Through <i>dick</i> and <i>dünn</i> : cognates and the legacy of diachronic change in synchronic language processing

Cognate facilitation effects have consistently been reported for words sharing (visual) form–meaning overlap across languages. We present the results of a cross-modal EEG study investigating whether historically-related L1 cognates’ phonological representations (activated by auditory primes, e.g. [maʊ] from [maʊs]) hinder or facilitate recognition of visually-presented L2 English words (e.g. mouse) for German–English bilinguals. Priming effects in lexical decision were significantly greater for noncognates than cognates with identical onsets, and EEG results indicate L1 cognate coactivation depends on the (mis)matching of underlying phonological features. Fragment primes only induced significant attenuation of the N400 ERP component (relative to controls) for phonologically mismatching cognates and noncognates, and no N400 effect was found for cognates with identical or non-mismatching onsets. This suggests auditory fragments coactivate both languages’ representations (according to degree of phonological overlap), causing competition and inhibition. Despite form differences, historical cognates maintain a systematic phonological relationship relevant for current speakers.