Cognates

A cognate is a word that has similar etymological origins to a word from another language. These words are often used to identify relations between different languages, such as English, Spanish, French, and German, which are all part of the Indo-European family. More specifically, even, Spanish and English are both of Latin origin, which gives these two languages a large number of shared cognates. The closer that the languages are related to each other, the more cognates can be found. While most words are different in each language, some words are similar or even exactly the same, such as metal and metal in English and Spanish, and accent akzent in English and German. If the etymology of these example words were looked up, the reader would notice that the etymological facts of both cognates would be similar or even exactly the same. However, there are two types of words that appear to be cognates but are not, which include false cognates and false friends. False cognates mean almost the same thing in two different languages, but have different roots, and false friends have similar roots but diverging meanings. I feel that cognates may have further roots that I may explore, but my searches are beginning to come up dry. If I stumble upon new information on these words, I will be sure to articulate it.

How does a family interact?

My family relations project that I have decided to work on delves into the dynamics of how exactly a family interacts using language and select groups of words. Analyzing how parents talk to children, how parents talk amongst themselves, and how children interact with their parents and themselves may produce some interesting statistics. Analyzing the etymological origins of the words used in certain situations may provide some information on words that stem from different languages, and what language's words are expected to be used in different places. Stay tuned as I delve further into this research project.

Family History with English History? How Could it Work?

To be honest, none of my family members show any interest in the topic of English history the way I do. My father is a regional retail manager for Toyota, and my mother is an interior designer. My brother is currently on his way to research computer science after he graduates from high school. I don't know how I can use my knowledge of English history with my family's background. There may be a way, but I just don't see it.

Algeo's Origins and Development of the English Language - Reflection - Part Two

This last batch of information was a few chapters into the book, as the previous chapters described only how language is formed, and how the body produces words and sounds. None of that interests me, so I skipped ahead a little bit to get into the meat of the book -- how exactly English developed and it's origins.

It's quite fascinating that very early England did not have the language of it's namesake since it's very beginning. The fact that it is actually an immigrant language that took over explains a lot about how many cognates and similarities it shares with other languages. Also, the prehistoric language of Indo-European comes up a lot. I wonder how exactly the language sounded, or if it was actually a language at all. In fact, some sources argue that the Indo-European language is simply a theory. But I believe that it was actually a real language, since many other languages that sound similar but are changed by tradition and location are part of the same family. To me, this point of evidence seems to prove that Indo-European was, in fact, a language, and all other languages in the Indo-European family are simply Indo-European with many modifications from thousands of years of passing down mispronunciations that eventually stuck. Perhaps, other languages not related to Indo-European also influenced languages by sharing words with them that eventually became part of their vocabulary. It's fascinating to analyze how languages may have come about, and the fact that we may never actually know where exactly our languages come from.

Also, it is quite interesting that some languages have no words for certain objects. For example, inland countries with deciduous forests didn't have words for palm trees or other tropical plants until they were shared with them. Also, tropical countries or civilizations probably didn't have words for oak and cedar trees. Being able to find where a language originated by what words are native and which are not is absolutely fascinating. Most people, myself included, take for granted that all languages have words for everything because our society has explored the entire world. Imagine, in the past, that people may have come into contact with absolutely unknown objects or animals, and have no idea how to explain what they are.

I have also found this map of Indo-European language influence on our world. Dark green represents a country with a majority of Indo-European language speakers, light green with a minority of language speakers, and blue with no Indo-European language at all. It's is extremely fascinating that Indo-European languages are some of the most popular in the world, covering most inhabited land on Earth, save for very north Africa, Greenland, and southeastern Asia.

Algeo's Origins and Development of the English Language - Research - Part Two

Old and Modern English as we understand it began as an immigrant language in early Britain, and was tempered over a long period of time to be the area's native language. The language began on the part of the continent bordering the North Sea many hundreds of years before, after evolving from the prehistoric language of Indo-European, which also brought about the beginnings of many other languages. The language may have been spread through the Bronze Age area, when many nations were invading others and forcing their traditions on them.

Places where language groups began can be traced back through the words that may or may not be included in the language itself -- Apple, ash, cedar, aspen, wolf, and bear are all things that exist in the temperate climates of northern Europe, rather than olive, cypress, and palm which exist in the Mediterranean and southern Asia. If the word ocean does not exist, then it is a safe bet to say that the society was far inland. Indo-European, in this case, can be traced back to North-Central Europe and Turkey.

Similarities that occur in between languages can also be used to identify languages being of the same language tree, such as German and English are both part of the Indo-European family, and many words in both languages are very closely related. Words that sound similar in two languages are called cognates.

David Shook of Huffington Post on the English Language in Other Countries' Literature -- Analysis

The article in question.

Even though this article is not quite as new as I'd like it to be, it is interesting nonetheless. Basically, English has been popping up in literature all over the globe, and more specifically in South Asia. Bangladesh, more recently, has allowed a certain English book to be featured in it's books and art festival on the 15th and 16th of November.

It's interesting to me that some countries have absolutely no English at all. Since it is the only language I speak, it is strange that some countries do not use it or even allow books to be shown in the language during their festivals. But, more importantly, that the language is spreading around all over the world, even in countries that have never used it, it very fascinating. Having English as a common language that almost everyone speaks in the near future would be very interesting, even though the likelihood of that happening is very slim.

Algeo's Origins and Development of the English Language - Reflection - Part One

Even though Algeo's textbook has not yet delved into the depths of the history of English itself yet, it has perused upon the topic of the history of language as a whole. It is very interesting to me that the beginning of language has remained an enigma. Language is the shining beacon that makes humans human, and the fact that no one knows where that defining characteristic emerged from makes language in itself all the more interesting to study. I feel that the origin of language as a whole would be a very interesting topic to study, even if we may never know the exact place that language came from.

Written language, which is almost as important as spoken language, has only been around for several thousand years. I cannot imagine a time before writing, as writing makes documenting history and reading thoughts directly taken from someone else's mind much easier than passing on traditions orally. I wonder where exactly early humans got the idea that certain scrawls on pieces of stone or wood stood for different letters that make up words, or even entire words. The first writings must have been an extremely innovative invention for its time.

I also discovered this simplistic chart of the West Germanic branch of language on Wikipedia recently. It ignores some of the more obscure names, but the fact that so many languages are related is remarkable.

Anyway, there is so much more information on history of languages entirely that I almost forgot I'm supposed to be looking for English history. There is just so much more content to be explored than I ever imagined. Next time, I will be documenting research on the next section of Algeo's text.