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326 views26 pagesLanguage Change PDF
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Language Change:
The Syllables of Time
480
Nolonguse st depending arbitrary us and custom
rr tt
teu
varbe permanently the
and whats dee polite and
ianathee
ing languages change with time. It is fortunate chat they do so rathec
lye fe span. Ie would be inconvenient to have to
leach our native language every twenty yea. Stargazer
sass, the con
yeaes from now we would hardly
im season to season the changes are
impercepible Lingu
terms. As years pass we hardly notice ary change. Yee if we were to
tadio and micaculously receive a broadcast in our “native language”
year 3000, we would probat into a foreiga language sts
tion, Many, sn records, We know a great
deal of the his
1,000 years
1A speake
college courses in which Old English
steates why Old English must be eranslaeds*
olde guman findan bo ce sare goteoue
“Ele wanted to find the man who harmed him while he slept.
seen by reading the
hath perced tothe roote
"When April with its sweet showers
“The drought of March has pierced to the root.
“Two hundeed years after Chaucer, n a language chat is considesed an ealiee
Shakespeare's Hamle says:
king, and eat of ee fish
‘hat hath fed ofthat worm.
“The stages of English are Old E
1500}, and Modera English (1500-
‘being marked by impor
aquest of 1066, the esa
profoundly influenced the English language.
ics that dele with how languages change, what kinds
‘and why they occucred is called historical and comparative
storie” because it deals with the history of pat
comparative” becau
‘Changes in a language are changes inthe grammars and the lexicon
ple who speak the language and are perpetuated as new generations of
Acauire the altered language and make further changes.
mat ate subject to change over the course of time—the phono
Togical, syncacti, and semantic components may be affected.
‘ace from English, the his
The Regularity of Sound Change
“That's not regular re youintente itjust no.
LEWIS CARROLL, Alc Adventures Wonderland, 165, 490_cHAPTEN 10 Language Change: The Syl
sto try Georgia's famous pecan
correspondence ofthese two dialects is an example of 2
spondence. When at] occurs ina word in non-Southern dia
the Southern dialect, and this is true forall sch words.
ations of fy
not always
h dialece differences
iy regular and not confined 10
consider changes that occur in other parts of the
just afew words. We
‘zrammar and in the lexicon,
Sound Correspondences
nounced [ut where we
isis a regular correspondence like the one between ai] and la). Thus
38 pronounced fut, sonth (sau8] was pronounce [sd], and s0
regular correspondences show the relation of older and new forins
ies we observe between older and modern
1 result of phonological changes that affect certain
rather idual words. Centuries ago English
logical change elled a sound shifein which beam [aul
jeal changes can also acco ct iferences. At an eater
stage of American English a sound shife of ft] to [took place among certain
speakers in the southern region ofthe United State. The change did not spe
beyond the South because the region was somewhat isolated. Many dale dif
ferences in pronunciation result from sound. ed,
ivative changes occur
mn. The regional dialect may be conservative
fit as bit, Foun
Ancestral Protolanguages
Many modern
language from which related la
Germ
ee os Pheonelogieal
Proto-Indo-Furopean. Thus, Germanic languages such as English and German
are genetically related to the Romance languages such as French and Spa
All these national languages were once segional dialects
How do we know thatthe Germanic and Romance languages have a common
ancestor? One clue isthe large number of sound correspondence
studied a Romance language such as French o¢ Spanish, you may
‘that where an English word begins with the corresponding word
language often begins with p as shown in the following examples:
French/pf Spanish fpf
Father "Pere Pade
Fish Poisson” —Pescado
mn? A.reasonable gues is that a common ancestor language
used a p in words for fish, father, and so on, We posta pt rather than an if
because more languages show a fp in these words. At some point speakers of
"his language separared into two groups that lost contact with each othe. In one
ofthe groups a sound change ofp -> f took place. The language spoken by this
‘group eventually became the ancestor of the Germanic languages. This ancieat
sound change left its erace in the f'p sound correspondence that
today, as illustrated in the digram.
Indo-European
ee
niet Proto-Germani
ee Sa
Trench ip! Spanish pt English A? Geran
yal
for whom vowels dd not mater nd who cared not jt for consonants
VOLTAIRE (694-1778)
lustrate changes inthe phonological system of
ipters we discussed speakers’ knowledge of phonology,
wowledge of the phonemes and phonologi
Either ofthese aspects of the phonology i subject
The vel rt pate of the phonemic inventory of most
Modern English dialects. Night used co be pronounced [nr] and drought was
pronounced [druxt]. This phonological change—the Joes of /x/—took place
[between the times of Chaucer and Shakespeare, Al words that were once po
need with an /x/ no longer include this sound. In some cases it disappeared
ether, asin light In other case me aK, asin elk (OM 492 CHAPTER 10 Language Chonge: The Syilabies of Time
Els col eal tn yt ober ca
asin bol
ake”
‘These examples show that changes inthe inventory of sounds in a language
«can oceur through the los of phonemes, The inventory can also change through
ition of phonemes. Old English did nor have the phoneme 9! of leisure
‘ough a process of palatalization—a change in place of articulation 0
cal region—certain occurrences of fa! were pronounced (3), Eventual
the [5] sound became a phoneme in is own right, reinforced by the fact that
10 many English speakers such as azure [sae]
phone of a phoneme igh sound change, become a separate
phoneme, thus adding to the phonemic inventor. Old English lacked ai pho:
reme. The phoneme however, had the allophone
vowels. Thus ofer ofer/ meaning “over” was pronounced [a3
had a long consonane phoneme fl that contrasted with Mb
ais involving {f] ana [o such as fee! and veal. Speaks therefor perceived
the two sounds as separate phonemes, in effect creating a new phoneme I
Similar changes occur inthe history ofall languages. Neither ff noe! were
phonemes of Latin, but /t is « phoneme of modern Iralian and if a phoneme
fof modern French, both of whi
in the “phonology.”
Phonological Rules
by the face thar the verbs ended
same cule that realized fas (v] between vowels
allophones (2] and 2] between vowels. This general rule added voiing to
fecaives, Thus the inthe verb house was pronounced
in the verb bathe was pronounced [8].
Later, a rule was added to the grammar of English deleting unstressed short
vowels atthe end of words (ven though the final owe sll appears
fen words). A contrast between the voiced and voiceless fiatives ce
the new phonemes /2/ and f6/ were added to the phonemic invent
‘rouse [havz] and bathe [bed] were now represents
final voiced consonants,
Eventually, hoch the unsteessed vowel delet
voicing from the grammar of En
rules can change both by addivion and loss of rules,
Changes in phonological
‘ences, In the previous chapt
sh. The set of phonological
scan, and often do, result in dialect differ.
wwe discussed che addition of an r-dropping ru
Phonological Chenge 493
fn English is not pronounced unles followed by a vowel) sha didnot spread
hortheastera and the southeen United State.
rom the sandpoine of the language asa whale, phonological changes occur
[gradually over the course of many generations of speakers, although any given
speaker's grammar may or may not eeflect the change. The changes are not
planned any more than we ate presently planning what changes will take place
fn English by the year 2300. In a single generation changes ace evident only
theough dialece differences
The Great Vowel Shift
Beeween 1400 and 1600 a major change took place in English that resulted in
new phonemic repeesentations of words and morphemes, This phonological
i known asthe Great Vowel Shift. The seven long, of tens, vow
cls of Middle English underwent the following change:
shite ample
Middle Modern Middle Modern
English English English English
FIGURE 10.1 |The Great Vowel Shi. 494 CHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Syllables of Time
on Modern English
by the Barly Middle Eng
the Great Vowel Shift whiel
affected only the
norphologically
Vowel Shortening rule. As a
curred later and applied only to long
«ach pait. Ths is why the vowels in the
<4 words are pronounced differently today, ss shown in
any spelling inconsistencies of
re way words were pronounced
age is more conservative,
Morphological Change
Ad she wellontet hie on should iad
shment to feed hi growing ing,
gated verbs and rounedelin'
WILLIAM COWPER, “ioc
Like phonologi
We can observe
These are no longer
fora more extensive discussion
sts are somewhat different
ingisa declension, ot list of
Noun Stem Case nding
genitive
5 dative Give food to the wolf
avcusative Tove the wolf
She walked with the wolf
Wolf, come here!
