INTRODUCTION

Diachronic linguistics

deals with changes in language through time.

It is concerned with:

-how languages change

-why languages change

To achieve a complete understanding of a language, we must know :

its history and development

One of the reasons why we study the history of a language is to understand its present state

Why do we say men instead of mans?

In ModE we have -s that indicates possessive and plural, but there are different ways to create the plural because there are different declinations.

MUTATION: alternation between front & back vowel. i.e. foot (back vowel)- feet (front vowel)

IRREGULAR PLURALS weren't irregular in OldE:

-SUFFIX -ic (There's a change in the stress we stress the words in the syllablepreceding -ic)

'Hero-he'roic'sulphur-sul'phuric'base-'basic

However:(because they are from different origin)

'Catholic < Latin catholicus

'politic < Old French politique < Latin politicus

Two main issues in the early stages of historical linguistics:

Synchronic irregularity

Keep–kept (change in vowel/ tense info given by -t)

Old English: cepan-cepte (germanic way to form the past tense/ it was aweak vowel in OldE/ it was REGULAR)

Double ee means that it was a long vowel in OldE.STRONG VERBS change in vowelWEAK VERBS adding -ed

Cross-language similarities

English Germanten zehnto zuthat daswater Wasser

English and German forms are very similar and they differ in a systematic way.

Reasons for their similarities: COMMON ORIGIN

Reasons for their differences: DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENT

The relationship between English and German

SYSTEMATIC RELATIONSHIP

Phonological level

English Germanno nein

home Heimstone Stein

Morphological level

English Germanyounger jungerolder ältercolder kälter

Lexical level

English Germanhouse Hausbook Buchfinger Finger

English and Germanic forms differ in a systematic way.

The relationship between English, Spanish and Catalan

ENGLISH SPANISH CATALANfather padre parefor por perfish pez peixthunder trueno trothree tres tresthou tu tuheart corazón corhound can catame domar domar

two dos doscorn grano gra

-English voiceless fricatives correspond to Spanish and Catalan voiceless plosives.

/f/ voiceless fricative - /p/ voiceless plosives/h/ voiceless fricative - /c/ voceless plosive

-English voiceless plosives correspond to Spanish and Catalan voiced plosives.

/t/ voiceless plosive - /d/ voiced plosives

We have to look for systematic correspondance:-systematic relationship can only be found in words from Germanic origin.-similar-looking words, which can be misleading.

Caveat:

German habenLatin habere

Turkish plaz 'beach'French plage

pares, padres: E. parents

< Old French parent< Latin parens

paper

< Old French papier< Latin papyrus

peace

< Old French pais< Latin pax

Why do you think there are ModE pairs such as:

father – paternal < L. paternalisthree – trio < L. trioheart – cardiac < Fr. cardiaque < L. cardiacus

Because they were introduced later to English, they don't have a German origin,they come from the latin.

Write down a list of English words and the corresponding Catalan or Spanish ones showing the systematic correspondences of the plosives.

Teeth – dientescat – gatopen – bolígrafo

Write down a list of English words and the corresponding Catalan or Spanish having the same stop consonants, find out the origin of the English words.

Jones, a British judge who lived in India discovered in the 18th c. that “the Sanskrit language... bearing to both of them [Latin and Greek] a stronger affinity than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed that no philologer could examine them all without believing them to have sprungfrom some common source, which perhaps no longer exists: there is a similar reason ... for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick ...had the same origin with the Sanskrit”

After this discovery, scholars began the systematic comparison of Sanskrit,Greek, Latin and other European languages.

SANSKRIT LATIN GREEK OLD ENGLISH

pitár pater pater faeder

matár mater mater modoreka unus oine anduva duo duo twegen

If we compare these words, we will see that many of them are very similar.How can we explain these similarities?

Chance similarity.BorrowingCommon origin.

COMMON ORIGINThe only reasonable explanation.But the lexicon is unreliable (there may be borrowings ...), and linguists focused their attention on phonological and morphological analysis.

