=Lingua |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=89–108 |doi=10.1016/0024-3841(76)90074-7 |issn=0024-3841}}</ref> However, beyond paradigms, morphosyntax is often excluded in the assessment of cognacy between words, mainly because structures are usually seen as more subject to borrowing. Still, very complex, non-trivial morphosyntactic structures can rarely take precedence over phonetic shapes to indicate cognates. For instance, [[Tangut language|Tangut]], the language of the [[Western Xia|Xixia]] Empire, and one [[Horpa language|Horpa]] language spoken today in [[Sichuan]], Geshiza, both display a verbal alternation indicating tense, obeying the same morphosyntactic collocational restrictions. Even without regular phonetic correspondences between the stems of the two languages, the cognatic structures indicate secondary cognacy for the stems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beaudouin |first=Mathieu |date=2024-09-13 |title=Non-past and past verb stems in Tangut |url=https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/lali.00177.bea |journal=Language and Linguistics |language=en |volume=Online first |doi=10.1075/lali.00177.bea}}</ref> |
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==False cognates== |
==False cognates== |
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{{main|False cognate}} |
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False cognates are pairs of words that appear to have a common origin, but which in fact do not. For example, Latin {{lang|la|habēre}} and German {{lang|de|haben}} both mean 'to have' and are phonetically similar. However, the words evolved from different [[Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) roots: {{lang|de|haben}}, like English ''have'', comes from PIE ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/kh₂pyé-|*kh₂pyé-]]'' 'to grasp', and has the Latin cognate ''capere'' 'to seize, grasp, capture'. {{lang|la|Habēre}}, on the other hand, is from PIE ''*gʰabʰ'' 'to give, to receive', and hence cognate with English ''give'' and German {{lang|de|geben}}.<ref>''[[Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben]]''</ref> |
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Likewise, English ''much'' and Spanish {{lang|es|mucho}} look similar and have a similar meaning, but are not cognates: ''much'' is from Proto-Germanic ''[[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Germanic/mikilaz|*mikilaz]]'' < PIE ''[[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Indo-European/meg-|*meǵ-]]'' and {{lang|es|mucho}} is from Latin ''multum'' < PIE ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/mel-|*mel-]]''. A true cognate of ''much'' is the archaic Spanish {{lang|es|maño}} 'big'.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ringe|first1=Don|title=A quick introduction to language change|url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/3-22.pdf|website=Univ. of Pennsylvania: Linguistics 001 (Fall 2011)|access-date=15 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620051440/http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/3-22.pdf|archive-date=2010-06-20|location=¶ 29|pages=11–12}}</ref> |
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==Distinctions== |
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Cognates are distinguished from other kinds of relationships. |
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*[[Loanword]]s 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. |
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*[[Doublet (linguistics)|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. |
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*[[Translation]]s, or semantic equivalents, are words in two different languages that have similar or practically identical 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. |
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==Related terms== |
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===Etymon (ancestor word) and descendant words=== |
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An '''[[etymon]]''', or ancestor word, is the ultimate source word from which one or more cognates derive. |
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In other words, it is the source of related words in different languages. |
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For example, the etymon of both Welsh ''ceffyl'' and Irish ''capall'' is the Proto-Celtic *''kaballos'' (all meaning ''horse''). |
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'''[[wikt: descendant|Descendant]]s''' are words inherited across a language barrier, coming from a particular etymon in an ancestor language. |
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For example, Russian ''мо́ре'' and Polish ''morze'' are both descendants of Proto-Slavic *''moře'' (meaning ''sea''). |
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===Root and derivatives=== |
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A '''[[root (linguistics)|root]]''' is the source of related words within a single language (no language barrier is crossed). |
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Similar to the distinction between ''etymon'' and ''root'', a nuanced distinction can sometimes be made between a ''descendant'' and a ''derivative''. |
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[[False cognate|False cognates]] are words that are commonly thought to be related whereas linguistic examination reveals that they are unrelated. Thus, for example, many people think that the Latin verb ''habere'' and Germanic ''haben'' are cognates. However, judging by the way both languages evolve [[Indo-European]] roots, the real cognate of the Germanic ''haben'' is Latin ''capere'', "to capture" (note however that Germanic ''haben'' and English ''to have'' are cognates, and so are Latin ''capere'' and English ''to capture''). |
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A '''[[derivative (linguistics)|derivative]]''' is one of the words which have their source in a root word, and were at some time created from the root word using morphological constructs such as suffixes, prefixes, and slight changes to the vowels or to the consonants of the root word. |
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For example ''unhappy'', ''happily'', and ''unhappily'' are all derivatives of the root word ''happy''. |
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The terms ''root'' and ''derivative'' are used in the analysis of morphological derivation within a language in studies that are not concerned with historical linguistics and that do not cross the language barrier. |
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It has been calculated that if one takes a word from a language, there's a 40% chance that one will find a word with roughly similar sound and meaning in another random, non-related language (''this is a highly doubtful statement, provide some sources/references or remove it''). Because of that, even finding several hundred similar-sounding words in a couple of languages is not enough to demonstrate that the languages are related to each other. Moreover, over the course of hundreds and thousands of years, words may change their sounding completely. Thus, for example, English ''five'' and [[Sanskrit]] ''pança'' are cognates, while English ''over'' and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] ''a'var'' are not, and neither are English ''dog'' and [[Mbabaram language|Mbabaram]] ''dog''. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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{{Portal|Language|Linguistics}} |
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*[[Homology (biology)]] |
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*[[Indo-European vocabulary]] |
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*[[False etymology]] |
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*[[Folk etymology]] |
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*[[Word family]] |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist|30em}} |
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*[[Paronym]] |
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==External links== |
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[[es:Cognado]] |
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{{Wiktionary|cognate}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cognate (Etymology)}} |
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[[Category:Historical linguistics]] |
[[Category:Historical linguistics]] |
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Latest revision as of 04:59, 14 December 2024
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2023) |
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words 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 it often 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.