Wonderland, Lewis Catrall has
he-way
ely itean tal at any rate, there's
English corresponding to the n
sand vocatve cases, which existed
for in Modern English, where word order a
information
Auncient Greek and Sanskrit also
as did Old En
OF Singular
of the early Indo:
wodeen Indo-Furop
sh, phonological changes over the
cage endings,
5 the ge
Robert's dog, but that'll that
rerain a few more case 496 CHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Sy
Syntactic Change
Understanding changes in grammars» ey component nunerstanding changes
inlanguage
DAVID LIGHTFOOT, The Development of Languoge, 1993
‘When we see a word-for-word translation of older forms of English, we are most
sceuck by the differences in word order, Consider again the opening lines of The
Canterbury Tales, this time translated word:
‘Whan that Aprile wth his shoures soote
"When that April with ts showers sweet™
‘The droght of March hath perced co the roote
"The droughe of March has pierced eo the root
ly precede the nouns they modi
cr of showers sweet. Moreover, direct objects
low thie verb, so has pierced the drought of March tothe root
‘aman a
ion asleep
the passengers aboard
alone man
a sleeping lion
the boarded passengers
san asleep ion
‘the aboard passengers,
‘The adjectives that
fons weg>away ons slep>asleep on + life» alive
The preposition ov weakened to a prefix a- in these cases, but the
tion ofthe PP, which followed the Noun in OE (and also in Modern Er
was preserved. In some cases, the PP stil exists alongside the derived ad
for example, on boardaboard and on fireafire.
These excepcions aside, itis safe to say that syitatic change in English and
other languages is most evident inthe changes of permitted word orders
Synractic change in English iss good illuteation ofthe interrelatioaship of
the various madules ofthe grammar. Changes in syntax were oft
by changes in morphology, td thse in turn by changes in he phoslogy ofthe
language.
‘When the rich systm ofcasesendings of Old English became simplified in pace
because of phonological changes, speakers of English were forced to rely more
heavily on word order to convey the function of noun phrases, A sentence such as
% man pone leyning slob
the (nominative) man the accusative) king slew
was understood eo mean “the man slew the king” because of the case markings
(given in parentheses). There would have been no confusion on the listeners
‘part as 10 who did what to whom. Al
had a sic
tale sages of English che verb
For eample; the vetb 10 sing
(you sing singed (he sings} and
Te was therefore also possible in many eases ro
nf fen English the only
smackerofagceement isthe tied person sing
“Thus, in Modern English she man the hing sew’
tive clase meaning “the man thatthe king slew," with che subject and ob
slew reversed. To convey the meaning “the man slew the king,” Modern Es
speakers must rely on word oder—subjeet-verb-object—or other syntactic de
sich asthe ones that generate sentences ike Ie ws the king that the mar slew.
“The change in English word order reflects a change inthe cules of grammar.
Tn Old English che VP was head final, a5 indicated by he following PS rue:
vp > NPV
‘The Old English phease structure was like the phrase structure of Dutch and
Gecman, closely related languages. The English VP (but not German and Dutch)
underwent a change in parameter setting and became head intial as follows:
vp > VNP
system of subjectverb agreémes
sly grammatical as
[As a result Modern English has SVO word order whereas Old English (and
modern Dutch and German) have a basic SOV word ordee. However, Modeen
English still as remnants of the original SOV word order in “ ned”
kinds of expressions such as thee wed. In short, as morphological dstinetions
vanished over d
discussed
acy verb, if thee is one, before the NP subject:
Can the gil kiss the boy?
kiss the boy?
ised the boy yee
ng the hoy when you aceived?
require the word do to
hhad a more general cule that maved the First verbal ee-
lary occurred in the sentence, then the main
verb movemeat cule stil exist in languages like Dutch and German. In English
the rule of question foomation changed, s0 that nov only awniliary verbs move 498_cHaPreR 10 Langu
and if no auxiliary verb is present, a do 6
vated in pare by the fac that in Old En
bbeen marked for case, s0 there was no po
kissing whom. In effect, the sentence woul
its role, This rule change was moti
hy the giel end the boy would have
ity of misunderstanding who was
Kisses the (nominative
the (accusative) boy often?
Modern Enel
its rudimentary cas system, def
he direct object ist
grammatical rela
issister to the ver,
ation would be
ase poston, and the sentence this
iy indicates the subject and object of
in En
“Today we form the comparative by
y inserting more before it the supela
retains the SVO word order that most pl
the sentence, Another
double comparatives and double su
eal: more ladder,
Both Old English a
sides ofthe head
ish permitted split geritives, that is, pos
that describe the possessor aceue on bu
Towares Healfdenes (Old Es
‘The Wes tale of Bath (Middle Engl
“The Wife of Bach's tale”
Modern es but it does peemit rather
t complex genitive expressions ro precede the head now
ltr we stady a language soley from writen records, whi
\we can only infer what was ung
that expressions lke the Owe
change. As the case system weakene nt noun morphology
to carry the semantje burden of expressing possession. Oser the
1 defune
picture is that the loss of information that accompanies morpiolog
mn ean be compensated for by more rigid rules of ward order
«tic changes may take centuies to be completed, and there are often
inermediate stages,
‘Modern Brazilian Portuguese (BP) may illustrate one such intermediate stage
of language change. Until the middle of the nineteenth centory, speakers of BP.
dida’t need co explicitly mention a subject pronoun because that information
‘came from the person and number agreement on the verb, a8 ilustated for the
vetb cozinhar meaning “to cook.”
cozinha —Ycook corinhamas we cook
cozinhas you cook
cozinha he/she cooks ) cook
of thee sentences,
A sabe fazee rmuito bem,
the Clara Knows how odo very ow
Coni que € uma maraviha.
cooks (rd per.) that is a marvel
“Clara knows how to do everyting well, She cooks wonderfully”
By the end of the ewentieth century, subject-drop wae reduced 10 20 perce
and the agreement endings were also reduced, In certain dialeets ony a two-way
first person singular is
persons ate marked
al for most speakers of Modern BP wh
‘of an overe subject, for example el “she” a follows
of the other Romance languages, inchading Italian, Spanish, Catalany
and European Portuguese, are stl
verb morphology as illustrated for
‘may become ungrammatical fr all speakers in BP. If 0, BP will llow the route
of another Romance language, French, which evolved from a cchly inflected
bject language in the ntury toa language that now requires
spoken form also has avery impoverished ve
morphology:
Just as the loss of Of English noun and verb morphology resulted in strict
loss of agreement morphology in Bras
French, gave rise 10 a syntactic change from
es subjects. ln cis respect Bra
the other Romance language, as French di 500 CHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Syliables of Time
Lexical Change
Changes in he lexicon aso occur among shchare chang i he leit
‘dition of new words, the "bor-
meaning of worde overtime,
Change in Category
“cet Fay © Darby Cale it by Une Feature Sys,
“The words food and verb are of
to be so restricted and *wordifies” them into vers. If we speakers of English
audope Bucky's usage, then food and verb will become vers in addition to nouns.