MORPHOLOGICAL CORRESPONDANCES are more reliable:

German Englishklein kleiner kleinste small smaller smallest

Systematic sound correspondences between words with the same orsimilarmeaning are the first clue that the languages are related.

Latin Englishpater fatherpes foot

However:

French Englishmouton muttonbouton buttonglouton glutton

Even if the words are similar, it's not a prove that French & English are related.

What is important is the SYSYTEM SOUND & MORPHOLOGICAL CORRESPONDANCES

Languages are genetically related in families. Connected languages are descended from the same source.

When there are no written records of the common ancestor, it ispossible toreconstruct it (at least some aspects ) by using the comparative method.

↓Cognates are compared to work out the original form from which they derive.

Steps in language reconstruction:

1.Identify cognates.

thria trei üc trayasOld Saxon Roumanian Turkish (non IE) Sanskrit

.

2. Set up sound correspondences.

niht noch noctis naktam

OE Russian Latin Sanskrit

3. Establish the proto-phonemes

* /ai/

OE /a:/ OHG /ei/ In reconstructing the original sounds, some principles have to be taken into account:

1.Changes must be plausible.

2. Any reconstruction should involve as few changes as possiblebetween the proto-language and the daughter language.

3. The reconstructed form should be the sound which has the widest distribution in the daughter languages.

4. Reconstructions should fill gaps in phonological systems rather than createunbalanced systems.

ADD last slides 2pp

SPANISH CATALAN FRENCH ITALIAN LATINnariz nas nez *naso nasum

There are limitations in comparative reconstruction.Reconstuctions are reliable until a certain point.

THE PROCESS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE

Saussure and early structucturalists:Dichotomy between diachronic and synchronic studies.

A synchronic study described the structure of a language at a given time, not taking into account that changes are always taking place.

Additionally, Saussure considered that changes affected not the system as a whole,but only individual elements

DIACHRONIC STUDY Ex.: OE /y:/ → ME /i:/ → ModE /ai/

This position was challenged at the First International Congress of Linguists

Trubetzkoy and Jakobson (among others) claimed that the diachronic viewpoint has totake into account the interdependence of all the elements of a linguistic system. Any change will affect the whole system.

1) For example, phonological changes can have consequences on the

lexicon.

OE /y:/ > ME /i:/OE cynn > ME kinOE pytt > ME pitOE fyr > ME fire

OE thyncan ‘to seem’ > ME thinkenOE thencan ‘to think’ > ME thinken

thyncan was lost

2) Phonological changes can also have consequences at the morphological and syntactic level.

-Middle English reduction of unstressed vowels to /ə/

-Loss of OE inflexional patterns (distinction between the different cases was lost, so useless to keep case system) → WORD ORDER wasn very important in OE, butdue to the LOSS of INFLECTIONAL PATTERNS word order became important in MidE.

-Syntactic change: Loss of case system → more strict word order

So...A sound change may affect the whole linguistic system.That’s a reason to discard division between synchronic and diachronic linguistics

2. A strict dichotomy cannot be imposed either because at any given moment there will be elements at different stages of development.

Middle English:-eth / -es (for some time there was the coexistence of both endings)

In ModE ending of 3rd pers. Sing -s

Archaic forms and advanced ones coexist in the usage of older and younger speakers

In a complete description of a language, there is always a ‘ core’ or fixed structure and

variation

Synchronic variation is the mechanism that enables change.

Labov claimed that variation in pronunciation can be interpreted as ongoing sound change.

New Guinea pidgin: VARIATION

Pidgin: a language which develops as a contact language, when groups of people who speak different languages come into contact.It usually has a limited vocabulary and a very reduced grammatical structure.

liklik manggi – small boyol liklik manggi –small boysdispela haus –this houseol dispela haus –these houses

Changes are shown by variation (morphological, syntactical, lexical, etc variation)The use of -es is used by educated people who knows English.

