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Cognate
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{{Short description|Words inherited by different languages}} {{other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Multiple issues| {{More citations needed|date=December 2023}} {{Cleanup lang|date=March 2025}} }} [[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. Cognates are distinguished from [[loanword]]s, where a word has been borrowed from another language. {{anchor|Origin|Etymology|Names}}
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