Recently, a radio announcer said that Congress was “to-ing and feo-ing” on 3
certain ise, to mean “wavering.” This stange compound vec is derived
Addition of New Words
“And to brngina new word bythe head and Shuler, hey leave aut the oe
MONTAIGNE (1535-1592)
One of the most obvious ways a language changes is through the addition of
ew words, Unlike grammatical change, which may take generations 10 1
fnew words ace
‘apparent. Societies often require new words to describe
changes in technology, ports, entertainment, and s0 on, Languages are accom
‘modating and inventive in meeting these needs.
In chapter 1 we
ussed some ways in which new words are born, such 25
through derivation
processes, back-formations, and compounding. There
bother ways that words may enter the vocabul
the inventory of lexical tems, These include ourand:
|vords from names, Blending words to form new words, shortening old words 0
Form new ones, forming acronyms, and borzoxeing words from other languages.
Word Coinage
‘Weds may be created outright «0 fit some purpose. The advertising industry
has added many words to English, such as Kodak, nylon, Orlon, and Dacron.
Specific brand names such as Xerox, Band-Aid, Kleenex, Jell-O, Brilo, and
Vaseline are now sometimes used as the generic name for diferent brands of
these types of products. Some ofthese words ws reared from existing
‘words (eg, Kleenex feom the word clear an
“The seiences have given us a raft of newly coined
ce asteroid, neutron, genome, krypton, Bro
ated to describe the
Ieening "gaudy jewelry,” was a pos
‘years ago, and unless you have a ecently published dictionary or use an
"stionaty, you won't find an entry for bli. (Indeed, the word processor
fon which we are typing your book tells us that by under
ing iin red) Also new co this millennium are Bollytoood, “the film industcy
and sudokin a “certain kind of puazle.” Sometimes words originally
Coined for one purpose, such as the company name Google, are put co work to
Serve a related purpose, such as google, meaning “to search on the Internet.”
‘Greek coots borrowed into English have also provided a means foc coining new
words. Thermos “hot” plas metron “measure” gave us thermometer. From akros
“Nopmost" and phobia “fea,” we get acrophobia, “dread of heights” To avoid
_soing out on Friday the thirteenth, you may say that you have triskaidekaphobia,
‘profound fear of the number 13. An ingenious cartoonist, Robert Osborn, has
favented” some phobias, to each of which he gives an appropriate name’?
logizomechanophobia “feat of reckoning machines” from Greek Iogizo-
s mekhane “device”
clipzoeyllabophobia cha missing syllable” feom
ling shore" + syllabe “sy-
pornophobia “fear of prostitutes” from Greek porne *hatlot" +
phobia
[ram An Osborn Festival of Phobias by Robert Osbora and Eve engl. Copyrighe 1971
Robers Osborn, Teue copyright © 1971 Eve Wenler, Used by permission of Lng
Tshing Corpor, 502 chapter 10
exhusband
The sufi
ver
writable
Even new
British usage,
Princess of Wales, Diana. A change currently under way
mean *win a championship so many years it
Fourpeat, whi
Imavie monster Godsilla,
also provided prefixes and suffixes that are used peo
ive and nonnative roo:s. The prefix ex- comes from
exwife exsisterinlaw ex
sable lo Latin and can be attached to almost any English
readable answerable movable learnable
sound monphemes
gate means a scandal involving Iran,
tefers toa scandal involving wiretapped con
w ved in the newspaper.
ade the dictionaries are words th
“buge or extreme,” a
“the best" or “the mose™
ing” od one, as in hi
Words from Names
Eponyms are words that are coined of the
zeative ways that the vocabulary of a language expands. Hee are some
examples
fourth Earl of Sandwich, who put his food
ices of bread so tha he could eat while he
to the United Staes by P.T. Bar
8" need not be as big as
however!
We admit to ignorance of the Susan,
‘compound lazy. desived; or the
wwe gor brown bet,
rn by the chiefs of Argyl of the Campbell clan in Scotland.
1azz0, “a freelance photographer who doggedly pursues celeb:
‘known word until the death of Princess Diana in 1997, who
lar to compounds in that they are produced by combining two
rts of the words hi are deleted. Smog, from smoke
‘motel, from motor + hotel, nfomer-
ftom urine + analyse are exemple
nglish. Podcast (podcasting,
ly new word meaning “Ineenet audio broadcast” and
‘he English language as a blend of iPod and broadcast, Lewis
ley fom chuckle + snort, has achieved limited acceptance i
is famous for both coining and blending words. In Through
he describes the “meanings” of the made-up words in
ortmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into
fone word... "Toves” are ce badgers—theyre something
inards—~and they're corkscrews
cheeses. To “gyre” is
ble iso make holes
s-plot round a sur-di
= because it goes along way before it and a long
++, "Mimsy" is “flimsy and miserable” (there's another
for you),
“portmanteaus” are what we have called blends, and such wordy
ofthe regular lexicon,
ven done by children. The blend crocogator from crocodile 4
buted to chrce-year-old Elijah Peregrine. Grandmothers are nok
ida Jewish one of African descent that we know came up with
a bend of sugar + bubeleh, and which we
4 Yiddish term of endearment
expression che [jod} Compare the hood). which we
te yud, the yood?), and was applied to a neighbote
ny speakers of Yiddish, perhaps a blend of
the social Reduced Words
to shorten the messages they
is seen dramat
wesemesging
‘with spoken language and observe three reduction phenomena: clipping, acro-
nym, and alphabetic abb _
ing. is the abbreviation of longer words into shorter ones, such as fax
foc facsimile, the British word telly for television, prof for professor, piano
for pianoforte, and gym for gymnasium. Once considered slang, these words
‘words in their own right. These are
ike, math, gas phone,
cs, ep
dis and rad (feom disrespect and
and dis has come tobe used as a verb mean
3). More
language,
of several words. Such words
[nseso] from National Aeronat
mnesko] from United Nations Edu
jon, and UNICEF (yunisef] from
United Nations gency Fund. Radar feom "radio
detecting and ranging," laser feom “I ication by stimulated emission
‘of radiation,” scuba from “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus,” and
RAM from “random access memory” shaw the creative efforts of word coiners,
5 does snafu, which was coined by soldiers in World War Il and is endered in
ruation normal, all fouled up.” Recently coined additions are
com the initials of acquired immune deficiency syndeome, and
are pronounced as the spel
ties and Space Ade
I, Seis
ly pronounced aba word, the “aezonymn”
L (efel) for National Football,
Los Angeles, and MRI
kinds of acronyms are
ions are being added to the vocabi
with the proliferation of computers and widespread use of the Inter
log), jpeg (joint photographics expert grou
nounced “gooey” for gr
and MP3 for MPEG layer 3, where MPEG i
ture experts group.
Unbelievable though ie may sem, acronyms in use somewhere in the English
speaking world number into the ten of thousands f not hundrede of thousands,
a dramatic nod to the creativity and changeabilty of human language.
‘is the acronym for moving pi
Borrowings or Loan Words
Netter borrower, nor ender be
(WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Femi 1600
‘Languages pay litle attention ro Polonius’s admonition quoted above, and many
are asd borrowers and lendess. Borrowing words from other languages is an
3X source of new words, which ae called loan words. Borrowing occurs
lexicon. This often happens in situations of language contact, when s
act with one another, and especial
Larger units than words may be borcowed. French provides us with ménage &
trois ménag a tna}, where [p] is uvular til, meaning a "three-way romance,”
And whichis pronounced in the French way by those who know French, but is
also anglicized in various ways such as [mena a twa]
‘When an exptession is horeoweed and then translated into che
language, such as worldoiew from Geeman Weltanschawung, iti.
jon It goes without saying from French i va sans die is alo
mn fom French. On the of
in ranslation of hot dogs with an adjustment reversing the order of the adjec-
tive and noun, as required by che rales of Spanish
“The lexicons of most languages can be divided into native words and loan
words. A native word i one whose history or etymology can be traced back to
the earliest known stages ofthe language
jzuage may borrow a word directly or inditectly. A direce borrowing
means Thorcowed item is a native word in th
borrowed, For example, feast was borrowed digectly from French, along with a
hose of terms asa result ofthe Norman conquest. By contrast, the word algebra
‘was borrowed from Spanish, which in cura had borrowed i from Arabic. Thus
falgebra was indieeetly borrowed from Arabic, with Spanish as an intecmediary.
