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.
For example, the English "brother" and German "bruder" both derive from the Latin root "frater."
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).
For example, the English verb "starve," the Dutch word "sterven" ("to die"), and the German word "sterben" ("to die") all come from the same Proto-Germanic verb *sterbaną" ("to die"), making them cognates.
The Dutch, German and Proto-Germanic verbs have the same meaning, but the English word "starve" has a slightly different meaning. Originally, "starve" did mean "to die," but over time, the meaning became more specific, and it now means "to suffer/die from hunger."
When the meaning of a word becomes more specific over time, this is known as "narrowing."
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.
Etymology refers to the study of a word's origin.
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 Meaning
The meaning of cognates and loanwords is often confused. Although they both deal with words from other languages, cognates and loanwords differ slightly.
A loanword is a word that has been borrowed from one language and incorporated into the vocabulary of another. Loanwords can be directly taken from another language with no changes in spelling or meaning. For example, the English word "patio" comes from the Spanish "patio."
On the other hand, cognates can have slightly different spellings. For example, the English "enthusiasm" derives from the Latin "enthusiasmus."
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.
English: nourish:
Spanish: nutrir
Old French: noris
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.,
2. Words that have slightly different spelling, e.g.,
3. Words that have different spelling but sound similar - e.g.,
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.
For example, the English word "much" and the Spanish "mucho" (meaning "much" or "many") are both spelled and pronounced similarly and have similar meanings. However, much" comes from the Proto-Germanic "mikilaz," whereas mucho comes from the Latin "multum."
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).
For example, the English "embarrassed" (feeling awkward/ashamed) vs. the Spanish "embarazado" (pregnant). Although these two words look/sound similar, they have different meanings.
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.
For example, the following languages are all derived from Vulgar Latin:
- Spanish
- Italian
- French
- Portuguese
- Romanian
These languages - known as Romance languages - are all considered cognate languages, as they share the same language of origin.
Fig. 2 - Out of all 44 Romance languages, the most widely spoken is Spanish (over 500 million speakers).
Cognate - Key takeaways
- Cognates are groups of words in different languages that come directly from the same word of origin.
- Because they descend from the same word, cognates often have similar meanings and/or spellings - although a word's meaning can change over time.
- 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 friend refers to two words from different languages that sound similar or are spelled similarly but have different meanings (regardless of etymology).
- When two or more languages originate from the same language, they are known as cognate languages.
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