Language Change Terms

The actuation question

How does language change start?

The transition question

How does language change spread?

Network model

A model that shows all the possible trees of how languages are related to each other and shows how distant languages are.

Wave model

A linguistic model that visualises the geographical spread of language change. It follows the theory that language change starts in bigger cities and the countryside catches on later

Gravity model

A model similar to the wave model, but is also takes into account the relative size of the locations where the varieties are spoken.

Phonetic change

Sound change independent from the phonological system, usually actuation in articulation.

Phonological change

Sound change related to the phonological system.

Regular correspondences

A sound in a language must generally and systematically correspond to a sound in another language, whatever word you’re looking at.

Neogrammarian hypothesis

A principle in historical linguistics that asserts sound changes are regular and exceptionless across a language.

Lenition

A sound change that alters consonants, making them “weaker” in some way.

Fortition

A sound change that alters consonants, making them “stronger” in some way.

Hypocorrection

When someone’s perception is not corrected when it should’ve been. This is a possible cause of language change.

Hypercorrection

When someone thinks they’ve misheard something and corrects for this, when there was in fact no mispronunciation or mishearing. This is a possible cause of language change.

Minimal pair

Words or phrases that differ in only one phonological element. This helps us distinguish phonemes.

Chain shift

A series of connected changes driven by the usefulness of being able to make phonemic distinctions as efficiently as possible.

Push chain

A type of chain shift in which a sound “pushes” other sounds out of the way.

Pull/drag chain

A type of chain shift in which a sound “pulls” other sounds along in the change.

Merger

The distinction of two phonemes is lost, so the two sounds merge together.

Functional load

Distinctions that don’t do a lot of important work in the language, as context gives enough semantic clues ro which word is used, have a low functional load.

Split

A once identical phoneme “splits” into two new phonemes. The opposute of a merger.

Lexical diffusion

The spread of sound changes through the lexicon of a kanguage.

Analogy

A cognitive process involving comparison whereby information concerning one element is linked to another element through observed similarities.

Wug test

A linguistic experiment that tests linguistic patterns.

Proportional analogy

When an existing pattern is extended to a different word where the pattern didn’t apply before.

Paradigmatic levelling

The extension of a pattern within the lexeme.

Type frequency

How many lexical items use a particular pattern.

Token frequency

How many occurences of a particular word (form) there are.

Type-token frequency

How many occurences of a particular pattern there are.

Sturtevant’s Paradox

Phonetic laws are regular but produce irregularities. Analogic creation is irregular but produces regularity. Only applies to paradigmatic levelling.

Contact-induced change

The transfer of linguistic material from one language to another.

Source language

The language that the material comes from.

Recipient language

The language in which the change takes place.

Dominant language

The language in which a bilingual speaker is strongest. This dominance may depend on the context.

Borrowing

A receiving-language dominant bilingual uses source-language material in the receiving language.

Imposition

A source-language dominant bilingual uses source language material in the receiving language.

The borrowing scale

Categorises contact-induced change in situations of language maintenance.

The Celtic Hypothesis

The potential of structural influence from the Celts on the English language.

The Viking Hypothesis

The hypothesis that there were more grammatical changes influenced by the Old Norse. This is highly disputed.

Settler-colonial varieties of English

The variety in colonies that were mostly used for (re)settlement by people from Europe. Examples of this are USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Postcolonial varieties of English

The variety in economic extraction colonies without large-scale European settlement. Examples of this are India, Singapore, and Nigeria.

Dialect contact

When speakers of two or more dialects interact with and influence each other.

Accommodation

The changing of speech patterns to that which is characteristic of the recipient.

Founder principle

The dialect of the “founders” have the most lasting impact, unless a large enough subsequent settlement swamps them

Isogloss

A linguistic boundary that binds the maximum geographical extent of a linguistic feature.

Maximization of phonological space

The principle that ensures that the risk of confusion is minimised by having an evenly spaced system of contrastive sounds.

Uniformitarian principle

The assumption that processes of language change that can be observed today, also operated in the past.

Primary split

A phonemic plit that does not produce a new phoneme, for example: the TRAP/BATH split

Secondary spilt

A phonemic split that does result in a new phoneme, for example: the FOOT/STRUT split.

Mixing

A step in new-dialect formation/ Speakers of different dialects of a language come together, in proportions that ensure that no one dialect becomes an obvious target for (second) dialect acquisition.

Levelling

A step in new-dialect formation. People’s speech becomes more similar as people avoid uncommon features.

Unmarking

A step in new-dialect formation. Features are chosen not because they are in a numerical demographic majority, but because they are somehow linguistically more natural.

Interdialect development

A step in new-dialect formation. Speakers settle on a compromise between features from different input dialects. These are newly developed.

Reallocation

A step in new-dialect formation. If more than one variant survives after levelling, variants can be assigned different functions in the new dialect. These can be social or allophonic.

Focusing

A step in new-dialect formation. The process by which the new variety acquires norms and stability.