Some languages are heavy borrowers. Albanian has borrowed so heavily that
tecained. On the other hand, most Native American lan
‘guages borrowed litte from their neighbors.
‘English has borrowed extensively. Of the 20,000 or
bout three fifths ace borrowed. But of the S00 mos
‘only wo-sevenths are hrrowed, and because these wo
sentences—they are mostly function words
‘of native words is abour 80 percent, The fr
swords in common use,
fequently used words,
are used repeatedly in
reaueney of appearance
from French. The bound morpheme suffixes iblelale were also borrowed from.
French, arsiving in English by hitchhiking on French words such as incredible
bur soon attaching chemselves to native words suchas drinkable.
Lexical Change 505 History through Loan Words
Amarsl of genuine!
THOMAS JeFFERsor
te Angles, the Saxons, and the Jates inhabited
in when
regional variet
mes, chorehes, and the marketplace
it between French, the culturally dom
Daring these three centuries, vast num:
ish, af which che representative:
government crown prince estate
judge crime
charity
lechery
religion
the N
he ate ox. If
“ox” served
English, as were the
the years Fre
preparers
aspic bisque
canapé caviar
croissant croguette
mousse pte
scargot
‘i ragout
ned” words from forcign sources during the
Renaissance: ta 15°
By 1640, $5,000 books
used many Greek and 1
rom Greek came drama, comedy tragedy, scene, botany, physics, zoology and
‘atomic. Latin loan words in English are numerous, They inclae:
bonus scientific exit alumnus quorum — describe
During the ninth and tenth centuries Scandinavian raiders, who eventually
serted in the British Isles, lft hei races in the English language, The pronouns
the, thei, and thems are loan words from Old Norse, the predecessor of modeth
Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. This period is the only time that English ever
borrowed peonoune,
n, flannel clan slogam, and whisky ae all words of Clic origin, borrowed at
various times from Welsh, Scots Gali, or irish, Dutch was a source of borrowed
words, too, many of which ate elated to shipping: buoy, freight, Teak,
yache,
ing words describing opera houses, have
been borrowed: opera, piano, virtuoso, leony, and medzanin
us influenza, which was derived from the uence” because
Italians were convinced that the disease was influenced bythe stars
Many scientific words were borrowed indirectly from tabs, b
Arab scholarship in these fields was quite advanced. Alcobo,
and cero are a small sample. Spanish has loaned us
roach, and ranch, as well as California,
sh-speaking colonists borrowed from Native Ameri
ton of language contac, but in which English isthe
language. Native American
‘opossum, and squash, £0 me
states are borrowed from one American Indian language or another
English has borrowed from Yiddish, Many non-Jews as wel
speaking Jews use Yiddish words, There was once even a bu
ing: "Marcel Proust is a yenta.” Ye
woman.” Lox, meaning “smoked sal
cement,” now belong t0 E
zy seblemiel, scbrinck,
isa lender of many we
‘of technology, sports, and ener
whisky, blue jeans, roc
have been borroneed feo
Russian, and Japanese
and bagel, “a doughnut dipped in
s Yiddish expressions like ebutepah,
schlep, and hibit
to other languages, expec
in the areas
ket, baseball, pi
into languages as diverse a8 Twi, Hungarian,
Loss of Words
Pease pride inthe pot ine day old
NURSERY RHYME 508 chaPTEn 10 Language Change: The Syilabes of Time
Ihough the departure of an old word is never
‘one: When anew word comes into YORU,
fon, but a word is lost chrough inattention—
dit Eades a9
"A reading of Shakespeare's works shows that English has lost many words
such a these aken from Romeo avd Juliet: beseem, “to be 4
met, "2 doll or puppet," wor, "to know,” gyee, "a fetter” fai
‘therefore, “why.” asin Juliet’ plaintive ery: “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore a
which she is questioning why he is $0 named, not his current
a striking a5
its unusual presence dravis at
whereabouts
‘More recently, there are expressions used by your grandparents that have
alceady been lost For example, wo bits, meaning “cventy-five cents,” is nolonget
ri Hekery-split, meaning “very fast.” And even words used by your par-
ts fand us) sound dated, for example, groovy ("excelent"), davenport ('soa"),
nd gross and Mary Jane, both referring to “marijuana.” The word stile, meaning
Sess crosing a fence or gate,” is no Tonger widely understood. Other similar
‘words for describing cural objects are fading out ofthe language as ares
rae fom which ped isa back-formation, is gone, and porri
is falling out of wsage, although ics sustained by
i discustion ofits ideal serving temperature in che childea's story Gol
the Thyee Bears and its appearance on Harty Potters breakfast able.
“Technological change may also be the cause forthe loss of words
once meant “sharpener of weapons,” and formentio: once meant “siege engine.”
‘Advances in warfare have put these terms out of business. Although one
uckboard, bugey, dogcart, hansom, surrey, and tured in the
"“iferent kinds of horse-drawn car
ly to ender these terms obsolete and
riages
trentualy they willbe lost.
Semantic Change
Te lorguage ofthis country being always upon the flu the truldbraggs fone age do
Tot undestand thse of another, eter are he ble after to hundred years to eld
JONATHAN SWIFT, Gules rv, 125
‘We have seen that a language may gain or lose lexical items. Ads
Ieaning or semantic representation of words may change, by becoming broader
fo naceower, of by shifting.
Broadening
‘When the meaning of a word becomes broade, it means everything it used 10
tear and more. The Middle English word dogge refered to a specific breed
‘of dog, bat was eventually broadened to encompass all members ofthe species
canis fami
‘cance fom
‘The word holiday originally meant a day of religious signifi-
‘oly day” Today the word eeers to any day that we do not have
rk, Picture used to mean "panced represe ‘bat now you caa eake
1 pleture with a cameca, not 0 mention a ell phone. Quaranhie once had the
festtcted meaning of “forty days isolation,” and manage once meant simply (0
handlea horse.
‘More recent broadenings, pursed by che computer age, are computer, mows,
cookie, cache, virus, and bundle. Footage use to reer to 2 certain length of
film or videotape, but nowadays it means any excerpt from the electronic video
‘media such 35 BVDs, irrespective of whether it length can be measured in fet.
Google was broadened first from the name of a company to a verb meaning
‘Zo use that company’s search engine on the Internet,” and from there further
broadened to simply “search che Inernes”
Narrowing
In the King James Version of the Bible (L611 ct), God says of the herbs
fand trees, 10 you they shall be for meat” (Genesis 1:29). To a speaker of
Seventcenth-century English, meat meant “food,” and flesh meant “meat.” Since
that time, semantic change has narcowed the meaning of bat it
‘Modern English, The word deer once meant “beast” or “animal
cognate Tier sll does. The meaning of deer has been nacrowe
iad of animal, Similaly, the word howd used tobe che general term for "dog,
ind of dog, one wsed for
narrowed tO mean “the
Meaning Shifts
“The thied kind of semantic change that lexical item may undergo is a shife
jn meaning, The word right once meant “youth” but shifted ro “mounred
Imanatarms." Lust used to mean simpy “pleasuce,” with no negative or sexual
fvertones, Lewd was mecely "ignorant," and immoral meant “not customary.”
