Historical linguistics
Language is just like human being in that they were born, they grow, and they are
old and fade away, eventually disappearing.
(1) Old E (449-1066)
449 Saxon got to England
8th century
The poem Beowulf appeared
1066
William the Conqueror invaded the UK
(2)Middle E (1066-1500)
1387
J. Chaucer got his Canterbury Tales published
1476
Saxton founded the 1st printing press by William Caxton
1500
The Great Vowel Shift
(3) Modern E (1500-present)
1564
William Shakespeare was born
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.
A short passage from the Bible can show the comparison:
(Old English )Fder ure, pu pe eart on heofonum, si pin nama gebalgod. Tobecume pin rice.
(Middle English)
Oure fadir that art in heuenes halowid be thi name, thi kingdom come.
(Modern English)Our Father, who is in heaven, may your name to kept holy. Thy kingdome come.
2 LANGUAGE CHANGE
2.1 Sound change Patterns of sound change2.2 Morphological change 2.2.1 Loss of cases 2.2.2 Lexical borrowing2.3 Syntactic change2.4 Semantic change 2.4.1 Semantic broadening 2.4.2 Semantic narrowing 2.4.3 Semantic shift
Ex 1 (English): Old English [ :] → Middle English [:] → Modern English [ow]
2.1 Sound change
Ex 2 (Hakka): the Middle Chinese [h] and [u] → the present [f]
Old Middle Modern
[sta:n] [st:n] [stown] ‘stone’
[ba:t] [b:t] [bowt] ‘boat’
[ka:t] [k:t] [kowt] ‘coat’
Hakka Mandarin
fa hua words
fa hua afraid
fon huan like
Sound change is systematic.
2.1 Sound change
The most typical pattern for sound change is the English Great Vowel shift:
Sound change examplesMiddle E → Modern E Middle E → Modern E spelling[ i: ] → [ ay ] [ mi:s ] → [ mays ] mice[ u: ] → [aw ] [ lud ] → [ lawd ] loud [ e: ] → [ i: ] [ kwe:n ] → [ kwi:n ] queen[ o: ] → [ u: ] [ go:z ] → [ gu:z ] goose[ a: ] → [ e: ] [ na:m ] → [ ne:m ] name [ : ] → [ o: ] [ b:n ] → [ bo:n ] bone[ ] → [ e: ] [ br:ken ] → [ bre:k ] break
An explicit change of our tongue body from front, back, high, and low involved in the Great Vowel Shift.
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.
Patterns of Sound change: Conditioned and unconditioned
Old E Middle E Modern E
a. gld gld ‘glad’
b. halgian hawen ‘to hallow’
c. morgen morwen ‘morrow’
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.
Patterns of Sound change: Conditioned and unconditioned
Old E Middle E Modern E
a. gld gld ‘glad’
b. halgian hawen ‘to hallow’
c. morgen morwen ‘morrow’
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 [bdz]
(voiceless) books [bks]
Progressive (partial)
assimilation
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.
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
scale + al
linear
scalar
Patterns of Sound change: Assimilation and dissimilation
Deletion: Very common in both historical and
synchronic phonology.
Ex: The velar [g] following a velar nasal []
Middle E Modern E
sing [sg] [s]
king [kg] [k]
Patterns of Sound change: Assimilation and dissimilation
Insertion ( segment addition ):
Ex: [] inserted between two alveolar stops [t] and [d].
wanted [wntd] [wntd]invited [nvaytd]
[nvaytd]needed [nidd] [nidd]handed [hndd] [hndd]
Patterns of Sound change: Assimilation and dissimilation
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].
Patterns of Sound change: Other sound changes
Old E
Modern E
brid bird
frist first
pridde
third
Middle E
Modern E
[na:m] [neym] name
[luv] [lv] love
Middle Chinese
Hakka
[u] [vu]
[un] [vun]
[u] [vu]
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 []
Patterns of Sound change: Other sound changes-split
[n]
[]
[n]
sin singMiddle E [sn] [sng]Modern E [sn] [s]
Two sounds merged into one segment or one single segment splitting to two independent sounds.
In Hakka
In Cockney (London area)
Patterns of Sound change: Other sound changes-fusion
[n]
[]
[n] / ___i
[]
[f]
[f]
Exthing [fn] fin [fn]
In appearanceconditional
unconditional
In terms of typesassimilation
In terms of directionprogressive
regressive
In terms of sound qualitytotal
partialdissimilation
deletioninsertion
sound variationothers
metathesisweakening
strengthening
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.
