LEL1B Historical Phonology/Morphology

The Uniformitarian Principle

The principle stating that the way language works today is no different to how language worked in the past, and is no different to how it will work in the future

Runic inscriptions

The earliest form of English writing, used from about the 6th century

Timeline of English eras

Approximately:

• 8th to 11th Century: Old English

• 11th to 16th Century: Middle English

• 16th to 18th Century: Early Modern English

• 18th to 20th Century: Late Modern English

• 20th Century onwards: Present Day English (PDE)

Fortition

Articulatory change where the degree of stricture (level of closure in vocal tract) increases, such as in the English phonological shift d > ð / V_Vr

Proto-language

A reconstruction of an earlier language based on written and existing evidence, like Proto-Germanic, which is based on changes across English, German, Dutch, Icelandic, etc.

Comparative method

A way of creating proto-languages based on analysing regular correspondences in cognates across related languages

Exceptionless hypothesis

Correspondences between languages as a result of regular phonological changes should be regular and without exception, apart from words borrowed after changes occurred

Diachronic

Contrasting language change between different periods of time

Synchronic

Contrasting language variation at a fixed point in time

Diphthongisation

The change of a vowel sound from a monophthong to a diphthong, like uː > aʊ from OE to PDE

Innovation

The alteration of a phonological segment or structure

Propogation

The way in which an innovation is taken up by speakers

Isogloss

A line marking dialect boundaries on a map

Speech community

A group of people who share a set of linguistic norms and expectations regarding the use of language

Language family

A group of related languages

Nominal case

A reconstructed inflectional case of PIE nouns which functions to indicate the subject

Syncretism

Where a single inflected form corresponds to multiple case functions

Gothic

Now-extinct East Germanic language regarded as the first Germanic language

Grimm’s Law

A systematic series of major consonant changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic

Grimm’s Law 1

PIE voiceless stops become PG voiceless fricatives (spirantisation), but not went following an obstruent

/p t k/ > /f θ x/

Grimm’s Law 2

PIE voiced stops become PG voiceless stops (devoicing)

/b d g/ > /p t k/

Grimm’s Law 3

PIE voiced aspirated stops become PG voiced unaspirated stops (deaspiration)

/bʰ dʰ gʰ/ > /b d g/

Verner’s Law

A sound change that occurred after Grimm’s Law 1 in which voiceless fricatives become voiced fricatives, but only when following unstressed syllables

/f θ x/ > /v ð ɣ/

Occlusion

Degree of closure in the vocal tract; a stop can also be called an occlusive

Assimilation

The phenomenon where a speech sound becomes more similar to a neighbouring sound

Reduction

The shortening, weakening, or deletion of vowels, such as the weakening to schwa [ə] common in English

In English, this phenomenon led to the loss of much of the OE inflectional system

Analogical levelling

The phenomenon where learners remove the complexity of a language by replacing multiple forms in a case/tense paradigm with a single one

Language contact

Where speakers of more than one language interact, which can occur in both individuals and communities

Distinction between language and dialect

A purely arbitrary distinction, typically based mainly on attitudes and policies

Lect

A language variety

Polylectal

Being able to speak multiple lects

Post-creole continuum

A continuum of varieties of a creole language based on their similarity to the superstrate language

Language shift

Where the social domains of languages in contact change relative to each other

Stable multilingualism

Where language contact is sustained over a long period of time, typically where there are no asymmetries in status

Transfer

Where linguistic material (ie phonemes, morphemes, syntax, etc.) is borrowed from another language

Source/donor

The language that material is transferred from

Target/recipient

The language that material is transferred to

Adstratal relationship

Where two languages are in contact with each other but without either being dominant over the other

Diglossia

Where different varieties/languages are used in high and low domains, such as Swiss German not being used in formal context

Modes of contact

Agentivity can be either recipient-language or source-language depending on which groups lead language change

Linguistic area

A group of languages used in proximity to each other that have become more similar to each other over time due to contact-induced convergence

Mixed language

Where material from one language in one linguistic domain is combined with that from another language in a different domain, like Michif, which combines French nouns, articles, possessives with Cree verbs, question words, adverbs