‘used to mean “happ) ‘By the Middle English period it had
‘ome to mean “naive” and only in Modera English does it mean “foolish.” The
‘overworked Modeen English word rice meant “ignorant” a thousand years ago.
‘When Juliet tells Romeo, “Tam too fo
too mich, She means "Lam too fool
Reconstructing “Dead” Languages
iglanguages. 2s they were called bythe Harvard felons, were tie more
lw ditrtons alan, Sparish and German,
lay
‘eoretented the loose pit pasons body appetites, and absent mora of decadent
turope
MATTHEW PEARL, The Dart Cub, 2007 510_CHAPTER 10 Languoge Change: The Syilabiee of Time:
gutges for Mss Blin. They must be desd—sonedead-and
A
[CHARLES DICKENS, Comey ond San, 1888
ng languages
1 written record,
ace able ro
yes thar occ
ineteenth-Century Comparativists
‘When agreement fund in words in two anguape, nds
sles may
be dren
The chiof goal ofthe nineteenth-century
to develop and elucidate the genetic vl
languages. They aimed to establish the maj
fine principles for the classification
es on observations of regular sound carresp
‘They proposed chat languages displaying syst
must have descended from a common source
to Greek aiid Lat
duced by accident.
Earlier sage" th dh gh
les ele
Later stage:
.guist Franz Bopp pointed out
nd Germanic. Arche same
Rasmus Rask corroborated these result
Rack wi
TRask’s work inspired «
who pal
sound correspond.
1 the systematic
saure ofthe has am fs whe
Latin has a [9 English often Enalish often
posited a far earlier language (which we now refer 10 as Indo
opean) from which all these languages evolved, He expl
correspondences by means of rules of phonologics
yguists called sound shi
a certain rules of sound change that apy
uding the ancestors of Eng
‘This accounted very nicely
nie languages and the
Grimm were so strikingly regula, they became kno
lstrated in Figuee 10.2.
Cognates
+f of cognates from
indicates that the languages are gen:
curs only inhi chap, i 512_cHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Sibley of Time 7
Reereing ae ees Fe
lo-European Sanskrit English
” po pater father
ot tes 7 8 three
** kk canis hound
» Bb abism op tip
4 a dot tho
‘3 Bae | k ace
oa f fater brother
san f wid a
eh bo veh gwagon
FIGURE 10.4 | ome Indo-European sound corespondences.
ere begining with ip in Sanskcc and Latin just happen to begin with in Ger i
sn ORNS rani, and soon I would far excecd the posits of eoincidence |
fact tae the changes phonology of she languages tha has es
res ©Btean ne epee wth perio ing Fens Sts the remackably regula, pervasive corcespondences that allow us fo reconstruct
; Imhof the Indo-European soon sytem
“Grimm noted that tere weve excepunns tothe regular correspondences he
Tndo-Furopean Sanskrit Latin English ee ea aaa
875, Karl Verner exp
é txceptions to Grimm’ Law, He formulated Verner Law to show why Indo~
. » » i European p and failed to coreespond tof 8, and x in certain cases:
pita pater father ‘Vermer's Law: When the preceding vowel was unstessedf, 8, and x
ad ed foot underwent a further change t0 6 dan a
Nocognate ——_piscis fish ae eee
pasa peeu fe
group of young nineteenth-
bear century proposed the Neo-Grammarian hypothesis, which says that
FIGURE 10.2 | Cognates of ndo-European Sound shifts aze not merely tendencies (as
“is lan pronoveed leet on ‘words that meet their en
ie was erasted that Furth
‘Verner’s Law explained the exceptions to
viewed
change
sms Law. The Neogram
istes asa natural science and therefore believed that laws of sound
tanexceptionable natural laws. The “laws” they put forth often did
have exceptions, however, which could not always be ex
Figure 10.4 isa more detailed chart of correspondences,
cof each regular correspondence. For each line in the chare
many further correspondences such as Sanskrit ply La
ined as dramatically
foot for pp thereby showing the consistent and systematic relationships as Verner's Law explained the exceptions to Grimms Law. St
{hat lead fo the reconsteuction ofthe Indo-European sound shown in the first these linguists provides important daca and insights into language change and
column. ‘why such changes occur
SSenskrit underwent the fewest consonant changes (has more sounds in com "The linguistic work that we have been discussing had some influence on
mon with Indo-European), Latin somewhat more, and Germanic (under Grimm's ‘Charles Daewin, and in turn, Darvin’ theory of evolution had a profound inf
Taw) underwent almost a complete restructuring. The changes we observe are
‘changes 0 the phonemes and phonological rules, and all words with those pho
hemes will reflece those changes (but see the “caveat” in the following para
tEaph). If we imagine that the changes happened independently to individual ogi
vidal sounds, we could not explain why so many words tion of iow languages change and evolve into other languages. S14_CHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Syllablos of Tine Reconstructing “Des” Lan
Comparative Reconstruction
the three other
supports the vie
‘3 common Langs
Spanish, and Portuguese
rethod leads to there
parent language, and shove that (k] un
in Italian, Spanish, o Portugu
WILLIAM COWPER, “Rete
we comparative method, analysts identify regu
ences in the cognates of pote
they deduce the m
the sound system of the parent may be reconstructed. 1
cal changes inthe development of each daughter
changed Irom the parent
correspondence,
this way, much of
ecm !
i
- ‘hono ‘yono.
partial construction, One pro- hea
and a8 a phonological rule and has an acoustic ©
iss reconstruct an “fin che parent, and posi che sound change
in Languages A and B, and “f becomes o” in Language D. One
‘obviously neds experience and knowledge to conclude this.
‘The other correspondences are not problematic as far as these data are
concerned
mparative method, we ean apply it to Romance lan
hand Poetaguese, Theie pr
oo meee ate reel mmm
ral sound changes found in many ofthe world’s languages
cher eai5- caro dear” eis now possible ro reconstruct the words of the protolanguage. They are
champ campo eld” *fono, “fri, afi, and “for
chandelle cones
vative of the chee Language C isthe most conser
insofar as these data are concerned.
"The sound changes seen in the previous illustrations are examples of uncon-|
fed sound change. The changes occurred icrespecive of phonetic context.
1g is an example of conditioned sound change, caken from three dialects
Standard Northern Lombard
fiso fiso fis fixed”
asa asa kaso “cabin”
“The correspondence ses are:
FH ii mss ooet kkk aaa ano
Ini straightforwaed to reconstruct “
nant likes commonly becomes (rec:
hifor the sess eortespondence. A shocteaing change took place in the Nort
ern and Lombard di
“There is evidence in these (ver
vowels, again a change
bores and "a for 2°9.
‘The sound o vas deleted
and *k, Knowing that a long conso-
ish, We reconsteuce
Sound change took
position, but remained o elsewher
fewhere. As fae as we
rom the data pees
Vowels in other postions do not undergo change.
"We reconstruct the peotodialect as having had the words ‘fisso meaning
“fixed” and “asia meaning “cabinet.”
