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by dmichulke 2726 days ago
Not an etymologist, but I think they still have a common ancestor (proto Indo-European?). Lots of words in Latin with p have an equivalent with f in the Germanic languages:

Pater - father

Pes - foot

Primus - first

Note the English word is not necessarily the closest to the Latin one.

P and f are also considered the same sound in a few word distance metrics such as Soundex for the very same reason.

3 comments

Yes, having a common ancestor is what "cognate" means. (Technically, in normal usage, "cognate" refers to words that (1) have a common ancestor and also (2) mean the same thing.) To use the familial metaphor, you descend from your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on, but you are cognate with your niece, cousin, aunt, great-aunt, etc.

"Foot" and "pes" both descend from the same Indo-European root, but the English word has no influence from the Latin one. Compare "pedestrian", which uses the Latin root directly.

In fact, the pattern you noted is so distinctive of Germanic that linguists have actually given it a name:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_law#Examples

The first part of the law is a general stop to fricative pattern, so not just p->f, but also t->th, k->h, etc.

Yes, but Latin still isn't the root. PIE would be.