Q: oblique cognates

[Roger Wright]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
 
In cases like Spanish *cabeza* ("head") -
Could we just say that the root morpheme is cognate with the others?
That is, Latin *caput* and English *head*; French *chef*, Italian
*capo* and Spanish *cabo* ("end") are all cognate; and so is
the root morpheme *cab-* of Spanish *cabeza*.
                                        RW
 
(Spanish *cabeza* was invented, because of the semantic change that had
overcome *cabo* < CAPUT, as a word specifically meaning "head"; the
*-eza* was available in the suffix inventory, but seems to have meant
nothing at all, and just to have been used as a formal device to create
a form different from *cabo*.)
 
 
On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Larry Trask wrote:
 
>But there's another case.  English `head' is directly cognate with
>Latin <caput> `head'.  However, Spanish <cabeza> does not descend
>directly from <caput>, but rather from a suffixed derivative of this.
>Therefore the English and Spanish words are not directly cognate,
>even though they are indirectly cognate in an important way.  Is
>there a label for this kind of cognation?  What would you prefer to
>call the relationship between the English and Spanish words?