cognate
Sign in to savethumb|240px|Diagram showing relationships between etymologically related words In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Name
- Examples
- Characteristics
- False cognates
- Distinctions
- Related terms
- Etymon (ancestor word) and descendant words
- Root and derivatives
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|240px|Diagram showing relationships between etymologically related words In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.
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 lexemes are cognate. It can also happen that words which appear similar, or identical, in different languages, are not cognate.