Tis by means of the comparative method that nineteenth-century linguists
were able to initiate the reconstruction of Indo-European, the long-lost ancesteal
language so aptly conceived by Jones, Bopp, Rask, and Grimm, a language that
flourished about 6,000 years ago.
istorical Evidence
"You know my method tis founded upon the observance of ti
SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery In The Memos of
Sheoe eles 1891
“The comparative method isnot the only way to explore th history ofa language
or language family, and it may prove unable ro answer certain questions because
Sata ae lacking or because reconstructions are untenable, For example, how do
‘we know positively hw Shakespeare or Chaucer or the author of Beowulf pro:
nounced thei versions of Eng! hod leaves many details
in doubt, wowledge
"ke empay angled brackets Indicate a ooo he sound
Se eet a nee ae
Reconstructing “Dead” Langueses 517
For many languages, written records go back mote than a thousand years
Linguists stady these records to Find out hovr Languages were once pronounced,
The spelling in early manuscripts tells usa great deal about the sound systems
of older forms of modern languages. Tivo words sp feretly were prob:
‘Once several orthographic contrasts ae identified,
wwe spell Mary, merry, ane
‘most speakers pronounced chem differently, pre
For atleast one modern American dialect, only fl ean occur belore I s0 the
‘nother instance ofa conditioned sound change.
‘Various documents from the past can be examined for evidence. Private let
ters ace an excellent, 1s prefer leters written by 1
spellers, who tothe way they pronounce them.
For instance led wih er in theie
jah English clrk and derby are pronouaced “clark” and “datby.” Some poor
speller kept wtiting parfer for perfect, which helped linguists discover the older
ron
Cues are aiso provided by the writings ofthe prescriptive grammarians of
the period, Between 1550 and 1750 scholars known as orthoepists attempted
ish, In prescribing how people sho
they tol us how people actually spoke. An orthoepist alive in
J write in a manual “Tes incoreect ro pronounce Cuba wi
12" Fature scholars would know that some speakers of English prono
thse way
Some of the best clues to carlie pronunciation are provided by puns and
shymes in literature, Two words thyme ifthe vowels and final consonants are
the same ind i strongly
vggests that
neNvouio: in vain to seek him here that means not 9 be found.
owto: He ests at sars that never feta wound:
vowels ofthese two words were identical
Shakespeare's chymes are helpful in ceconstructing the sound system of Eliza-
bethan English, The shyming of comvert with depart in Sonnet XI strengthens
‘er was pronounced as ar
‘Most powerllly the above techniques may be combined with the compara
tive method. Dileet differences discovered through written eecords may permit
‘comparison ofthe pronunciation of various words in several dialects. On that
basis we can draw conclusions ahoue earlier forms and see what changes took
place in the i
fone such ease
nds and in the phonological rules. We illustrated
sm dialects on the preceding page.
ists working on languages with written records
scscribe
Taguagess analyze them phonologi ies in basic vocabulary
and regular sound correspondences not resulting feom chance or bostowing.
Only then can the comparative method be applied to reconstruct the extinct
protolenguage.
Proceeding in this manner
i have icone many eatin
ge and have ccs ceconsated Ame
indian protlanguaer, Smo sheers hve been ade it the nme
Tanguaes spoken in Aira, Th lange ume of Asean lngaes hove
been grouped iro fue overarching families Aten, Ni
Congo, and
NeeeCone fs
Extinct and Endangered Languages
‘Ary language the supreme achievement ofa uniquely human collie go, as ine
and unfathomable mystery as avingoranem,
[MICHAEL KRAUSS, in 3 psechtothe Ling
Society of re
becouse anguagesare the pedigree
SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784)
‘A language dies and becom
‘dented several way
spoken form.
A language
language themselves die o
‘once spoken
Extinct and Endangered
ime) Hebrew ae such languages. Latin evolved into the Romance lang
and by the ninth century there were few if any peoples speaking Latin in dal
itwations. Today its use is confined ro scholarly and
‘Many Notive American languages are experi
ber of native speakers ove time. Only 20 percent ofthe remaining indige
rd States are being a
‘or spoken. In
000 indigenous
poke
00, may become
sce considered endangered by
fam ie studying
he las few speakers. Each language pr
human cognition through its grammar.
and word structuce, each language stores the collective in
refuses wo do sa for fear of
speaking comm is believed that stsndardiztion
Isolate Quebecers and lead to the extinction of Pench in C $20 CHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Syllables of Time
ud, the office uses its powers to promote the use of French, irespective of
ferences among them that provide evidence for degrees of
snontelaedness,
latedness or for
guage occurred in Israel
but today,
age of israel. The
‘Academy of the Hebrew Language ia Israel undertook a task that had never
‘been done in the history of hurnanity—to awaken an ancient writen language ©
the daily colloquial needs ofthe people. Twenty-three lexicologists
‘with the Bible and the Talmod to adé new words tothe language. While there
tempt to Keep the language “pure,” the acader
pressure. Thus, a bank check is called a check (fl
German, and.
not shared by
letmamese shows 3
aise (shown
lariies
Hones 4
the Hebrew word htaricha‘ah was proposed
cover sfaton and pajama over chalifatsheina
‘The United Nations, #90, is concerned about endangered languages. In
1991, the United Nations Education and Caleural Organization
(UNESCO) passed a tesolurion thar
AAs the disappearance of any one language constitutes an ireetievabe loss
‘is for UNESCO a task of great urgency to respond to this
fn by promoting ... the descripion—in the form of grammars,
dictionaries, and texts—of endangered and dying languages.
mo cn are stent in that they
are more closely elated to one anocher than any
ofthe are ro non- Germanic languages such at French of Ruse
ge are also soe ang
cacey the family metaphor to an extreme, we
The docu preservation of dying languages i not only impor: ‘guages and che Romance languages a
tant foc soil and eultral reasons There i lo a sient reason for study Proto-Germanicand eaiy
ing these languages. Through examining a wie array of differen types of lan- ryone from a lage ft
‘guages, linguists can develop a comprehensive theory of language that accounts distant cousins, encompassing nearly a
for both i universal and languagespecific properties. : “This is true ofthe Indo-Evropean fan
Romance languages are taly cousins, the
iy of languages. If the Germanic and
raguages suchas Greek, Armenian,
are distane cousins, So are
guage, Celtic, was once
Breton is pen in Brie
‘was brought thee by Cees
The Genetic Classification
spoken widely throughout Eco
of Languages {any in the northwest consal eons of France.
fleeing from Britain in the seven
‘The Son ngusge whatever be sanity ofa wonder more erect iss ser, Bulgarian, Serbo-Cro
‘than the Greek more opus than he tn and more exqistelyefined than ether, yt Polish, Czech, and Slovak. The Baltic language Lithuanian is related to English,
ists sister language, Latvian. A neighboring language, however,
ot a eelative. Sanskrit, removed geographically, is nonetheless
offspring, Hinds and Ben-
are distantly related ro English, Persian (or
isa distane cousin of English, as is Kurdish, which
spoken primarily in South As
SIR WILLIAM JONES (1786-1796 Fars spoken in modern tra
Mtetwa wart ei e is spoken in ran rag, and Tukey, and Pashto, which is spoken in Afghanistan
tnd Pakistan. al hese languages, excep for Eatoian, ae elated, more or less
‘We have discussed how diferent languages evolve fom one language and how Aiscantly, co one another bocause they all descended from Tndo-Furopean,
historical and comparative linguists classify languages into families such as Figure 10.5 is an abbreviated family sree of the Indo-European languages
Germanic of Romance and reconstruct earlier forms ofthe ancestral language. that gives a genealogical and historical classification of the languages shown.
‘When we examine the languages of the word, we perceive similarities and d= “This diagram is somewhat simplified. For example, it appears chat
eee a
che Slavic INDO-EUROPEAN
2 = G Pesian
8 b— Kurdish
a 2 Pashio.
eee ee
ge Latvian
5
fg
@ z i
z é& =
g i
eft
2) Afrikaans
bs. Dutch
8 7
© Ly —___Triivian
= Gemma —
Yih
& 23
Greek
languages shown can be organized hierae-
showing some more closely related chan others. In other words, the vat-
jus separations that resulted inthe ni guages we see tolay occurred
Several times over a long steetch of time. Similar remarks apply to the other
Indo- Eu
Janguages thar evolved and
ied leaving no offspring —are not ave alzeady mentioned I
and Tocharian as rwo sch Indo-European languages, The
to show several intermediate stages that must have
mode ge. Languages do not evolve abruptly, whichis why comparisons
ith the genealogical tres of biology have limited usefulness,
tram fails to show some Indo-European languages because of lack of space
Languages of the World _
‘an the whol earth was ef ne language and of one speech.
