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In English, we would probably say that _fortune_ , _fortunate_ and
_unfortunate_ belong to the word family _fortune_. A Japanese analogy would
most likely place 返{かえ}る and 返{かえ}す in the same language family. Learning
language families is an effective way to learn patterns and not actively study
too many similar words. Not being a native however, there are words that are
not as clear-cut as the example above, and it would be nice to know if there
is a list somewhere of word families. Universities, education ministries and
the like tend to produce such material.

It would also be interesting to know if there is any such system for Chinese
loan words. Would 手本{てほん} be considered a word family? Or would rather the
morphemes, that is, 手{て} (hand) and 本{ほん} (book) be regarded as the word
families?

Note that I am not saying a kanji is a morpheme or a word family. 明日{あした} and
明日{みょうにち} would in my mind be different word families.

What I'm after, preferably, is some kind of established norm of how to sort
words as effectively as possible, such as the concept of language families,
since that would be a good reference as a second language learner.
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words etymology
Does the concept of word families exist in Japanese?
I think 類語 (literally "group word") is what you are looking for. 類語 is often
used loosely, and it often has a broader sense than 同義語 ("synonym"). For
example, I hesitate to say 返す and 返る are 同義語 because they are almost never
interchangeable, but I believe it's safe to say they are 類語. Even antonyms
like 男/女 may be called 類語, too.

I don't think there is an authoritative list of 類語 maintained by the
government or a university, but there are a number of commercially-available
Japanese thesauri. Taishukan's [日本語シソーラス 類語検索辞典
第2版](https://www.taishukan.co.jp/book/b227389.html) is one of the most recent.

As far as meaning is concerned, 手, 本 and 手本 are unrelated words. If you are
looking for lists of words sharing the same kanji, try some
[漢和辞典](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/89126/5010). On the other hand,
あす, みょうにち and あした are undoubtedly 類語 (as well as 同義語) because they all mean
"tomorrow".

**EDIT:** If you're looking for a word that specifically refers to "words that
share the same etymology (but don't necessary share the same meaning today)",
[**同根語**](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%90%8C%E6%A0%B9%E8%AA%9E)
(cognates; literally "same root word") is the term for that concept. But note
that, while this is an interesting topic for linguists, it's not necessarily
so for ordinary language learners.
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It sounds like you're talking in part about approaches to organize your own
efforts in studying and understanding the language.

As [naruto](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/5010/) notes, there are a
couple different terms that you could use to talk about or search for these
kinds of terms:

  * [同根語【どうこんご】](https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E5%90%8C%E6%A0%B9%E8%AA%9E) (Weblio bilingual entry), literally "same + root + word/language", meaning "cognate term".
  * [同系語【どうけいご】](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%90%8C%E7%B3%BB%E8%AA%9E-164113) (Kotobank, in Japanese), literally "same + thread + word/language", meaning "cognate language" → also used colloquially to mean "cognate term", while in academic resources, this appears to refer to related languages coming from the same proto roots, such as Spanish and French both arising out of Latin.
  * Possibly also, 語源的【ごげんてき】に関係【かんけい】ある言葉【ことば】, literally "etymologically + related + words". This is a long phrase, more something you'd use when talking to people than something you could usefully google for.

That said, when it comes to your own research and _" how to sort words as
effectively as possible"_, I'd advise looking for roots. Japanese verbs have
historically been very productive, with various aspect and other suffixes
giving rise to a rich and nuanced vocabulary. When looking at verbs, the core
stem or root is usually the first two morae: start there, and see if that
opens any further doors.

Over time, you'll come to recognize more and more of the various suffixes
(often called "auxiliaries" or 助動詞【じょどうし】 – see also [the Japanese Wikipedia
page](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E_\(%E5%9B%BD%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95\))),
things like ～う (from older ～ふ), indicating repeated or ongoing action or state
(and derivatives ～わる・～える); ～む and ～ぶ, indicating that something "looks like /
seems like / behaves like / becomes like" something else (and derivatives
～まる・～める・～びる); or ～す, indicating a transitive or causative sense (and
derivatives ～せる・～させる).

From there, you're off to the races, as it were -- you'll be equipped to see
how words break down, like あらわれる arising from copula ("to be" verb) あり +
iterative / repetitive ふ + passive / spontaneous れる: "to be coming into being
on its own → to appear, to become manifest". Or あつめる arising from adjective
stem あつ ("thick, dense") + "becomes like" む + shifted to transitive ending
～える.

Happy digging!
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