Joseph Greenberg, in his book "Language in the Americas", gives a list of "most of the cognates from French and English". The example serves to show that it would be difficult to show that French and English are genetically related by examining only the lexicons of those two languages. Diana Inkpen and I have transcribed the list of 82 cognate pairs from IPA to standard orthography (our experiments are described in this paper). The list is given below. Notes: An asterisk marks cognate pairs which no longer can be considered translations because of radical semantic shifts.
| Cognate | French | English | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pied | foot | |
| 2 | père | father | |
| 3 | poisson | fish | |
| 4 | plein | full | |
| 5 | pour | for | |
| 6 | frère | brother | |
| 7 | fai(re) | do | |
| 8* | fut | be | |
| 9* | fend(re) | bite | |
| 10 | vent | wind | |
| 11 | ver | worm | |
| 12 | voul(oir) | will | |
| 13 | veuve | widow | |
| 14* | vive | quick | |
| 15 | ven(ir) | come | |
| 16* | vêt(ir) | wear | |
| 17* | mois | moon | mois means month, which is also a cognate |
| 18 | mère | mother | |
| 19 | moyen | mid | millieu and middle are also cognates |
| 20 | trois | three | |
| 21 | étoile | star | |
| 22 | tonner(re) | thunder | tonner (noun) is also a cognate |
| 23 | tu | thou | |
| 24* | toit | thatch | |
| 25* | traire | draw | |
| 26 | deux | two | |
| 27 | dix | ten | |
| 28 | dent | tooth | |
| 29 | cinq | five | |
| 30 | six | six | |
| 31 | sept | seven | |
| 32 | soleil | sun | |
| 33 | sel | salt | |
| 34 | cent | hund(red) | |
| 35 | soeur | sister | Old English sweoster influenced by Norse systir |
| 36 | sable | sand | |
| 37 | sueur | sweat | |
| 38* | (re)cev(oir) | have | |
| 39 | chaud | hot | |
| 40 | chien | hound | |
| 41 | chef | head | |
| 42* | cher | whore | |
| 43 | genou | knee | |
| 44 | joug | yoke | |
| 45 | neuf | nine | |
| 46 | nez | nose | |
| 47 | nuit | night | |
| 48 | neuf | new | |
| 49 | nom | name | |
| 50 | nid | nest | |
| 51 | neige | snow | |
| 52 | nombril | navel | |
| 53 | nu | nak(ed) | |
| 54 | noix | nut | |
| 55 | langue | tongue | |
| 56* | lu(ire) | light | |
| 57 | lèvre | lip | |
| 58 | long | long | |
| 59 | loup | wolf | |
| 60 | léch(er) | lick | |
| 61 | laine | wool | |
| 62 | racine | root | |
| 63 | quatre | four | |
| 64 | qui | who | |
| 65 | que | what | |
| 66 | quand | when | |
| 67 | coeur | heart | |
| 68 | corne | horn | |
| 69 | cour | yard | |
| 70 | guêpe | wasp | |
| 71 | grain | corn | |
| 72 | huit | eight | |
| 73 | oeil | eye | |
| 74 | oreille | ear | |
| 75 | ongle | nail | |
| 76 | oeuf | egg | |
| 77 | (as)se(oir) | sit | |
| 78 | un | one | |
| 79 | je | I | |
| 80 | nous | us | |
| 81 | moi | me | |
| 82* | (ce)t | the |
Greenberg's list is not complete. Below are 14 additional cognate pairs extracted from the Comparative Indoeuropean Data Corpus. The cognation decisions were made by Isidore Dyen.
| Cognate | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| 83 | à | at |
| 84 | peu | few |
| 85 | comment | how |
| 86 | dans | in |
| 87 | rouge | red |
| 88 | droit | right |
| 89 | semence | seed |
| 90 | coud(re) | sew |
| 91 | court | short |
| 92 | suc(er) | suck |
| 93 | nous | we |
| 94 | vous | you |
| 95 | non | not |
| 96 | où | where |
After a bit of research I was able to find more pairs. (Naturally, thousands of Latin-derived words are not elligible. Only true genetic cognates that go back to Proto-Indoeuropean are included here.)
| Cognate | French | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97 | essieu | axle | thanks to Anthony Grant for correcting this one |
| 98 | barbe | beard | |
| 99* | feuille | blade | |
| 100* | dur | tree | |
| 101* | boeuf | cow | |
| 102 | jeune | young | |
| 103 | colline | hill | |
| 104 | cru | raw | |
| 105* | mort | murder | |
| 106 | mousse | moss | the French word might be of Germanic origin |
| 107 | neveu | nephew | Old English nefa influenced by French neveu |
| 108* | pont | path | |
| 109 | puce | flea | |
| 110* | porc | farrow | |
| 111 | suave | sweet | |
| 112* | tenu | thin | |
| 113 | autre | other | |
| 114 | milieu | middle | |
| 115 | premier | first | |
| 116 | fleur | bloom | pairs 116-120 proposed by Xian Chen |
| 117 | léger | light | |
| 118 | lâche | slack | |
| 119* | onde | water | |
| 120* | être | stand | |
| 121 | fève | bean | |
| 122 | fond | bottom | |
| 123 | larme | tear | |
| 124 | grue | crane | |
| 125 | (co)nnait(re) | know | |
| 126 | hier | yester(day) | |
| 127 | plan | flat | |
| 128* | verbe | word | |
| 129 | sur | over | |
| 130 | loutre | otter |
Are there any other genetic cognates betwen French and English? My feeling is that there are many more pairs out there. If you know some, please send me a message.
Greg Kondrak
Created: Oct 2004