RYAN_SLIDES

Planned Work Schedule

• MTA Maintenance Notice:

  • No trains between Flatbush Av and Franklin Av from February 18-21.

  • Free shuttle buses provided.

The History of Language

• Age of Language:

  • Spoken language: 40,000 to 150,000 years old.

  • Written language: ~5,000 years old.

    • Development:

      • Sumerian pictographs into cuneiform (~3000 BCE).

Language Change Misconceptions

• Misconception that writing equals language.

  • Consideration of primary vs. secondary forms.

Myths about Writing and Language

• Separating Language and Writing:

  • Writing is a representation but not the language itself.

  • Languages with histories (Tamil, Hebrew, Chinese) are not inherently older.

  • Codified forms of ancient languages (Latin, Greek) remained stable while spoken forms evolved.

  • Similar scripts do not imply language relationship (e.g., Latin and Greek).

Language as a Living Organism

• Nature of Languages:

  • Languages evolve similarly to biological species—continuously changing over time.

  • Contact with other languages influences changes.

  • Complaints about language degradation are historic (e.g., Romans forgetting Latin).

Diachrony and Synchrony in Linguistics

• Two Approaches:

  • Diachronic: Studies changes over time (e.g., Old English to Modern English).

  • Synchronic: Examines language at a specific point (e.g., AAE influence on Gen Z).

Historical Linguistics

• Focus on diachronic change and genetic language relationships—akin to biology.

The Comparative Method in Linguistics

• Historical linguists identify genetic relationships through:

  • Regular Sound Correspondence:

  • Examples:

    • English foot /fʊt/ and Italian piede /pjɛde/

    • Words like father, feather, nephew illustrate correspondence across languages.

Sound Change Directionality

• Sound Change Mechanics:

  • Proto-Indo-European changes affecting various languages:

    • *f> Italic, Hellenic, and Indo-Aryan /p/, while Germanic kept /f/.

Conditioning in Sound Change

• Types of Sound Change:

  • Unconditioned: Occurs without specific contexts (e.g., PIE *p > Proto-Germanic *f everywhere).

  • Conditioned: Changes depend on phonetic environment (e.g., /k/ changes in Spanish before front vowels).

Divergence vs. Convergence in Languages

• Divergence: Different languages evolve from a common ancestor.

• Convergence: Languages begin to share features due to contact (e.g., phonological similarities).

• Example languages: Vietnamese, Burmese, and Thai showing convergence features.

Outcomes of Language Contact

• Key Outcomes:

  • Language Shift: Transition to another language (often leading to death of the original).

  • Lexical Borrowing: Inclusion of words from one language to another.

  • Structural Convergence: Shared grammatical features due to prolonged contact.

  • Language Formation: Development of Pidgins and Creoles.

Language Shift and Death

• Language abandonment may either lead to complete extinction or coexistence without loss.

  • Historical examples (Minoan to Greek: death).

  • Quechua to Spanish: shift without death.

Lexical Borrowing

• Influences from direct contact include:

  • English has 30% French origin from the Norman Conquest.

  • Via literary or prestigious languages too (Latin to English, Middle Chinese to Korean).

Classes of Borrowed Words

• Least likely to be borrowed:

  • Numbers, kinship terms, pronouns, body parts, and natural world words.

• Important for comparative linguistics analysis.

Calques and Semantic Loans

• Calques: Literal translations of phrases (e.g., English skyscraper to Italian grattacielo).

• Semantic Loans: Adaptations of meanings (e.g., computer mouse in Finnish).

Structural Convergence and Contact

• Result of Prolonged Contact:

  • Phonological: E.g., tones in Vietnamese.

  • Syntactic: Changes in language orders due to contacts.

Language Formation: Pidgins & Creoles

• Pidgin Development: Needed for communication without a common language.

• Creoles: Evolved pidgins with native speakers; functional languages, representing colonial histories.

Creole Case Study: Haitian Creole

• Origins: French contact with enslaved populations in the 17th-18th centuries.

  • Vast French lexicon (90%) with distinct grammar influenced by West African languages.

Structural Characteristics of Creoles

• Commonalities across creoles include lack of gender marking and regular morphology.

• Example comparisons illustrate significant differences in structure and development.

Critiques of Creole Exceptionalism

• Debate on whether creoles represent fundamentally different structures than non-creoles.

• Critics argue that categorical differences are exaggerated and rooted in colonial biases.