John McWhorter has some interesting things to say on the origins of English. I’d suggest anyone interested have a look at his TED talk, to start.

BTW/FWIW, I learned French as a second language. Huge number of cognates (same word used in both languages). There are many lists, but rather than try to memorize them all, you can just follow some rules — just be ready for your Francophone friends saying ‘Cet mot, il n’existe pah!’ (trans: that’s not a word)