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ENG 2003

ENG 2003. Historical Linguistics. Historical Linguistics - the study of how language changes of time and of the historical relationships between languages and dialects Languages change over time…like a lava lamp Old English: 450CE – 1100CE (Beowulf)

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ENG 2003

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  1. ENG 2003 Historical Linguistics

  2. Historical Linguistics - the study of how language changes of time and of the historical relationships between languages and dialects Languages change over time…like a lava lamp Old English: 450CE – 1100CE (Beowulf) And ic cyðe eow, þæt ic wylle beon hold hlaford and unswicende to godes gerihtum and to rihtre woroldlage. [royal proclamation] An I make known to you, that I will be a civilized lord faithful to God’s rights and to the worldly laws. Middle English: 1100 – 1500 (Chaucer) Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote… When April with its sweet showers Early Modern English: 1500 – 1700 (Shakespeare) Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name…

  3. Historical Linguistics Old Korean (before 1000 AD) – very little known woraka (used by ruling class)/kici (used by commoners) – ‘king’ kuti – ‘falcon’ tohel – ‘field’ Middle Korean (approx 1000 – 1700) Middle Modern English namo namu 나무 tree kamakoj kkamaky/ɥi 까마귀 crow talɔ talɨ 다르 different skum-ɨl kkum-ɨl 꿈을 dream-ACC muzwu mu: 무 turnip (length distinction lost for most speakers)

  4. Historical Linguistics Modern historical linguistics started with Sir William Jones in the late 18th century (and with Gaston-Laurent Cœurdoux). Both scholars proposed that the languages of India (including Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, etc.) were related to the languages of Europe [NB The languages of southern India are NOT related to the former.] careful study of Sanskrit, Latin and Greek  Indo-European languages. Sir Williams Jones later hypothesized that Persian was also related to the Indo-European languages…a hypothesis which turned out to be correct. Regularity of Sound Change cot/caught merger affects all words with [ɔ] and [ɑ]…not just ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ Northern Cities Vowel Shift (in US) - [ɑ]  [æ] “socks” [sæks] This gives rise to sound correspondences – Consistent and pervasive…all words with [æ] in Northern Cities dialects have [ɑ] in other dialects

  5. Some Historical Changes in English Great Vowel Shift 1400-1600 [i]  [ae] ([aj] in some sources) “bite” [bitə]  [baet] Trisyllabic Laxing tense vowels become lax in words of three syllables or more. Before GVS After GVS ‘divine’ [divinə] [dəvaen] ‘divinity’ [dəvɪnəti] [dəvɪnəti] (flapping notwithstanding)

  6. Some Historical Changes in English Loss of verb-second (V2) Germanic languages exhibit a phenomenon called ‘verb-second’ – the tensed verb (or auxiliary if there is one) must appear after the first major constituent in the sentence. Peter hat das Brot gegessen [German] Peter has the bread eaten ‘Peter ate the bread.’ Das Brot hat Peter gegessen the bread hat Peter eaten ‘Peter ate the bread.’ Heute hat Peter das Brot gegessen today has Peter the bread eaten ‘Peter ate the bread.’ / ‘Today, Peter ate the bread.’ Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer…[Richard III] Now the winter of our discontent is made glorious summer…

  7. Some Historical Changes in Korean Loss of [z] Middle Korean muzwu  mu: (무) musu 전라, 충청, 강원도, 함경남도 musi: 전라, 경상남도 mu: 충청남도, 강원도, 경기도, 황해, 평안북도, 함경남도 mui: 강원도, 황해 mu.yu: 경기도, 황해

  8. Back to the 18th and 19th Centuries Sound correspondences noted for Sanskrit, Latin and Greek These survive in modern languages – extensively studied by Jakob Grimm English French father père foot pied fish poisson Romance: /k/ ‘softened’ to /s/ in French and Portuguese before front V hundred Latin ‘centum’ with /k/ French ‘cent’ hemp/cannibis hound/canine Mandarin: /k/ softened to /ʨ/ before /i/ (cf. Mandarin ‘Beijing’ to Cantonese ‘bɐk˺kɪŋ’ and Korean 북경.)

  9. Comparative Reconstruction From the observations above, it can be determined that English, German, Dutch, etc. have once common ancestor. Also, French, Spanish, Portuguese have another common ancestor. Along with Hindi, all these languages have one common ancestor.

  10. Historical Linguistics Palatalization – A type of assimilation. An alveolar sound becomes post-alveolar or palatal before a palatal glide or a front vowel. t  ʧ / ___ j d  ʤ / ___ j s  ʃ / ___ j z  ʒ / ___ j Say “wait your turn” slowly and carefully – then say it quickly. The words sugar and sure used to be pronounced /sj…/, but they became palatalized over time. Words like Tuesday and duke optionally palatalize depending on speaker and register.