2.2.1 Loss of cases
Singular plural
female male female male
nominative she he they they
objective her him them them
possessive her his their their
dative sher him tem them
Compare different case-suffixed in Old, Middle, and Modern English:
2.2.1 Loss of cases
Singular Old E Middle E Modern E spelling
nominative /hund/ /hu:nd/ /hawnd/ ‘hound’
obejctive /hund/ /hu:nd/ /hawnd/ ‘hound’
possessive /hund-es/ /hu:nd-s/ /hawnd-z/ ‘hound’s’
dative /hund-e/ /hu:nd-/ /hawnd/ ‘hound’
Plural Old E Middle E Modern E spelling
nominative /hund-as/ /hu:nd-s/ /hawnd-z/ ‘hounds’
obejctive /hund-as/ /hu:nd-s/ /hawnd-z/ ‘hounds’
possessive /hund-a/ /hu:nd-/ /hawnd-z/ ‘hounds’’
dative /hund-um/ /hu:nd-/ /hawnd-z/ ‘hounds’
Apart from the loss of cases, analogy plays a role for morphological change:
2.2.1 Loss of cases
A : B = C : D
a. scream screamed
dream dreamed (dreamt)
b. fine fined shine shined (shone)
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.
English vocabulary borrowed from other languages
Latin
history
genius
private
promote
quiet
legal
French
authoritybillcrowndeanestatefelongovernmentjurymysterynationobedienceparsonstatereligion
French(related to meals)
supperdinnerfeasttasteappetitetoastbeefmuttonpork
By translation
dramacomedytragedy
Greeks
systemcriticchoasanonymous
English vocabulary borrowed from other languages
Celtic
London
Thames
Winchester
whisky
Dutch
leak
yacht
German
quartz
noodle
Indian
squash
skunk
raccoon
hickory
pecan
hominy
French (for-)
forward
foreman
foreland
Greeks (-al)
arrival
oriental
Morphological construction borrowed from other languages
2.2.3 Syntactic change Two syntactic change from Old English to
Modern English:
(a) Middle E Modern E
S O V S V O
Ex:Heo hine lrde
She him advised She advised him
(b) Middle E(Time of
Shakespeare)
Modern E
V. + not Aux + not + V.
Ex:I deny it not. I don’t deny it.
Forbid him not. Don’t forbid him.
2.4.1 Semantic broadening
Vocabulary whose semantic meaning was broadened.
Original meaning Broadened meaning
companion someone who eats bread with you anyone who is with you
thing a public assembly an entity of any kindbird small fowl all the birds with feathers
2.4.2 Semantic narrowing
Also called semantic reduction, which means the meaning of a word is now reduced.
Original meaning Reduced meaning
Hound any kind of dog a hunting breed
Meat food flesh of an animal
Deer any animals or beasts a kind of animal
2.4.3 Semantic shift
Some words have entirely lost their original meanings. Instead, they are meant something else.
Original meaning Shifted meaning
immoral not customary unethical
nice innocent good
squire pages or servants gentleman
silly happy something stupid
Self Eavluation2-1. 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.
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.
3.1 Proto Indo-European Language
There are phonetic correspondences among Latin, Greeks, Sanskrit, and English:
English Latin Greeks Sanskrit
a. father pater pater pita foot ped- pod- pad
b. three tres treis trayas thin tenuis tanaos tanus
c. hound kanis kyon sivan hundred kentum kekaton satan
English Latin Greeks Sanskrita. f p p p f p p p
b. th () t t t th () t t t
c. h k k s h k k s
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]
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.
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?
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.
4.1 Comparative reconstruction
Mandarin, Southern Min, and Hakka are cognate languages, because they belong to the Han (Chinese) language family.
Mandrin S. Min Hakka glossaryhua huei fa flowerhua hua fa brighthu ho fu tigerhu ho fu Each otherhuai huai fai chest
Two principles for deciding which form is the proto-form: majority principle and the plausibility principle.
Mandrin S. Min Hakka glossaryhua huei fa flowerhua hua fa brighthu ho fu tigerhu ho fu Each otherhuai huai fai chest
hu is the majority, so the proto-form might be *h
4.1 Comparative reconstruction
Two principles for deciding which form is the proto-form: majority principle and the plausibility principle.
Mandrin S. Min Hakka glossaryhua huei fa flowerhua hua fa brighthu ho fu tigerhu ho fu Each otherhuai huai fai chest
[u] is of [+labial ][h] is of [+continuent]
→ [+labial, +continuent], the reasonable segment is [f]
4.1 Comparative reconstruction
4.2 Internal reconstruction
Reconstruction of a proto-form can also be achieved in lieu of internal comparison.
Ex:sin [sn] vs. sing [s]
There was no [n] after velars [k, g] in Middle English
[] of Modern English was derived from *n.