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

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.


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


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]


Insertion ( segment addition ):

Ex: [] inserted between two alveolar stops [t] and [d].

wanted [wntd] [wntd]invited [nvaytd]

[nvaytd]needed [nidd] [nidd]handed [hndd] [hndd]


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

2.2 Morphological change

Morphological change

Internal (loss of case)

External (lexical borrowings)

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 Semantic Change

Semantic change

Broadening

Narrowing

Shift

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

3.1 Proto Indo-European Language3.2 Grmm’s law3.3 Neogrammarism

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?

4RECONSTRUCTION

4.1 Comparative reconstruction4.2 Internal reconstruction

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.


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.


hu is the majority, so the proto-form might be *h


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]


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.

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?

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