Historical linguistics Language families sound change LING 400

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

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

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

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

Question: which languages seem most similar? n n n n ‘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 C-[s ], D-[sɑ D-[s ] ‘I’: A-[se], B-[ʔink], C-[səj], D-[|sɪni] ‘scab’: A-[ɬet A-[ ], B-[|ʔɑwtɑʃ], C-[ɬot C-[ ], D-[ɬut D-[ ] ‘hand’: A-[lo A-[ ʔ], B-[ʔɨ|pɑp], C-[le C-[ ], D-[lɑ D-[ ʔ] ‘abdomen’: A-[v A-[ ət], B-[nɑ B-[ |wɑt], C-[pət], D-[pə t] A: Deg Xinag, B: Sahaptin, C: Witsuwit’en, D: Tsek’ene

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

Language family Family Language Dialect … Language … Dialect… Idiolect … Idiolect …

Indo. European languages

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

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

Interpreting historical trees n n Order of nodes on same level doesn’t matter Equivalent trees

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

‘Cognate’ and ‘reflex’ n n n 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

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

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

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

Unconditioned sound change merger

Grimm’s Law

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

Modern English voiced fricatives n Old English /f θ s/ n n 700 A. D. addition of intervocalic voicing rule n n fiif ‘five’, wulf ‘wolf’, ofer ‘over’, weorþan, wearþ ‘to become’/’became’, þing ‘thing’, sendan ‘to send’, nosu ‘nose’, wesan/wæs ‘to be’/’was’ [over], [weorðan], [nozu]; [v ð z] in complementary distribution with [f θ s] Other changes to the language n n Borrowings from Kentish (dialect map next slide) Fricatives voiced fricatives word-initially in Kentish n n n 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

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

Summary n Historical linguistics n n n language change over time is challenging Language families and isolates