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Historical linguistics

Historical linguistics. LING 200 Spring 2006. Overview of unit. Some basic concepts in historical linguistics Examples of language families Types of language change Linguistic reconstruction Reconstruction and prehistory. What is historical linguistics?. Synchronic linguistics

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Historical linguistics

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  1. Historical linguistics LING 200 Spring 2006

  2. Overview of unit • Some basic concepts in historical linguistics • Examples of language families • Types of language change • Linguistic reconstruction • Reconstruction and prehistory

  3. What is historical linguistics? • Synchronic linguistics • What is language (at a particular point in time)? • Diachronic linguistics (a.k.a. historical linguistics) • How does language change over time? • How do words change over time (etymology)? • What aspects of language can be reconstructed? • What does a reconstructed language reveal about the culture and/or location of its speakers?

  4. Overview • Similarities between languages • Language families • Language change • Reconstruction and comparative method • Reconstruction and prehistory

  5. Observations Deg Xinag Sahaptin Witsuwit'en Sekani

  6. Similarities between languages • May be due to: • borrowing • coincidence • inheritance from common ancestor

  7. Language families • Trees as a model of divergence over time ancestor language daughter daughter daughter • Deg Xinag, Witsuwit’en, Sekani are daughters or descendants of Proto-Athabaskan

  8. … …

  9. Proto-Anglo-Frisian Old English Old Frisian Middle English Modern English Modern Frisian

  10. Proto-Romance (Latin) Spanish Portuguese Italian French Rumanian ...

  11. Some terminology • Deg Xinag [the] ‘water’, Witsuwit’en [tho] ‘water’ and Sekani [thu] ‘water’ are cognate words (or cognates) • Deg Xinag [the] ‘water’, Witsuwit’en [tho] ‘water’ and Sekani [thu] ‘water’ are reflexes of Proto-Athabaskan *thu: ‘water’

  12. Ancestor languages Actually attested: Latin Hypothetical, reconstructed: Proto-Anglo-Frisian, Proto-Romance

  13. Indo-European languages

  14. Indo-European language family

  15. Family time-depth • How long ago was the ancestor language spoken? • Proto-Indo-European: 5000-6000 • Proto-Germanic: 2500-3500 • Family of remote time-depth • phylum, stock

  16. More language families each dot = 1 language family

  17. Africa

  18. Niger-Congo languages

  19. China, Taiwan (Most western linguists don’t believe Kam-Tai and Miao-Yao are Sino-Tibetan.) Kam-Tai a.k.a. Tai, Tai-Kadai Miao-Yao a.k.a Hmong-Mien

  20. Proto-Chinese Mandarin Wú Gàn Xiāng Southern group N. NW SW E. Kejia Yue Min Peking Shānxi, Sìchuān, Shànghai E. Hunan Chéngbù Hakka Cantonese Xiāmen, (Beijing) Xian Kunming Taiwanese

  21. Athabaskan (Athapaskan, Athabascan) family Estimated time-depth: 2500 years

  22. Na-Dene Tlingit Proto-Athabaskan-Eyak Eyak Proto-Athabaskan CAY S. AK Tset CBC PCA NW Can Sar Apache Deg Xinag Witsuwit’en Sekani CAY = Central Alaska-Yukon; S. AK = S. Alaska; Tset = Tsetsaut, CBC = Central BC, PCA = Pacific Coast Athabaskan; NW Can = NW Canada; Sar = Sarcee

  23. PenutianProto-SahaptianSahaptin Nez Perce

  24. Language isolate • No known related languages • Zuni • Haida • Basque • Sumerian

  25. Haida Zuni

  26. Language change • How languages change/types of language change • phonetic, phonological change • morphological change • semantic change

  27. Phonetic vs. phonological change • Phonetic change: change in pronunciation of phonemes • Phonological change: change in phoneme inventory. May result from: • phoneme merger or split • several phonetic changes • borrowing of words with new sound

  28. Phonetic change Babine-Witsuwit’en language (western B.C.) Takla, Babine dialects Affrication isogloss Witsuwit'en, François L. dialects

  29. [c] = voiceless palatal stop; [c] = voiceless palato-alveolar affricate Babine/Takla dialects: added an allophonic rule of Affrication /c ch c’/ --> [c ch c’] / syllable[____

  30. Consonant inventory All Babine-Witsuwit’en dialects

  31. Phonological change • Change affecting phoneme inventory • Merger • e.g. *t, *d > /t/ • Cf. synchronic neutralization • e.g. /d/  [t] / ___ # (not phonetically distinct from /t/ word finally)

  32. Examples of phonological change • Development of Proto-Athabaskan consonant inventory in Tsek’ene • Development of Proto-Athabaskan vowel inventory in Tsek’ene

  33. Proto-Ath consonant inventory

  34. Reflexes of retroflex, palato-alveolars in Tsek’ene

  35. Reflexes of retroflex, palato-alveolars in Tsek’ene • alveolar sibilant, retroflex sibilant, palato-alveolar sibilant > alveolar • place merger only • stops > stops • fricatives > fricatives • voiceless aspirated stops remained voiceless, etc.

  36. Tsek’ene consonant inventory

  37. Morphological change • Morphemes are added

  38. Morphemes disappear

  39. Morphemes change lexical category

  40. Reanalysis of two(+) morphemes as one

  41. Analogy (paradigm leveling) Proto-Athabaskan Central BC Proto-Babine-Carrier Carrier Babine-Witsuwit’en

  42. Future vowel > uniformly [a] Progressive vowel > uniformly [i]

  43. Semantic change Narrowing (hyponym formation)

  44. Narrowing

  45. Broadening Hypernym formation

  46. Broadening

  47. Semantic shift or

  48. Semantic shift

  49. Conservative vs. innovative • Languages are a mixture of conservative and innovative characteristics • cf. 'old’: All the (modern) daughters of a proto-language are of equal time-depth

  50. Conservative vs. innovative

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