Week 12- Language Change
Languages are not static
When we looked at phonology of English, we saw
There are many ways to articulate /t/
We know that languages have phonemes with allophones, so it stands to reason that those predictable alternations might fossilize
the writing system has an effect on how sound is organized
piano
had an l that changed to ‘ya’
Definitions
2 types of analysis
Synchronic
single point in time
drives diachronic change
Diachronic
Multiple languages at multiple points in time
Variability in Latin, eventually lead to the Germanic languages, and so forth
Labov’s breakthrough 1960’s
We study linguistic change focusing on the past BUT
Change in prgress can be observed
Change in progress shows up as variation
between speakers (age, gender, class, ethnicity, etc.)
between styles (more formal, etc.)
social media, media, books
Types of Change
Sound change
reduction of intial [kn] to n, e.g English knight
Morphological Change
brethren ~ brothers
loss of gender distinction in English
Syntactic change
English word order (e.g. position of verb)
Semantic
Change in meaning of ‘knight’, ‘nice’
‘knight’: boy → servant → current def
‘nice’: stupid → ok
‘salty’: “explicit” to “angry”
Spanish ahora from Latin hac hora
Language Change
… is not random.
We have seen that language structure is systematic and we can describe patterns
Language change is also systematic and predictable (this is why we can do reconstruction).
e.g looking at old written form
Proto-Language
Linguistis hypothesis about the form and structure of a mother langauge with no direct evidence exists
are reconstruction, built up by comparing vocab and grammar in the modern languages, and by using our knowledge ….?
Indo-European Cognates
“words resistant to change’’
English t and German Z
Cognates are lexical items similar to each other across sister languages
older form
* means proto form, hypothesized older form
writing system is not even close to as old as spoken
Goals of historical linguistcs
Goals of Historical Linguistics
Determine genetic relationships among languages
Reconstruct proto-languages
Establish changes that took place in each daughter language (i.e. figure out what changed and resulted in their divergence).
Cognates: Phonetically and semantically similar words in different languages that have developed independently from the same historically-earlier word.
Reflexes: Sounds in a daughter language that are reflections of sounds in the proto-language
Comparative method: Method used in reconstructing an unattested proto-language by means of comparing cognate sets across attested daughter languages.
Proto-form: A reconstructed, (often unattested) form from which a given set of cognates in different languages has developed. (always marked with *)
Conditioned Change
When sound A develops into another sound (B) in some specific phonetic environment
"*A >B/C"
e.g. Old Engl. cnawan > Mod. Engl. know
k> D/#_ n
Old Engl. cniht [knixt] > Mod. Engl. knight [nait]
Elsewhere, [k] was retained: Old Engl. cyning > Mod.
Engl. king
Unconditoned Change
Cognates
Words or morphemes in different languages which have developed independently from a single, historically earlier source.
Cognates are phonetically and semantically similar.
English father
German Vater
Spanish padre
Gothic fadar
Proto-Indo-European *pater
easier to keep vocal cord vibrating
voiceless stops → voiced stops
There are phono and percept reasons
Reconstruction
• How do we reconstruct Proto-languages?
Compile cognate sets, ignoring borrowings.
Determine sound correspondences.
Reconstruct a proto-form for the sounds in each correspondence set. Wherever necessary, posit sound changes that account for the development from the proto-forms to the attested forms.
Reconstruct Based on Common
Sound Changes
*h > ® in Samoan, Tahitian, Maori and Hawaiian
- Margins, intervocallic
*f> h in Tahitian, Maori and Hawaiian
- Other fricatives become [h] and other [h] rule
* > 0
in Samoan, Tahitian, Maori and
Hawaiian
- Margins