Eucated people -s Non-educated people ol

A change begins to spread in the language:A plural suffix derived from English –es is used along with the plural marker ol.

ol liklik manggi liklik manggis

Plural suffix may spread to more nouns.

Original situation (with plural ol) may continue. Diglossic situation may arise.

“The process of linguistic change has never been directly observed” Bloomfield

“No one has yet observed sound change; we have only been able to detect its consequences” Hockett

However , linguists have now realized that language change can be observed.

The pioneer is William Labov.

He realized that variation and fuzziness, which had often been ignored, may indicate ongoing changes in language.

The Neogrammarians said that a sound change affects all the words in which this soundoccurs simultaneously.

Ex. 1: devoicing of final stops (as in Catalan or German)

Ex. 2:

OE /y:/ → ME /i:/OE wyf > wifeOE lyf > lifeOE bryd > bride

Ex. 3:

/æ/ → /a:/ ⁄ —fricative

Br E: pass, fast, disaster

But: gas, mass

Linguists have now shown that changes do not occur simultaneously in allwords.

A change spreads gradually through the lexicon.

Labov noticed that in Martha’s Vineyard, a holiday resort off the coast of Massachusetts, /ai/, /au/ were becoming /əi/, /əu/.

Centralization of those diphthongs in the speech of certain speakers of Martha’s Vineyard.

The new pronunciation was found among the permanent inhabitants (incontrast to summer visitors)

People of the age group 30 to 60 tended to centralize diphthongs more than younger or older people.

Centralization of vowels in Martha’s Vineyard

Age /əi/ /əu/

75 25 2261-75 35 3746-60 62 4431-45 81 8814-30 37 46

Lexical diffusion

Sound change begins in a small number of words and later spreads toother words

At first the new sounds fluctuate with the existing ones, then the new ones take over.

The theory of lexical diffusion stands in contrast to the Neogrammarian hypothesis that a given sound change applies simultaneously to all words in which it is found.

Add slide number of words+time

The causes of language change

While we know that language change is inevitable, we are less certain ofits causes.

‘The causes of language change are unknown’ Bloomfield

Early theories

In the past change was attributed to many different causes.

Some early theories of linguistic change today seem hilarious

1. Geographical and Climatic determinism: Geographical determinism

Voiceless Plosives > Voiceless fricatives

Consonant changes began in the mountains because expiration is more intense in high altitudes.

Climatic determinism

It has been argued to be the cause of the rounding of /a/ in the direction of /o/ in the northern languages of Europe.

Old English stān > English stone

Rounding was the result of unwillingness to open the mouth widely in the chilly and foggy air of the North.

The exact cause for language change is difficult to know, but it isusually due to a combination of factors. The following are a numberof factors which have been put forward as the causes of language change

1) External factors (sociolinguistic factors) 2) Internal factors (linguistic factors)

External factors

Foreign influence Social Causes Fashion

Foreign influence

When people speaking different languages come into contact three optionsare possible

c) Adstratum influence:

Influence between contiguous languages or dialects spoken by groupsof equal political and social power.

E.g. English in South Africa is influenced by Afrikaans.

a) Substratum:

the language of the conquered group influences that of the dominantgroup.

Eg. The influence of Celtic languages on English

b) Superstratum:

the conquering group influences the language of the native population, the conquered group.

E.g. Influence of French on English after the Norman Conquest.

Social causes

The generalization of the originally plural pronoun 'you' as a singular pronoun has beenconnected to changes in social attitude.

In ME 'you' began to be used as a singular pronoun, imitating French courtly usage.

Fashion

Fashion might impose certain linguistic habits and make certain linguistic forms become obsolete

Eg. It was fashionable in the ME period to borrow words from French.

It is fashionable now to borrow words from English

Functional need:

The vocabulary has to adapt to our changing world.

