From the language mastery era to today's focus on communicative proficiency, language teachers and learners in America and Europe have disregarded the importance of the Cognate Lexis and Syntax that English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French, among other languages, share.
What are Cognates? From the Latin cognatus (co- 'together' + gnatus, pp. of gnasci, 'to be born'), Cognates are words descended from a common ancestor; that is, words having
the same linguistic family or derivation (English),
la misma familia lingüística o derivación (Spanish),
a mesma família lingüística ou derivação (Portuguese),
la stessa famiglia linguistica o derivazione (Italian),
la même famille linguistique ou dérivation (French).
In other words, cognates are those foreign terms we easily understand because they resemble their equivalents in our mother tongue. As a result, we will find for example, that a thousand English -tion nouns have their exact equivalents as Spanish -ción, Portuguese -ção, Italian -zione, and French -tion. This large number of 'similar words and sounds', contrary to what some language learners and teachers think, is not limited to advantageous coincidences; and contrary to what some linguists think, it is not limited to Latin and Greek derivations present in scientific terms.
The statistical data provided by this extensive research support the assertion that cognates represent at least 25% of the unique English written words met by Romance language speakers, and vice versa.
One of the several outcomes of this research project is The Dictionary of Cognates (DOC), which features 20,000 English-Spanish cognate words + 25,000 frequent cognate collocations. All these words were selected manually from several renowned dictionaries keeping to a minimum infrequent technical, scientific or historical cognate terms. The development of both this text on Cognate Linguistics and The Dictionary of Cognates was based on practicality and frequency rather than on exhaustiveness.
Although these books have been introduced in their English - Spanish versions, The Cognate Project as a whole also refers to and applies to Portuguese, Italian, French, Catalan and Romanian. Samples of Portuguese, Italian and French cognates are available at cognates.org, the project’s support site.
While reading this book, you will realize that cognate words, collocations and phrases are not regarded as new or foreign by your mind given that they are immediately and effortlessly recognized and comprehended. Actually, our mind does not seem to read foreign words but their cognates in our mother tongue. Even before starting learning a new cognate language, or better said, even without the need of being engaged in the process of learning a new cognate language, the Immediate and Effortless Recognition of Cognates (IERC) is a pleasurable experience.
In summary, we can claim that the Cognate Lexis and Syntax shared by certain related languages have not been clearly identified as one of the most important foundations for foreign language acquisition. The teaching and learning approaches and methods available may have overestimated for long the time and effort needed by cognate speakers to learn cognate languages. Additionally, cognates are innate motivators; there is nothing better than comprehensible language to encourage learning and language production. We have disregarded for too long this fantastic linguistic asset of ours; but that is over now. Welcome to the Cognate World.
What are Cognates? From the Latin cognatus (co- 'together' + gnatus, pp. of gnasci, 'to be born'), Cognates are words descended from a common ancestor; that is, words having
the same linguistic family or derivation (English),
la misma familia lingüística o derivación (Spanish),
a mesma família lingüística ou derivação (Portuguese),
la stessa famiglia linguistica o derivazione (Italian),
la même famille linguistique ou dérivation (French).
In other words, cognates are those foreign terms we easily understand because they resemble their equivalents in our mother tongue. As a result, we will find for example, that a thousand English -tion nouns have their exact equivalents as Spanish -ción, Portuguese -ção, Italian -zione, and French -tion. This large number of 'similar words and sounds', contrary to what some language learners and teachers think, is not limited to advantageous coincidences; and contrary to what some linguists think, it is not limited to Latin and Greek derivations present in scientific terms.
The statistical data provided by this extensive research support the assertion that cognates represent at least 25% of the unique English written words met by Romance language speakers, and vice versa.
One of the several outcomes of this research project is The Dictionary of Cognates (DOC), which features 20,000 English-Spanish cognate words + 25,000 frequent cognate collocations. All these words were selected manually from several renowned dictionaries keeping to a minimum infrequent technical, scientific or historical cognate terms. The development of both this text on Cognate Linguistics and The Dictionary of Cognates was based on practicality and frequency rather than on exhaustiveness.
Although these books have been introduced in their English - Spanish versions, The Cognate Project as a whole also refers to and applies to Portuguese, Italian, French, Catalan and Romanian. Samples of Portuguese, Italian and French cognates are available at cognates.org, the project’s support site.
While reading this book, you will realize that cognate words, collocations and phrases are not regarded as new or foreign by your mind given that they are immediately and effortlessly recognized and comprehended. Actually, our mind does not seem to read foreign words but their cognates in our mother tongue. Even before starting learning a new cognate language, or better said, even without the need of being engaged in the process of learning a new cognate language, the Immediate and Effortless Recognition of Cognates (IERC) is a pleasurable experience.
In summary, we can claim that the Cognate Lexis and Syntax shared by certain related languages have not been clearly identified as one of the most important foundations for foreign language acquisition. The teaching and learning approaches and methods available may have overestimated for long the time and effort needed by cognate speakers to learn cognate languages. Additionally, cognates are innate motivators; there is nothing better than comprehensible language to encourage learning and language production. We have disregarded for too long this fantastic linguistic asset of ours; but that is over now. Welcome to the Cognate World.
