Chapter 13: Language Change

Assimilation

one sound becomes more like another sound.

Degradations

occurs when a word acquires a more pejorative meaning over time.

Eponyms

something that is named after a person who is connected to it.

Elevations

occurs when a word takes on somewhat grander or more positive connotations over time.

Protolanguage

a common language from which other languages descend from.

Dissimilation

two similar sounds become less like one another.

Monophthongization

a change from a diphthong to a simple vowel sound.

Humans

________ make the same basic sounds because we are anatomically similar.

Paradigm

a set of inflectionally related forms.

Reductions

occurs when the set of appropriate of contexts or referents for a word decrease.

Extensions

occurs when the set of appropriate contexts or referents for a word increase.

Analogy

the influence of one form or set of forms over another.

Relatedness hypothesis

when multiple languages were once one language, but underwent enough changes that they are considered separate languages.

Acronyms

taking the initial sounds of a phrase and uniting them into a combination that is itself pronounceable as a separate word.

Metathesis

a change in the order of sounds.

Coinages

words created "out of thin air.

Blends

the combination of the parts of two words.

Diphthongization

the change from a simple vowel sound to a complex one.

Comparative reconstruction

the systematic comparison of multiple related languages in order to make hypotheses about the common protolanguage they descended from.

Internal reconstruction

the analysis of data from a single language in order to make hypotheses about that languages history.

Fold etymology obscure morphemes

________ are reanalyzed in terms of more familiar morphemes.

Metathesis

a change in the order of sounds

**$$Proportional analogy

$$**the creation of a new inflected or derived form