Words which refer to obsolete objects may be lost, while new words may be introducedto refer to new concepts or objects.

e-mail, e-commerce, dot-com

Simplification:

Many sound changes can be considered to simplify the production of sounds

Words may become shorter and we need less physical effort to produce them

But simplification is a relative concept, because it may produce complexities in other parts of the system.

Syncope (dropping of a vowel in the middle of a word) could be considered as simplification, but it also results in consonant clusters.

Structural pressure:

If a system becomes uneven or it has some gap, a change will probably take place to fill this gap.

I u i u

e o o

a a

As you can see, all the arguments put forward to explain the causes of language change are weak.

Progress or decay?

Time changes all things: there is no reason why language should escape this universal law. Saussure

“The Asuras, deprived of [correct] speech, saying he lavo, he lavah, [instead of he raho, he rayah] were defeated. This is the unintelligiblespeech which they uttered at that time. Who speaks thus is a barbarian.”Satapthabrahmana 3.2.1.23-24

“Tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration.” Samuel Johnson

The puristic attitude was at its height in the eighteenth century.

Many scholars thought that language was perfect in its beginning, but it is constantly in danger of decay.

Change was seen as a degeneration of an original pure state of the language.

The proto-language from which Latin, Greek or Sanskrit were derived was considered to be the most ‘pure’ form of language.

Max Müller, a nineteenth century scholar, claimed that in the written history of all thelanguages of Europe, he could observe only “a gradual process of decay”

That puristic attitude is still widespread. Comments from the press showthat many people still consider language change as corruption.

Purists believe in some sort of absolute standard of correctness, which can be found in grammars and dictionaries.

However, what is important is the usage of speakers. If a new word is accepted and used by a number of speakers, that word can be considered anew addition to the lexicon of the language.

Is language evolving to a more efficient state?

“Progress in the absolute sense is impossible, just as it is in moralityor politics. It is simply that different states exist, succeeding each other, each dominated by certain general laws imposed by the equilibriumof the forces with which they are confronted. So it is with language.” J. Vendryès

SOUND CHANGE

Some characteristics of sound change

Regularity

Ease pronunciation, but not always

Simplification is relative

Regularity

In the 19th Century it was claimed that sound change is absolutely regular, and a series of laws of sound change were formulated. That was the case of Grimm’s law.

Nowadays we believe it is an overstatement, but still consider sound change to be highly regular.

Changes in the direction of greater ease of articulation:

Voicing of intervocalic consonants. Latin vota ‘vows’> Spanish boda

The dropping of consonants in clusters English cupboard / kʌbəd/

Simplification:

Simplification is a relative concept, since simplification in one part of the system may produce greater complexity in another.

Eg. The loss of a vowel can result in a consonat cluster

Sound changeIsolative change: a phoneme changes in all its occurrences

Conditioned sound change: takes place in a specific phonetic environment

Isolative sound change: The Great Vowel Shift Early decades of 15th century It affected long vowels Mid vowels were raised High vowels became diphthongs

The changes began early in the 15th century in southern England, but complete sets of changes extended over 15th, 16th, 17th cCauses for this shift are not known

Despite the significant changes in pronunciation, the old spelling was maintained.

William Caxton and his followers in printing based their spelling norm on the usage of the medieval manuscript and not onthe pronunciation of their times.

Consequently, the graphic representation of the new values remained the same as in ME

Taking into account the spelling and modern pronunciation of thefollowing words, can you deduce sound changes?

life house see sea boot home take

DIAGRAM II ADD SLIDE + page 3

How do you think the following words were pronounced in ME (before the GVS)

sight /si:çt/meet /me:t/boot /bo:t/sea /sε:/kind /ki:nd/sound /su:nd/loud /lu:d/feat /fε:t/look /lo:k/

Conditioned sound changes

Assimilation

Assimilation: a sound becomes more similar to an adjacent sound in:

Voicing Manner of articulation Place of articulation It is motivated by ease of articulation

Assimilatory changes

Assimilation

The direction of assimilation

Regressive assimilation

OE wifman > wimman

One sound affects the preceding one, as the speaker anticipates the articulation tocome. So, it comes to resemble the sound that follows it becoming identical or verysimilar, in respect to their articulatory features: voice, manner and place of articulation.