  11. Historical Linguistics Affrication – A stop becoming an affricate. Here’s an example from Latin  Old French Latin Old French centum [k] cent [ts] Quebec French tu [ʦy] ‘you.SING’ hostile [ausʦɪl] ‘hostile’ Dion [ʣiɔ̃] surname du [ʣy] ‘of the’ tes [te] ‘your’ donner [daune] ‘to give’

  12. Historical Linguistics Umlaut – The change in vowel quality as the result of the presence of a vowel in another syllable. Pre Old English I Pre Old English II Old English Modern English [ɡos] [ɡos] [ɡos] [ɡus] ‘goose’ [ɡosi] [ɡøsi] [ɡøs] [ɡis] ‘geese’ [mus] [mus] [mus] [maʊs] ‘mouse’ [musi] [mysi] [mys] [maɪs] ‘mice’

  13. Historical Linguistics Metathesis – The transposition of two segments This is heard often in child English: spaghetti  pasghetti Early Old English Later Old English Modern English wæps wæsp wasp Modern English: ask [æsk]  [æks] (holdover from Middle English)

  14. Historical Linguistics Vowel Reduction – Vowels in unstressed position often become /ə/. general  generality Vowel Deletion – Unstressed vowels often become deleted. Old English Middle English Early Modern English (vowel reduction) (vowel deletion) stanas [a] stones [ə] stones [Ø] stanes [e] stones [ə] stone’s [Ø] nama [a] name[ə] name [Ø] talu [u] tale [ə] tale[Ø]

  15. Historical Linguistics Consonant Weakening – Consonants become ‘weaker’ in certain positions (often between two vowels) apa  aba bottom stronger voiceless stops voiceless fricatives/voiced stops voiced fricatives nasals liquids weaker glides In intervocalic position, consonants tend to move from the stronger position to the weaker position.

  16. Historical Linguistics To go back in time linguistically, we must “undo” these changes the change apa  aba is phonetically plausible the change aba  apa is phonetically implausible Genetic lineage among languages is often determined by examining cognates: English German Dutch Proto-Germanic mother Mutter moeder *mōder brother Bruder broer *brōðar house Haus huis *hūsam It is not difficult to see that English, German, and Dutch are related. As we have discussed, they come from Proto-Germanic. (Reconstructed forms are marked with *)

  17. Language Genealogy phylum – The largest known grouping of a set of languages – also called a language family isolate – A language with no other known relatives: ex, Basque, not Japanese (Okinawan is now a distinct language, see below also), Ainu, Haida, Zuni, etc. Where did language come from? monogenetic theory – all languages have one common ancestor extremely difficult to establish. Language is thought to have evolved 50 000 years ago, around the time of our emigration from Africa. Proto-World – the hypothetical ancestor to all human languages (monogenetic)

  18. Language Genealogy polygenetic theory – the theory that language evolved more than once and in different locations. Capacity for language may have evolved once in early humans Humans may have started using language after human populations started diverging. Some proposed super-families that might be useful to remember: Nostratic – contains all the languages of Europe, most of Asia, Africa and North America – not widely held Altaic – contains Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic (somewhat widely believed, but not fully accepted) and Korean and Japanese (less widely believed)

  19. Language Genealogy Newly establish family: Dene-Yeniseian Na-Dené (proto-language of Tlingit, Eyak and Athabaskan languages) Yeniseic (represented today only by Ket, in Siberia; 200 speakers) 2nd well-established genetic linkage between Asia and North America

  20. Language Genealogy Some phyla that might be worth remembering: Indo-European: English, French, Hindi, Russian, Yiddish Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese Afro-Asiatic: Arabic, Hebrew, Hausa Dravidian: Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Sinhala …others as we proceed

  21. Turkic spoken from Turkey, across central Asia, to northeastern Asia. well-known members: Turkish 60 000 000 Uzbek 15 000 000 Kyrgyz 2 000 000 Uighur 6 700 000 – northwestern China

  22. Tungusic well-known members: Manchu 60 speakers in China (formerly Manchuria) Xibe 40 000 speakers in China Manchu: bi tere niyalma-i emgi gene+he I that person-GEN with go+PAST ‘I went with that person.’ SOV post-positions

  23. Japonic Japanese and Okinawan are generally agreed to be distinct languages

  24. Koreanic Two members: Korean and Jeju https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQCmBGrx1UQ&t=23s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcQHONkB0d0 Altaic Hypothesis – Not universally accepted…still bitterly debated

  25. Ainu spoken by 15 speakers in Hokkaido (northernmost island of Japan). Shares many properties with Japanese due to contact. Used to exhibit extensive noun incorporation, but now quite rare.

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