‘GENESIS Te, The Bi, King ames Version
Les go dow, and there confound
another speech
GENESIS 117, The Ble, King oes Version
guage tht they may net understand one
he work's languages do not helong tothe Indo-European family. Lin-
joists have also attempted to classify the non-Indo: European languages accord-
10 their genetic elationships. The tsk is 10 identify the
‘common quest
‘guages do you speak?” and “How
ate dfficule to answer prec
ty with several languages, and
degrees of
‘comfeh sp for more det
‘very continent where languages are spoken, though this number
and may be very much larger. Inthe eity of Los Angeles alone, mor
sages are spoken. Students at Ho
parents speak
‘and Russian, amang others 524_ CHAPTER 10 Lenguage Chant
I's often sucprising
which ones are not. Ne ‘an Indo-European
ides by Indo-European lan
living languages. They ace called language isolates. Basque, spoken in the Pyr
tenees Mountains between Spain and France, and Aina, spoken on the island of
Hokkaido, Japan, are among the forty oso isolates mentioned in the Ethno:
logue. Many sign languages, insofar as ican be determined, ae isolates.
in an intcoductory texto give an exhaustive table of families,
languages. Besides, some genatic relationships have
hovever, may be an art
see common features tha
1 depths ofthe past. Readers interest
the writings of Professor Johanna Nichols of
Berkeley. And of course more ean be found by googling nostatic,
ic isthe other majo family of language, besides Indo-European, thats
spoken on the European continent. Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian ae the
rmajoe eepeesentatives ofthis geoup.
“Afro-Aiatc is a large family of languages spoken in northern Africa and
the Middle Ease Ie includes che modern Semitic Languages of Hebrew and Ara-
bic, as well as Languages spoken in bi
‘Canaanite, and Moabit.
“The Sino-Tibeta
spoken by more than
ses such as Swal
Nearly as numerous, the Austronesian family contains about thirteen hun-
jag, spoken over a wide expanse ofthe globe, from Madagascar, off
the const of Aiea, to Hawaii, Hawalian is an Austeonesian language, a5 ace
‘Maori, spoken in New Zea lo, spoken pine Islands; and
‘Malay, spoke
ly, called Trans-New Guinea, is
yeographic area of New Guinea and neigh-
six hundeed languages, most of them being
Papuan languages. Thus theee language families alone make up half of the lan
suages spoken inthe world.
oe
and hundreds of languages are, or were, spoken in North
Knowledge of the genetic relationships among these fami
say. of the languages are
‘be litle hope for as thorough di underscand>
ing of the Amerindian language families as linguists have achieved for Indo-
European.
Types of Languages
ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, 7 century Cx
There are many ways to classify languages. One way already discussed in this
chapter is according to the ication. This
method would be like classifying people according ta whether they were related
by blood. Another way of classifying languages is by certain linguistic traits,
segardles of family. With people, this method would be like classifying them
according to height and weight, political preference, religion, degree of wealth,
And s0 on
‘So far in this book we have hinted atthe different ways that languages might
be classified. From a phonological point of view, we have tone languages ver~
languages with varying
hice to as high asa dozen or more.
ied according the number and kinds of consonants they
not (French)
be classified according to
Vietnamese as litle
if any word morphology, so its words are monomorpher
there are no plural
affixes on notin o° agreement affixes on verbs, Such languages are referred to
3 morpheme per word ac called syatheti
swords may be formed by @ root
f Languages 525, 526 CHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Sy
{na fusional synthetic language the morphemes are, well, fused together, 50 it
is hard to identify their basi shape. Many Indo-European languages ate ofthis
type, such as Spanish. In hablo, bablan, bablé, meaning “I speak, they speak,
T spoke,” the afixes cary a fasion of the meanings “person” and “number™
and “tense” so that -o means “fst person, singular, present”
Person, plural, preset” and -e means “first person,
san means “third
ast, singular." The affixes
idval meanings thac they bese,
nages—tecmed polyspathetic by linguists-have extraond
oes in which a single word may have ten or more affixes
and carry the semantic lead of an entie English sentence, Many native lan
iguages of North America ate polysynthetic, inclading Mohawk, Cherokee, and
‘Menominee. For example, the Menomines
themselves cannot be decomposed into
Yer other
[es like the
tions are made egarding pes
for describing family members as to whether
ine, feminine, and neuter notins of Germ
(we observed in chapter 1,
very language has sentences cha include a subject (8), am object (O),
verb ‘ments, Fron
the othe bas
‘or most common order ere ate six
possible orders—SVO.
permitting,
kzuages make
proportions
lstrate SOV
hey sing beautifully. (V-Ade) (Cf, "They beautifully sing.)
hey are from Tokyo. (Prep
sakana
fish
raya tabemasy
‘Akiko ‘uickly eats
“Akiko eats quick.”
Akio wa Tokyo kara desu /PostP)
‘Akiko topic marker Tokyo irom is
"Akiko is from Tokyo."
‘These differences, and many more like them, stem from single underlying
parameter choices the placement ofthe head of phrase. SVO languages are head:
final; SOV languages ae head inita.
SOV languages are dominant is nor completely
understood, but linguists have observed that two principles or consteaints are
favored:
Subjects precede objects
2) The verb Vis adice
the object O.
that are either SVO
ject for
les, though this
yuistie research.
possible word
“Believe you me” on net-
VSO word order. Yods,
te become,
Around the sun
Serong with 528_cHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Sylabies of Time,
many ways, they ate also remarkably similar in many ways. We find that
guages from northern Greenland to southern Neve Zealand, from the Fas
0 the Far Wes, all have similae sounds, similar phonological and syntactic
rules, and similar semantic systems.
Why Do Languages Change?
‘Some method should be thought on fr acetlning ad sng or argue forever.
| sex no abelute necessity why any language sould be perpetual charging
JONATHAN SWIFT (667-745)
Stabty in language synonyms with igor mort
ERNEST WEEKLEY (1885-1950)
No one knows exactly how or why languages change. As we have shown,
istic changes do not happen Speakers of English did nor wake up
fone morning and decide to nse the word beef fr “ox meat,” nor do all the ehil-
tien of one perticular generation grow up to adopt anew word. Changes are
‘moze gradual, particulaely changes in che phonological and syntactic system,
"For any one speaker, certain changes may ogcur instantaneously, When some~
lone acquites a new word, its not acquired gradually, alshough full appreciation
ies possible uses may come slowly. When a new rule eters a speaker’
is eicher in or not in the grammar. It may a first be an optional
ot, possibly determi
‘social context or othe exteenal factors, but the rule is
for use or not. What is gradual about language change isthe spread of certain
changes through an entre speech community.
‘cause of change i the way children
her language alone, genecalizing
t's language dew it approx.
15 grammar is never exactly lke that ofthe
ic community because children receive diverse linguistic input. Certain rules
may be simplified or overgenerlized, and vocabularies may show small diffes-
fences tha accumulate over several generations.
