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{{Short description|Words inherited by different languages}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
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[[File:etymological_relations_tree.svg|thumb|240px|Diagram showing relationships between etymologically related words]]
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 common [[Language family|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>

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.  It can also happen that words which appear similar, or identical, in different languages, are ''not'' cognate. 

Cognates are distinguished from [[loanword]]s, where a word has been borrowed from another language.

{{anchor|Origin|Etymology|Names}}

==Name==
The English term ''cognate'' derives from [[Latin language|Latin]] {{wikt-lang|la|cognatus}}, meaning "blood relative".<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/cognate "cognate"], ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]'', 4th ed.: "Latin {{lang|la|cognātus}}: {{lang|la|co-}}, co- + {{lang|la|gnātus}}, born, past participle of {{lang|la|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>

==Examples==
For an example, cognates with the English word ''night'' can be found in most major [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] languages, including [[German language|German]] {{lang|de|Nacht}}, [[Swedish language|Swedish]] {{lang|sv|natt}}, [[Polish language|Polish]] {{lang|cs|noc}}, [[Russian language|Russian]] {{lang|ru|ночь}} {{tlit|ru|noch}}, [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] {{lang|lt|naktis}}, [[Welsh language|Welsh]]  {{lang|cy|nos}}, [[Modern Greek|Greek]] {{lang|el|νύχτα}} {{tlit|el|nychta}}, [[Sanskrit]] {{lang|sa|नक्त}} {{tlit|sa|nakt-}}, [[Albanian language|Albanian]] {{lang|sq|natë}}, [[Latin]] {{lang|la|nox}} (gen. sg. {{lang|la|noctis}}), [[Italian Language|Italian]] {{lang|ita|notte}}, [[French language|French]] {{lang|fr|nuit}}, and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|noite}}. These all mean 'night', and derive from the Proto-Indo-European {{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|*nókʷts}} with the same meaning. The Indo-European languages have hundreds of such cognate sets, though few of them are as neat as this.

The [[Arabic]] {{lang|ar|سلام}} {{tlit|ar|salām}}, the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] {{lang|he|שלום}} {{tlit|he|shalom}}, the [[Assyrian Neo-Aramaic]] {{lang|syr|ܫܠܡܐ}} {{tlit|syr|shlama}} and [[Amharic language|Amharic]] {{lang|am|ሰላም}} {{tlit|am|selam}} 'peace' are cognates, derived from the [[Proto-Semitic]] [[:wikt:Appendix:Proto-Semitic/šalām-|*šalām-]] 'peace'.

The [[Guarani language|Paraguayan Guarani]] {{lang|gn|panambi}}, the [[Eastern Bolivian Guaraní language|Eastern Bolivian Guarani]] {{lang|gui|panapana}}, the [[Cocama language|Cocama]] and [[Omagua language|Omagua]] {{lang|omg|panama}}, and the [[Sirionó language|Sirionó]] {{lang|srq|ana ana}} are cognates, derived from the [[Tupi language|Old Tupi]] {{lang|tpn|panapana}} 'butterfly', maintaining their original meaning in these [[Tupi languages]]. [[Brazilian Portuguese]] {{lang|pt-BR|panapanã}} (flock of butterflies in flight) is a borrowing rather than a cognate of the other words.

==Characteristics==
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-lang|nl|sterven}} 'to die' or [[German language|German]] {{wikt-lang|de|sterben}} 'to die' all descend from the same [[Proto-Germanic]] verb, {{wikt-lang|gem-x-proto|*sterbaną}} 'to die'.

Cognates also do not need to look or sound similar: English ''[[wikt:father|father]]'', [[French language|French]] {{wikt-lang|fr|père}}, and [[Armenian language|Armenian]] {{wikt-lang|hy|հայր}} ({{tlit|hy|hayr}}) all descend directly from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|ph₂tḗr}}. An extreme case is Armenian {{wikt-lang|hy|երկու}} ({{tlit|hy|erku}}) and English ''[[wikt:two|two]]'', which descend from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] {{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|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.<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|url-access=subscription }}</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 |journal=Language and Linguistics |language=en |volume=Online first |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1075/lali.00177.bea|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==False cognates==
{{main|False cognate}}
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-lang|ine-x-proto|*kh₂pyé-}} 'to grasp', and has the Latin cognate {{lang|la|capere}} 'to seize, grasp, capture'. {{lang|la|Habēre}}, on the other hand, is from PIE {{lang|ine-x-proto|*gʰabʰ}} 'to give, to receive', and hence cognate with English ''give'' and German {{lang|de|geben}}.<ref>''[[Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben]]''</ref>

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-lang|gem-x-proto|*mikilaz}} < PIE {{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|*meg-|*meǵ-}} and {{lang|es|mucho}} is from Latin {{lang|la|multum}} < PIE {{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|*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>

==Distinctions==
Cognates are distinguished from other kinds of relationships.
*[[Loanword]]s are words borrowed from one language into another; for example, English ''beef'' is borrowed from Old French {{lang|fro|boef}} ('ox’). Although they are part of a single etymological stemma, they are not cognates.
*[[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 {{lang|fro|boef}} is cognate with English ''cow'', so English ''cow'' and ''beef'' are doublets. 
*[[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 {{lang|de|Kuh}}, which is also cognate, but the French equivalent is {{lang|fr|vache}}, which is unrelated.

==Related terms==
===Etymon (ancestor word) and descendant words===
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 {{lang|cy|ceffyl}} and Irish {{lang|ga|capall}} is the Proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|kaballos}} (all meaning ''horse'').

'''[[wikt: descendant|Descendant]]s''' are words inherited across a language barrier, coming from a particular etymon in an ancestor language. 
For example, Russian {{lang|ru|мо́ре}} and Polish {{lang|pl|morze}} are both descendants of Proto-Slavic {{lang|sla-x-proto|moře}} ('sea').

===Root and derivatives===
A '''[[root (linguistics)|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 (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. 
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==
{{Portal|Language|Linguistics}}
*[[Homology (biology)]]
*[[Indo-European vocabulary]]
*[[False friend]]
*[[False etymology]]
*[[Folk etymology]]
*[[Word family]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|cognate}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cognate (Etymology)}}
[[Category:Historical linguistics]]
[[Category:Comparative linguistics]]