Nav. 311

Cognates – What are they?

Having the same origin. Related by borrowing, or descent. Related to a verb usually derivation and serving as its object to reinforce meaning. (Webster)

Descended from the same original language; of the same linguistic family. Of words: Coming naturally from the same root, or representing the same original word, with differences due to subsequent separate phonetic development. (Oxford English Dictionary)

Words that are orthographically and semantically similar in two languages because of a shared etymology.

False Cognates

Are pairs of words in different languages that appear to be or sometimes are cognates when they’re really not.

False Cognates are particularly common in core or common vocabulary. For an example when referring to kinship “mother” in Navajo the term that is shima can be related to the English term mama as well. When in fact that they are not similar or borrowed .

Sometimes not an accurate term to use it can also sometimes be described as a “false friend”. Though the “false friends” tend to mean the exact opposite. For an example is sin-song in Navajo and sin-transgression in English.

Spanish – English

English Spanish

Artist Artista

Intelligent Inteligente

Lamp Lámpara

Magnificent Magnífico

University

Universidad

French – English

English French

Artist Artiste

Intelligent Intelligent

Lamp Lampe

Magnificent Magnifique

University

Université

Navajo – English

Navajo - Apache

Is there a Difference between Cognates & Loanwords?

Loanwords: A word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification.

Cognates are two words that derive from the same language.

Loanwords are borrowed from a different language.

Do these words look familiar?

How about These?

Mandigíiya

Wááshinidoon

Gídí

Damoógo

Gáamlii

Naabeeho

Bilasáana

Jélii

Jiizis

Bibliography

Young, R. (1912). The Navajo Verb System.

Amengual, M. (March 30, 2011). Interlingual influence in Bilingual Speech: Cognate Status Effect in a Continuum of Bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 15.3, pg. 517-530.

Montelongo, J. A. (2011). Spanish-English Cognates and the Dewey Decimal System. California Reader, 45(2), 11-16

http://neohumanism.org/f/fa/false_cognate.html

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/false-cognate