Cognate

Cognates are words that have a common origin.

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Examples of cognates are the words night (English), Nacht (German), nicht (Scots), noc (Czech), nox (Latin), nakti- (Sanskrit), and naktis (Lithuanian), all meaning night and all deriving from a common Indo-European origin. Another Indo-European example is star (English), str (Sanskrit), star (Sinhala), aster (Greek), stella (Latin), stairno (Gothic), Stern (German), stjärna (Swedish), sitara (Persian), steren (Cornish), ster (Afrikaans), aster (Farsi), and estel (Catalan).

Related Topics:
English - German - Scots - Czech - Latin - Sanskrit - Lithuanian - Indo-European - Sinhala - Greek - Gothic - Swedish - Persian - Cornish - Afrikaans - Farsi - Catalan

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Hebrew shalom and Arabic salaam are also cognates deriving from a common Semitic root.

Related Topics:
Hebrew - Arabic - Semitic

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Cognates can exist within the same language. For example, English ward and guard are cognate as are shirt and skirt. In some cases, one of the cognate pairs has an ultimate source in another language related to English, while the other one is native; in others both come from other languages, often the same one but at different times.

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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 moloko. On the other hand, French lait and Spanish leche (both meaning "milk") are less obviously cognates of Greek galaktos (genitive form of gala, milk).

Related Topics:
Russian - Spanish - Greek

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Cognates may not have the same meaning: 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 cognate terms may diverge in meaning as languages develop separately.

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In addition to having separate meanings, cognates through processes of linguistic change may 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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Cognates may thus also arise through borrowings into languages. So the resemblance between English to pay and French payer originates through English borrowing to pay from Norman which, like French, had derived its word from Gallo-Romance.

Related Topics:
English - French - Norman

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