Progressive assimilation

Gmc *wulno> *wullo> OE wull

A sound affects the following sound that becomes like the one that precedes it.

The extent of assimilation

Total assimilation

OE wifman> wimman

A sound becomes identical to an adjacent one, sharing the same articulatory features: voice, manner and place of articulation.

Partial assimilation

Latin in + primere> imprimere

Two sounds become more alike in respect to some articulatory featureswhile remaining distinct. The n- of the prefix changes its place of articulation to match the bilabial quality of the following p.

Distant assimilation

PIE *penkʷe > Latin kʷinkʷe Latin ne hilum > nihil

The sound to which another sound assimilates is usually the immediately adjacent one, but it may also be a sound in the neighboring syllable. In the case of distantassimilation the two sounds are not adjacent.

Vowel harmony / Distant assimilation

OE dæg / dagasTurkish: structural feature (vowel harmony, only front vowels in nextword)

sevildirememek

Umlaut / mutationIt is the most important change affecting vowels in Old English. It affected all Germanic languages except for Gothic.

It is a conditioned sound change.

Mutation/ Umlaut

Gmc *fulljan > OE fyllanGmc *sandjan > OE sendanGmc *musiz > OE müs > ModE mice

A vowel undergoes a process of fronting or raising

-Due to the influence of a high-front vowel or a semi-vowel in the following syllable (/i, i:, j/)

In this process the speaker anticipates a high palatal sound, / i, j/in the following syllable by fronting or raising the vowel that comesto resemble in articulation the /i or j/

SLIDE PAGE 6 VOWELS

Supply the missing vowel.

*hærjan > h__rian “to raid”* monni > m__nn* dali > d__l “to share”* domian > d__man “to deem”* cuðian > c___dan “to inform”* buggjan > b___cgan “to buy”

The legacy of umlaut in ModEIrregular pluraltooth > teeth

Comparatives old > elder

Verbs formed from nouns food /feed

Verbs derived from adjectives full/fill

Palatalization

-Palatalization is a process in which a front vowel causes a sound tobecome more palatal in articulation

-From velar to palatal

-From alveolar to palatal

-Compare the following words:

-OE cinn ‘chin’ OE catt‘cat’-OE cild ‘child’ OE cuman ‘come’-OE cēosan‘choose’ OE clæne ‘clean'

OE *skip > scip “ship”OE * fisk > fisc “fish”OE * kæster> cæster > ceaster “Chester”

The shift of a non-palatal consonant to a palatal due to the proximity of an original front vowel.

Latin caseusOE cese > ModE cheese Cf. Sp queso, G. Käse/sk/ palatalized to /ʃ/ in all environments:

-OE scip “ship” OE scofl “shovel”-OE scīnan “shine” OE scūr ‘shower”-OE fisc “fish” OE sceran “shear”

Dissimilation

By dissimilation a sound becomes dissimilar to an adjacent sound. This sound change is motivated by the need for perceptual clarity.

It is much less common than assimilation and it often occurs with liquids / l, r / and nasals

OE þeofþ > Mod E theftLatin peregrinus > OF pelerin > Mod E pilgrim

Cf:

Labial AlveolarDental VelarPalatal

Latin ending –al dissimilated to –ar when attached to a root ending in l

Weakening or Lenition

It is a process of weakening of muscular tension in articulation.

It refers to the change of a sound considered "stronger" into one considered "weaker" (or fortis→ lenis). Common examples include:

-voicing or sonorization -vocalization -rhotacism

Sonorization

L cupa > Sp cubaLat vita > Sp. vida

It consists in the substitution of a voiceless consonant by a homorganic voiced consonant.

