Editing Cognate (section)

==False cognates==
{{main|False cognate}}
False cognates are pairs of words that appear to have a common origin, but which in fact do not. For example, Latin {{lang|la|habēre}} and German {{lang|de|haben}} both mean 'to have' and are phonetically similar. However, the words evolved from different [[Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) roots: {{lang|de|haben}}, like English ''have'', comes from PIE ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/kh₂pyé-|*kh₂pyé-]]'' 'to grasp', and has the Latin cognate ''capere'' 'to seize, grasp, capture'. {{lang|la|Habēre}}, on the other hand, is from PIE ''*gʰabʰ'' 'to give, to receive', and hence cognate with English ''give'' and German {{lang|de|geben}}.<ref>''[[Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben]]''</ref>

Likewise, English ''much'' and Spanish {{lang|es|mucho}} look similar and have a similar meaning, but are not cognates: ''much'' is from Proto-Germanic ''[[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Germanic/mikilaz|*mikilaz]]'' < PIE ''[[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Indo-European/meg-|*meǵ-]]'' and {{lang|es|mucho}} is from Latin ''multum'' < PIE ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/mel-|*mel-]]''. A true cognate of ''much'' is the archaic Spanish {{lang|es|maño}} 'big'.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ringe|first1=Don|title=A quick introduction to language change|url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/3-22.pdf|website=Univ. of Pennsylvania: Linguistics 001 (Fall 2011)|access-date=15 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620051440/http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/3-22.pdf|archive-date=2010-06-20|location=¶ 29|pages=11–12}}</ref>