Historical linguistics

1. Historical linguistics Language is just like human being in that they were born, they grow, and they are old and fade away, eventually disappearing.

2. 1 A brief history of English The poem is composed of stories, leaving us languages spoken by people from all walks at that time. Had a contribution to the uniform of writing. Raised vowels from mid to high. English has got more vocabulary.

3. A short passage from the Bible can show the comparison: (Old English ) Fderure, pupeeart on heofonum, si pin namagebalgod. Tobecume pin rice. (Middle English) Ourefadir that art in heueneshalowid be thi name, thi kingdom come. (Modern English) Our Father, who is in heaven, may your name to kept holy. Thy kingdome come.

4. 2 Language Change 2.1 Sound change Patterns of sound change 2.2 Morphological change 2.2.1 Loss of cases 2.2.2 Lexical borrowing 2.3 Syntactic change 2.4 Semantic change 2.4.1 Semantic broadening 2.4.2 Semantic narrowing 2.4.3 Semantic shift

5. 2.1 Sound change • Sound change is systematic. Ex 1 (English): Old English [ :] → Middle English [:] → Modern English [ow] Ex 2 (Hakka): the Middle Chinese [h] and [u] → the present [f]

6. 2.1 Sound change • The most typical pattern for sound change is the English Great Vowel shift: An explicit change of our tongue body from front, back, high, and low involved in the Great Vowel Shift.

7. Patterns of Sound change: Conditionedand unconditioned • The sound change conditioned by a certain context, occurring before or after a certain sound. Ex: /g/ in Old English became /w/ if it follows /l,r/ while it remains /g/ elsewhere.

8. Patterns of Sound change: Conditioned and unconditioned • A sound change without regard to any condition, it occurring whenever it appears. Ex: In the English Great Vowel Shift, the front high vowel [i: ] becomes [ai]. • So far there has been nothing known why free sound changes would happen.

9. Patterns of Sound change:Assimilationand dissimilation • Two types of the sound change of synchronic phonology:assimilation and dissimilation. • In classical Latin Greek, [t] becomes [s] if it occurs before [s]. Ex:at similar assimilare assimilate (English) • -s is pronounced [s] when it follows a voiceless consonant, [z] when it follows a voiced sound. [t] [s] / ____[s] Regressive (total) assimilation (voiced) beds [bdz] (voiceless) books [bks] Progressive (partial) assimilation

10. Patterns of Sound change: Assimilation and dissimilation • The conflicts between two sounds in terms of places or manners of articulation. • Three possible results are: sound variation, deletion, or insertion.

11. Patterns of Sound change: Assimilation and dissimilation Sound variation: • The segment changed when it is not compatible with its neighboring sound. Ex: [l] and [r] are not allowed to co-occur within the same word. line + al linear scale + al scalar

12. Patterns of Sound change: Assimilation and dissimilation Deletion: • Very common in both historical and synchronic phonology. Ex: The velar [g] following a velar nasal []

13. Patterns of Sound change: Assimilation and dissimilation Insertion ( segment addition ): Ex:[] inserted between two alveolar stops [t] and [d]. wanted [wntd] [wntd] invited [nvaytd] [nvaytd] needed [nidd] [nidd] handed [hndd] [hndd]

14. Patterns of Sound change: Other sound changes • Metathesis:the change of two consonants. • Weakening: the change from regular vowels to schwa [] deleted in Modern English. • Strengthening: the change from a voiceless to a voiced consonant, or the change of [w] to [v].

15. Patterns of Sound change: Other sound changes-split • Two sounds merged into one segment or one single segment splitting to two independent sounds. • In the Middle E, there’s no velar nasal []. When alveolar nasal [n] + a velar consonant [] [n] [n] []

16. Patterns of Sound change: Other sound changes-fusion • Two sounds merged into one segment or one single segment splitting to two independent sounds. In Hakka In Cockney (London area) [n] [n] / ___i [] [] [f] [f]

18. 2.2 Morphological change

19. 2.2.1 Loss of cases • English, Russia and French had a very complete paradigm: any noun can be singular/plural, female/male, nominative/objective/possessive cases. • For the time being only personal pronoun still has some cases in English.

20. 2.2.1 Loss of cases • Compare different case-suffixed in Old, Middle, and Modern English:

21. 2.2.1 Loss of cases • Apart from the loss of cases, analogy plays a role for morphological change:

22. 2.2.2 Lexical borrowing • When two languages contact, borrowing happens. • The borrowing part might be lexicon, morphological patterns, or even in phonetic inventories. • The science to study the origins of lexicon is etymology, which is a branch of historical linguistics.