Two sounds are homorganic if they share the same place of articulation.

Vocalization

L. alteru > auteru > otro

A consonant changes into a vowel.

Rhotacism

L *genesis > generiswas / were (from Gmc *was / *wēzun ) plus / plural

It involves a sound shift in which /s/ becomes /r/ through the intermediate step * /z/.

Eg. *Kusum > *kuzum > OE curon ‘ they chose’

Loss of a sound

Aphaeresis (loss of an initial sound)

Eg. Loss of [k, g] before [n] in

knit, knight

Eg OE hn, hl, hr > n, l, r as result of the consonant changes from OEto ME

OE hnutu > ME nute > ModE nut

Syncope (loss of a medial sound)

OE *strangara > strangra

Apocope (final position)

OE nama > ModE nameOE sunu > ModE son

ME loss of tʃ in unstressed syllables: OE -līc > -ly OE ic > I

Consonant Cluster ReductionOE betst > ModE bestReduction in ModE comb, sing

(A consonant cluster is a group of consonants)

Haplology (loss of a syllable that is quite similar to the following)

Difficult pronunciation:

She sells sea shells by the sea shore

OE Anglaland > ModE England.Probablely > probably

Prothesis (initial position)

Latin spiritus > Sp. espirituLatin schola > Sp. escuelaLatin spata > Sp. espadaLatin stare > Sp. estar

The addition of a sound is usually prompted by the difficulty of coordinating articulatory movements.

Insertion of sounds

Epenthesis (medial)

OE þunrian ‘to thunder’ > þundrian > thunder.OE glimsen> ModE glimpse.

-It is quite common for a stop to be inserted in sequences of nasals

-The stop is generally articulated in the same place as the nasal

Vowel breaking

werpan > weorpan “to throw”feh > feoh “money” ʎht> ʎ oht ‘light’herte > heorte “heart”

Breaking in OE is the diphthongization of the front vowels /æ, e, i/ to /ea, eo, io/ when followed by /h/, by /r/ or /l/ plus another consonant

Metathesis is the reversal or reordering of two sounds.OE frist > ModsE first

Latin miraculum > Sp. MilagroOE dox [x = ks] > ModE duskOE brid > ModE birdOE hros > ModE horse

Grammatical change

Linguistic change occurs at all levels:

levelling and loss of unstressed vowels →

loss of inflectional distinctions →

more rigid word order

5.1. Morphological change5.1.1. Morphological typology

Languages can be classified typologically, on the basis of the characteristics they share.

Languages can be classified according to their morphological type:

Isolating or analytic languages

Agglutinating or agglutinative languages.

Inflecting or inflectional languages

However, as we will see, there is no clear-cut distinction between isolating languages, inflecting languages and agglutinating languages.

a) Isolating or analytic languagesMany free morphemes

júzi wo chi leorange I eat past

Grammatical functions are shown by word order and the use of function words.

b) Agglutinating or agglutinative

A word may contain many morphemes, but the boundaries between morphemes are clear

Turkish: wametulipa (they have paid us)wa: theyme: perfect markertu: uslipa: pay

c) Inflectional or inflecting

The form of a word changes to indicate a change in meaning or grammatical function.

Marius amat Sofiam-us: Nominative masculine singular-am:Accusative feminine singular

How would you classify present day English?

Old EnglishOn his dagum comon arest iii scipu nordmanna

Compare the information carried by the OE inflectional endings (case, number, gender) and PDE –s which only indicates plural.

Word order: V S

In PDE:

pronouns are obligatory to indicate person because verbal inflections have disappeared.

Auxiliaries have largely replaced verbal inflections.

Nevertheless...

It has irregular verbs with vowel alternation (the remnants of OE strong verbs).

It also has some mutated plural

English has developed from a highly inflected language (inflecting or synthetic language) to one which shows more isolating (analytic) characteristics but still with characteristics of its inflectional origin.

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