Name
[edit]The English term cognate derives from Latin cognatus, meaning "blood relative".[2]
Examples
[edit]An example of cognates from the same Indo-European root are: night (English), Nacht (German), nacht (Dutch, Frisian), nag (Afrikaans), Naach (Colognian), natt (Swedish, Norwegian), nat (Danish), nátt (Faroese), nótt (Icelandic), noc (Czech, Slovak, Polish), ночь, noch (Russian), ноќ, noć (Macedonian), нощ, nosht (Bulgarian), ніч, nich (Ukrainian), ноч, noch/noč (Belarusian), noč (Slovene), noć (Serbo-Croatian), nakts (Latvian), naktis (Lithuanian), nos (Welsh/Cymraeg), νύξ, nyx (Ancient Greek), νύχτα / nychta (Modern Greek), nakt- (Sanskrit), natë (Albanian), nox, gen. sg. noctis (Latin), nuit (French), noche (Spanish), nochi (Extremaduran), nueche (Asturian), noite (Portuguese and Galician), notte (Italian), nit (Catalan), nuet/nit/nueit (Aragonese), nuèch / nuèit (Occitan) and noapte (Romanian). These all mean 'night' and derive from the Proto-Indo-European **nókʷts 'night'. The Indo-European languages have hundreds of such cognate sets, though few of them are as neat as this.
The Arabic سلام salām, the Hebrew שלום shalom, the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic shlama and the Amharic selam 'peace' are cognates, derived from the Proto-Semitic *šalām- 'peace'.
The Brazilian Portuguese panapanã, (flock of butterflies in flight), the Paraguayan Guarani panambi, the Eastern Bolivian Guarani panapana, the Cocama and Omagua panama, and the Sirionó ana ana are cognates, derived from the Old Tupi panapana, 'butterfly', maintaining their original meaning in these Tupi languages.
Characteristics
[edit]Cognates need not have the same meaning, as they may have undergone semantic change 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, *sterbaną 'to die'.
Cognates also do not need to look or sound similar: English father, French père, 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.
Paradigms of conjugations or declensions, the correspondence of which cannot be generally due to chance, have often been used in cognacy assessment.[3] However, beyond paradigms, morphosyntax is often excluded in the assessment of cognacy between words, mainly because structures are usually seen as more subject to borrowing. Still, very complex, non-trivial morphosyntactic structures can rarely take precedence over phonetic shapes to indicate cognates. For instance, Tangut, the language of the Xixia Empire, and one Horpa language spoken today in Sichuan, Geshiza, both display a verbal alternation indicating tense, obeying the same morphosyntactic collocational restrictions. Even without regular phonetic correspondences between the stems of the two languages, the cognatic structures indicate secondary cognacy for the stems.[4]
False cognates
[edit]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.[5]
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'.[6]
Distinctions
[edit]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 or practically identical 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
[edit]Etymon (ancestor word) and descendant words
[edit]An etymon, or ancestor word, is the ultimate source word from which one or more cognates derive. In other words, it is the source of related words in different languages. For example, the etymon of both Welsh ceffyl and Irish capall is the Proto-Celtic *kaballos (all meaning horse).
Descendants are words inherited across a language barrier, coming from a particular etymon in an ancestor language. For example, Russian мо́ре and Polish morze are both descendants of Proto-Slavic *moře (meaning sea).
Root and derivatives
[edit]A root is the source of related words within a single language (no language barrier is crossed).
Similar to the distinction between etymon and root, a nuanced distinction can sometimes be made between a descendant and a derivative.
A derivative is one of the words which have their source in a root word, and were at some time created from the root word using morphological constructs such as suffixes, prefixes, and slight changes to the vowels or to the consonants of the root word. For example unhappy, happily, and unhappily are all derivatives of the root word happy.
The terms root and derivative are used in the analysis of morphological derivation within a language in studies that are not concerned with historical linguistics and that do not cross the language barrier.
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ Crystal, David, ed. (2011). "cognate". A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.). Blackwell Publishing. pp. 104, 418. ISBN 978-1-4443-5675-5. OCLC 899159900.
- ^ "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".
- ^ Hetzron, Robert (1 January 1976). "Two principles of genetic reconstruction". Lingua. 38 (2): 89–108. doi:10.1016/0024-3841(76)90074-7. ISSN 0024-3841.
- ^ Beaudouin, Mathieu (13 September 2024). "Non-past and past verb stems in Tangut". Language and Linguistics. Online first. doi:10.1075/lali.00177.bea.
- ^ 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.
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External links
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