Cognate
This article discusses cognate in linguistics - for consanguineous, see agnate; for descent, see descent rules #cognate, bilateral descent.
Cognat is a redirect to this article. For the French football player, see Timothé Cognat.
Related words or cognates, sometimes called cognates in linguistics (English cognate, from Latin cognatus 'co-born, related'; singular: the cognate), are two or more words that have evolved from the same root word (etymon). Pairs of words or larger groups of words that form cognates are referred to as cognate, primordial cognate, or cognate.
The knowledge of the sound laws allows an identification of relatives. It turns out that language change is accompanied by systematic sound change. The process of sound change covers all words of a language. If systematic phonetic correspondences between words with the same meaning in the different languages can be identified, there is a high level of evidence that these words are cognates and derive from the same word of the common original language of the language group being compared.
It does not matter whether the words belong to the same language. The meaning may have remained the same or may have diverged. For example, French fils and Italian figlio are cognates, since they both derive from Latin filius 'son'. Similarly, German Zahl, English tale 'story, tale' and Dutch taal 'language' are cognates, although their meanings are not the same. In a strict sense, only hereditary words can be cognates, whereas loanwords and parallel neologisms cannot. If different cognates have developed in a language from one original word, such as cellar and cell from Latin cella, they are called 'etymological doublets'.
The study of cognates in the form of word equations is an important method of historical-comparative linguistics.
Questions and Answers
Q: What is a cognate?
A: A cognate is a word derived from the same root as another word.
Q: How are cognates related?
A: Cognates are words that have a common origin (source) and usually have similar meanings.
Q: What is an example of English cognates?
A: An example of English cognates would be 'composite', 'composition' and 'compost', which all come from the Latin root 'componere' meaning 'to put together'.
Q: Are there examples of cognates in other languages?
A: Yes, the word for night in almost all Indo-European languages has a common origin, such as nuit (French), noche (Spanish), Nacht (German), nacht (Dutch), etc.
Q: Does Basic English use cognates?
A: Yes, Basic English uses many words that are derived from the same source, such as animal, attention, night, apparatus, experience, brother, invention, metal.
Q: Where do most cognates originate from?
A: Most cognates originate from Proto-Indo-European roots or Latin language roots.
