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Historical linguistics: Language families, sound change

Historical linguistics: Language families, sound change. LING 400 Winter 2010. Overview. Concepts, terms Language families and isolates Types, examples of historical change. Please turn off your cell phone. Synchronic vs. diachronic linguistics. Synchronic linguistics

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Historical linguistics: Language families, sound change

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  1. Historical linguistics: Language families, sound change LING 400 Winter 2010

  2. Overview • Concepts, terms • Language families and isolates • Types, examples of historical change Please turn off your cell phone

  3. Synchronic vs. diachronic linguistics • Synchronic linguistics • How language works at one point in time • Diachronic linguistics • A.k.a. historical linguistics • How language changes over time • Includes study of word histories (etymology) • diachronic: [f. Gr. διά “throughout, during” + χρόυ-ος “time” + -IC.] • synchronic: syn = [Latinized form of Gr.συν- (= σύν prep. with), “together, similarly, alike” …] • Challenging

  4. Similarities in form and meaning • May be due to • borrowing • English beef < Old French boef • coincidence • Sahaptin [ʔɨ|ʃɨt] ‘worthless, useless’ • inheritance from common ancestor

  5. Question: which languages seem most similar? • ‘water’: A- [the], B-[ʧi:ʃ], C-[tho], D-[thu] • ‘person’: A-[tə|nɑ], B-[ti:n], C-[tə|ni], D-[|təne] • ‘sun’: A-[no|ʔoj], B-[ʔɑ:n], C-[sɑ], D-[sɑ] • ‘I’: A-[se], B-[ʔink], C-[səj], D-[|sɪni] • ‘scab’: A-[ɬet], B-[|ʔɑwtɑʃ], C-[ɬot], D-[ɬut] • ‘hand’: A-[loʔ], B-[ʔɨ|pɑp], C-[le], D-[lɑ̀ʔ] • ‘abdomen’: A-[vət], B-[nɑ|wɑt], C-[pət], D-[pə̀t] A: Deg Xinag, B: Sahaptin, C: Witsuwit’en, D: Tsek’ene

  6. Athabaskan family A. Deg Xinag D. Tsek’ene C. Witsuwit’en Sahaptian family Sahaptin Nez Perce

  7. Language family Family Language Language … Dialect Dialect … Dialect Dialect… Idiolect Idiolect Idiolect … Idiolect Idiolect …

  8. Indo-European languages

  9. Language families • Trees: show divergence over time • Proto-Romance (Latin) • Spanish Portuguese Italian French Romanian • ... • Spanish, Portuguese, Italian are daughters (descendants) of Proto-Romance

  10. Ancestor languages Actually attested: Latin Hypothetical, reconstructed: Proto-Romance

  11. Interpreting historical trees • Order of nodes on same level doesn’t matter • Equivalent trees

  12. Proto-Anglo-Frisian Old English Old Frisian Middle English Modern English Modern Frisian https://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/linguistics/clips/#mother “Frisian” clip

  13. ‘Cognate’ and ‘reflex’ • Word descended from same source • Proto-Indo-European *ped/pod ‘foot’ • * = not attested • Greek pod-, English foot are reflexes of *ped/pod ‘foot’ • Greek pod-, English foot are cognates

  14. Language isolate • No known related languages • Basque (France, Spain) • Sumerian (extinct lg. of Iraq) • Haida and Zuni (N. America)

  15. Sound change • Phonetic change • change in pronunciation of phonemes • English rhotic: [r] > [ɹ] (most varieties of English) • Phonological change • Change in phoneme inventory • Regularity of sound change

  16. Change in phoneme inventory • Proto-Indo-European > Old Irish • *pətēr ‘father’ > athair [a|θarj] • *nepot- ‘nephew’ > nie • *tepent-s ‘warm’ > tëe • PIE had /p/; Old Irish lacks /p/

  17. Unconditioned sound change merger

  18. Grimm’s Law

  19. Conditioned sound change • Old English /ü/ > Modern English /ʌ/ / ___rC • wyrst [würst] > worst • wyrcan [würkan] > work • gyrdel [gürdɛl] > girdle • byrþen [bürθɛn] > burden • Elsewhere, Old English /ü/ > Modern English /ɪ/ • cynn [kün] > kin • hyll [hül] > hill • synn [sün] > sin • pytt [püt] > pit

  20. Modern English voiced fricatives • Old English /f θ s/ • fiif ‘five’, wulf ‘wolf’, ofer ‘over’, weorþan, wearþ‘to become’/’became’, þing ‘thing’, sendan ‘to send’, nosu ‘nose’, wesan/wæs ‘to be’/’was’ • 700 A.D. addition of intervocalic voicing rule • [over], [weorðan], [nozu]; [v ð z] in complementary distribution with [f θs] • Other changes to the language • Borrowings from Kentish (dialect map next slide) • Fricatives voiced fricatives word-initially in Kentish • væt ‘barrel’ replaced fæt • vyxen ‘female fox’ replaced fyxen • Shortening of intervocalic long voiceless fricatives: [ff] > [f], [θθ] > [θ], [ss] > [s] • Middle English final [ə] loss: [bāðə] ‘bathe’ > [bāð] • Now [f v] (etc.) contrast in all environments; split

  21. Major OE dialect areas West Saxon (most OE docs) Mercian > Modern English Kentish Northumbrian

  22. Summary • Historical linguistics • language change over time • is challenging • Language families and isolates

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