23. English vocabulary borrowed from other languages

24. English vocabulary borrowed from other languages

25. Morphological construction borrowed from other languages

26. 2.2.3 Syntactic change • Two syntactic change from Old English to Modern English:

27. 2.4 Semantic Change

28. 2.4.1 Semantic broadening • Vocabulary whose semantic meaning was broadened.

29. 2.4.2 Semantic narrowing • Also called semantic reduction, which means the meaning of a word is now reduced.

30. 2.4.3 Semantic shift • Some words have entirely lost their original meanings. Instead, they are meant something else.

31. Self Eavluation 2-1. What does language change mean? How many aspects would it possibly change? 2-2. What is sound change? Please classify the patterns of sound change. 2-3. What is assimilation in sound change? Please sort the patterns by direction and quality. 2-4. What is dissimilation? What sound change would result from dissimilation? 2-5. What kind of sound change is called splitting? 2-6. What kind of sound change is called fusion? 2-7. What morphological changes have occurred from Old English to Modern English? 2-8. What is the difference in terms of syntactic structure between Middle and Modern English? 2-9. What types of change would occur in semantics? 2-10. What is etymology? 2-11. Please list three English words originated from Latin. 2-12. Please list three English words originated from Italian. 2-13 Please list three English words originated from German. 2-14 Please list three English words originated from Greeks. 2-15 Please list three English words originated from French.

32. 3 Comparative linguistics 3.1 Proto Indo-European Language 3.2 Grmm’s law 3.3 Neogrammarism

33. 3. Comparative linguistics • Sir William Jones (1746-1794) found that there were a lot of similarities among Latin, Greek, German, and English. • Comparative linguistics: Historical linguists attempted to reconstruct PIE(Proto Indo-European) based on a comparison of Latin, Greeks, Sanskrit, German, etc. • Reconstruction: The way adopted for the combining of each fragment of sound, morphological or syntactic structure into a whole picture of what a dead language looks like. • To judge whether languages are cognates, the basis lies in systematic correspondences in phonetics, semantics, morphology, and syntax.

34. 3.1 Proto Indo-European Language • There are phonetic correspondences among Latin, Greeks, Sanskrit, and English:

35. 3.2 Grmm’s law *p ＞ f *t ＞  *k ＞ h [*] is a specific technique representing the proto-from. [>] is used for “becoming.” • Q: Why only these three sounds underwent sound change? [p, t, k] →[-continuent, -voiced] [f, , h]→[+continuent, -voiced] only one feature changed: [-continuent] ＞[+continuent]

36. 3.3 Neogrammarism • The tenet of Neogrammarism: sound change is regular, and without any exception at the same time, under the same environments, and in the same area.

37. Self Evaluation 3-1. What does PIE stand for? 3-2. What is comparative linguistics? 3-3. What is Grimm’s Law? 3-4. What are cognates? On what conditions can language be called cognates? 3-5. What is Neogrammarism? What is their basic belief?

38. 4Reconstruction 4.1 Comparative reconstruction 4.2 Internal reconstruction

39. 4.1 Comparative reconstruction • Three steps: (a) verifying the cognate languages (b) sorting out the correspondences in sound, morphology, or syntax (c) Trying to decide which form should be the proto-form.

40. 4.1 Comparative reconstruction • Mandarin, Southern Min, and Hakka are cognate languages, because they belong to the Han (Chinese) language family.

41. 4.1 Comparative reconstruction • Two principles for deciding which form is the proto-form: majority principleand the plausibility principle. hu is the majority, so the proto-form might be *h

42. 4.1 Comparative reconstruction • Two principles for deciding which form is the proto-form: majority principle and the plausibility principle. [u] is of [+labial ] [h] is of [+continuent] → [+labial, +continuent], the reasonable segment is [f]

43. 4.2 Internal reconstruction • Reconstruction of a proto-form can also be achieved in lieu of internal comparison. Ex: sin [sn] vs. sing [s] • There was no [n] after velars [k, g] in Middle English • [] of Modern English was derived from *n.

44. Self Evaluation 4-1. What is linguistic reconstruction? 4-2. Please give the steps for comparative reconstruction. 4-3. What is the majority principle in proto-form reconstruction? 4-4. What is the plausibility principle in proto-form reconstruction? 4-5. What is internal reconstruction?