In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymologicalorigin. Cognates are often inherited from a shared parent language, but they may also involve borrowings from some other language. For example, the English words ' and ' and the Germanword' are cognates because they all come fromLatin', which relates to their flat surfaces. Cognates may have evolved similar, different or even opposite meanings, but in most cases there are some similar sounds or letters in the words, in some cases appearing to be dissimilar. Some words sound similar, but do not come from the same root; these are called false cognates, while some are truly cognate but differ in meaning; these are called false friends. The word cognate derives from the Latin noun:wikt:cognatus|cognatus, which means "blood relative".
Characteristics
Cognates do not need to have the same meaning, which may have changed as the languages developed separately. For example English ' and Dutch' or German ' all derive from the same Proto-Germanic root, '. Discus is from Greekδίσκος. A later and separate English reflex of discus, probably through medieval Latindesca, is '. Cognates also do not need to have similar forms: English ', French', and Armenian all descend directly from Proto-Indo-European*ph₂tḗr. An extreme case is Armenian and English ', which descend from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.
Across languages
Examples of cognates in Indo-European languages are the words night, nicht, Nacht, nacht, nag, Naach, natt, nat, nátt, nótt, noc, ночь, noch, ноќ, noć, нощ, nosht, nishi, ніч, nich, ноч, noch/noč, noč, noć, nakts, naktis, νύξ, nyx, nakt-, natë, nos, noz, nox/nocte, nuit, noche, nueche, noite, notte, nit, nuèch / nuèit and noapte, all meaning "night" and being derived from the Proto-Indo-European "night". Another Indo-European example is star, starn, Stern, ster, Schtähn, stjärna, stjerne, stjarna, stjørna, stairno, str-, tara, tera, tora, setāre, stoorei, estêre or stêrk, astgh, ἀστήρ , astrum / stellă, astre / étoile, astro / stella, stea, estel, astru / isteddu, estela, estrella and astro, estrella, estrela and astro, seren, steren and :wikt:sterenn#Breton|sterenn, from the Proto-Indo-European "star". The Arabic سلام salām, the Hebrewshalom, the Assyrian Neo-Aramaicshlama and the Amharicselam are also cognates, derived from the Proto-Semitic :wikt:Appendix:Proto-Semitic/šalām-|*šalām- "peace". Cognates may often be less easily recognised than the above examples, and authorities sometimes differ in their interpretations of the evidence. The English word ' is clearly a cognate of German ', Dutch ', Russian', Serbian and Slovenianmleko, and Montenegrin, Bosnian, Croatian, '. On the other hand, French ', Catalanllet, Italianlatte, Romanian', Spanish' and ' are less-obvious cognates of Ancient Greek' "milk" as well as the English word and other terms borrowed from Latin. Some cognates are semantic opposites. For instance, while the Hebrew word chutzpah means "impudence", its Classical Arabic cognate حصافة ḥaṣāfah means "sound judgment." Another example is English empathy "understanding of thoughts" and Greek wikt:εμπάθεια#Greekempátheia "malice".
Within the same language
Cognates within a single language, or doublets, may have meanings that are slightly or even totally different. For example, English ward and guard are cognates, as are shirt and skirt . In some cases, including this one, one cognate has an ultimate source in another language related to English, but the other one is native. That happened with many loanwords, such as skirt in this example, which was borrowed from Old Norse during the Danelaw. Sometimes both doublets come from other languages, often the same one but at different times. For example, the wordchief comes from the Middle French chef, and its modern pronunciation preserves the Middle Frenchconsonant sound; the word chef was borrowed from the same source centuries later, but by then, the consonant had changed to a "sh" sound in French. Such word sets can also be called etymological twins, and they may come in groups of higher numbers, as with, for example, the words wain, waggon/wagon, and vehicle in English. A word may also enter another language, develop a new form or meaning there, and be re-borrowed into the original language; that is called reborrowing. For example, the Greek word κίνημα became French cinéma and then later returned to Greece as σινεμά. In Greek, κίνημα and σινεμά are now doublets. A less obvious English-language doublet pair is ' and '.
False cognates are words that people commonly believe are related, but that linguistic examination reveals are unrelated. For example, on the basis of superficial similarities, the Latin verbhabēre and German haben, both meaning 'to have', appear to be cognates. However, because the words evolved from different roots, in this case, different Proto-Indo-European roots, they cannot be cognate. German haben, like English have, comes from PIE ' 'to grasp', and its real cognate in Latin is capere, 'to seize, grasp, capture'. Latin habēre, on the other hand, is from PIE *gʰabʰ, 'to give, to receive', and hence cognate with English give and German geben. Likewise, English much and Spanish mucho look similar and have a similar meaning but are not cognates, as they evolved from different roots: much from Proto-Germanic ' < PIE ' and mucho from Latin multum < PIE '. Instead, its real cognate is Spanish maño.
