Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word, cognates may not be obvious, and it often takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the comparative method to establish whether words are cognates.
Some of these changes include the following:
Nasal infix:
The nasal infix is a nasal consonant or syllable: [n] or [m], that was inserted (infixed) into the stem or root of a word in the Proto-Indo-European language.
Since the linguistic ancestor of PIE is not known, there can only be speculations about the origins of the nasal infix. It has been suggested that it arose from a suffix which underwent metathesis. (Wikipedia). Examples:
Icelandic: “sökkva” (sakwa) => English: “sink”.
Icelandic: “bakki” => English: “bank”.
Examples:
01- English: “hand”
Akkadian: “id” (= hand).
“hand” un-infixed form = had
(h-Deletion, h becomes zero):
/h/→/∅/
had → ∅ad → ad
“id” and “ad” seem to be related.
02- Arabic: “qutr /قُطر ” = region, country.
-Nasal [n] infixed => quntr
-Root of quntr = [q.n.t.r]
English: “country”.
Root of “country” = [k.n.t.r]
Arabic: “qutr” & English: “country” seem to be: “related”.
03- Arabic: “kăt /كتت ” = to determine the total number of (a collection of items).
-Nasal [n] infixed => kant
-Root of kănt = [k.n.t]
English: “count”
Root of “count” = [k.n.t]
Arabic: “kăt” & English: “count” seem to be: “related”.
04- Arabic: “sakh /ساخ” = to sink.
-Nasal [n] infixed => sankh
-Root of sankh = [s.n.kh]
English: “sink”.
Root of “sink” = [s.n.k]
Arabic: “sakh” & English: “sink” seem to be: “related”.
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