“The older generation may be using certain rules optionally. For exam
times they may sty "Its I” and a other times "Ies me." The less fo
Styles usually used with childzen, who, asthe next generation, may use only
“re” form of the pronoun inthis construction. In such eases the grammar wi
have changed
"The reasons for some changes are relatively easy to understand. Before t
vision thece was no such word a television. Te'soan became a common lexi
serve @ useful purpose, and their en
Ito expl
igo the language isnot my
such asthe Great Vowel Shift in English
One plausible source of sound change is
tion process in which one sound influences the
neacby sound, For example, vowels are freq
is easiest co lower the velum ro proluce nisl
‘hat the nasal consonant provided can be equally
‘vowel alone, and the redundant consonant may o loager be pronounced. The
Contrast between oral and nasal vowels that exist in many languages of the
‘world today (suchas French) resulted from just such ahistorical sound change.
Tn reconstructing older versions of French sypothesized that bl,
“basin.” borte, "high boot” bog, “a card game,” Bock, “Bock bee,” and bor,
good,” were pronounced respectively. The
nasalized vowel in Bom res rane. Because of 2
med sound change that deleted nasal consonants in word+final position,
ronounced [ba] in modern French, The nasal vowel alone maintains the
comerast with the
"Another example from Eg
change a language. In Old English, wor
‘when followed by was Further p
ate gh as illustrated by the following words:
OldEnglish(e= eI) Modern English (ch = 1)
cieve cheese
ina chin
cid chil
“The process of pal
tion is found in the history of many languages. In
the word mea
* was once pronounced (kil. The [k] became
iso that today “to hate” is
es, which make sounds more alike are couritered
by the need to maintain contrast, Thus sound change also occurs when two
sounds are so acoustically similar that there is a tsk of confusion. We saw a
found change of if to fh in an ealier example that can be explained by the
Acoustic simiarty of [f] fo other sounds
‘Analogic change isa generalization of cl
tional or ieegulae morphemes. I was by a
that speakers started saying cows asthe plural of cow instead ofthe earlier
ral kine, In effect, the plural rule
‘The generalization ofthe paral
sed by many speakers in place ofthe homophonous
solar and plaal
Platal marking continues to undergo analogic change, as exemplified by
the regularization of exceptional plural forms. The plural forms of borrowed
words like davuyaldata, agond
‘memoranda, mediummedia, criterion!
feplaced by tegular plurals by many speakers: agendas, curics
‘dams, criterias, and virwosos. In some cass the borrowed original plral forms 530_ CHAPTER 10 Language Change: The 5
were considered ta bet
ral (eg. agendas) is therefore a
regard data a
singular (as in agenda and crite
‘media as nouns that do not have plural forms
All these changes are “economy of memory” changes and le
ind the new pl
ural-plura.* Ta addition, many speakers tow
ike information.
ber of
‘regular forms that must be remembered.
instead of woke)
se rule is also undergoing generaliza
ignited, many childeen and ad
By analogy to bake!
now say I waked lastnight
he lighted the bonfire (instead of lit). These reglar past
tense forms are found in today's dictionaries next to the iregular forms, with
‘which they currently coes!
Assimilation and analogic change account for some linguist
for others. Si
they cannot ac
ofthe same language. For exa
of an earlier form of Germanic
Romance languages, such as Sp
Going back even fo
yes de to borrowing,
m of new phonemes. As w
languages, as evidenced by
ist between different stages ofthe
time, ealiee forms of Proto. German
lect of Indo-Furopean
the grammar may change. Phonological, morphological,
id semantic changes occur. Words, morphemes,
‘whereas earlier forms of
were dialects of Latin
Latin, and
the vocabulary. Th
sTealso grows through word coi
peer backotaed in time and deters
‘or Subject Object:
References for Further Reading
Atchison,
he study of linguistic change is called historical and comparative linguis-
fies, Linguists use
method ro identify regulae sound correspon:
ed languages and systematically reconstruct
protolanguage. This co
knows
logical process of ease of ati
ce the Great Vowel Shift, aze mor
iways present Between sin
J, 2001. Language change Progress ov decay, Sed eda. Cambridge, New J Algoo. 2005, The origine ond development ofthe Engh
York: Thornon/ Wadsworth
'W. 2001. Language death and dy
(eds), The handbook.
tn Chambers, Teo
449 ca Below are some Old English words (given i eeie spl
phonetic forms) and the same words as we pronounce them today. They are
typical of regular sound changes that took place in English. What sound
changes have oceuered in each case?
Example: OEhlud [xlud] > Mod. Eng loud
Changes: (1) The [x was lost.
(2) The long vowel (u:] became [2
of Mode
a. crabba(kraba] > crab
fish
foul
> goat
& lafan(lewan] > leave
Changes:
teeth
the Great Vowel Shift left
ts traces in Modern English in such meaning
List ive soch meaning-elated pairs that elat [i] and [6] sin exarnple
five that rclace [a] and [] asin example 2), and five that relate [e] and fe)
asin example (
ae tate
|. Yeathooks and almanacs (inluding ones online
Example: Ienat belongs to
‘Shakespeare, Henry IV}
Mod. Eng: Ie does no belong t you
Change: At one time a negative sentence sim
verb, Today, th
Appear before the
aad not before the
ord do, ints proper morphological form, must
Te nothing pleased his master.
He hath sad chat we would life them whom that him pleas.
TThave a brother is condemned to die
[bade them rake away you.
[wish you was still more a Taeta
Christ slepe and his apostles,
‘Me was told
yblish a new-words
5, In 2008 several new words, such 2s earmark and vfog, entered the
English language. Before chat, new words such as byte and modem arrived
together with the computer age. Othee words have been expanded in mean
ing, sch as memory to refer tothe storage part ofa computer and crack
meaning a form of cocaine. Sport-related new words include zhreepeat and
Sobor; Haecy Potters world has donated appurate andr
‘others, Some fey recent arsivals came with the new ri
include viagra botox, waterboarding, sudoku, and sarsbuca (an aniseed
liqueur served witha flaming coffe bean),
1, Find five ohee words or compound words thar have entered the le
‘Boage in the last ten years, Describe briefly the sousce ofthe word,
bb Think of three words thar might be on che way 0
flapper, groovy, and slayslew: Dictionary entties tha say “archaic” are
good source)
Think of three words whose dictionary enties do nor say they
‘ecb, but which you've heard or seen used as verbs. Example: “He
‘vent to piano over atthe club,” meaning (we guess) "He went co play
the piano at the club.”
4. ‘Think of thrge words thar have become, or are becoming, obsolete as
a result of changes in technology. Example: Mimeograph, 2 method of
‘reproduction, ison the way out because of advances in xerogeaphy. © One of the trendy words of the cure
nium is power as used
pounds such as power walk
usages and documenta reference
here you observed the usage, such asa magazine article ora news
feport on the radio, Internet, or television,
phonemic form, che Lain ancestors often
ich (given in phonetic form)
Latin French Gloss
kor keer? heart
aneice tosing
seus clear
kervus deer
coal
True False
a. The modern
that a Fk, which 0
Latin, became [
bi The French wor probably derived fo
the Latin word /koda/ rather than from /eawdal
© One historical change illustrated by these data is
there were a Latin word keris, the modern
French word would peobably be feel. (Consider
only the intial consona
6. Heres how to 0 ina dozen languages, sing standard Roman
alphabe transcriptions. Six of these languages are Indo-European and six
are not, Which are Indo-European? (Just for fan, how many ofthe lan
Buages can you identify? Ifyou get all ewelve correc, we'll meation your
School in the next edition. You may e-mail your answer and institution
alfiliation ro ether author Rodman or Hyam
Lan hi
nthe previous
534_ CHAPTER 10 Languode Change: The Syllables of Time: as a
B teeter rte
edn yi ckw— chi echad
dai ce aw shnayim
i son trayas san
yi ssu cate chi
Pie wu paiea go
uo om
yaw uno.
daw dos
dre es
ua tsaloor cuatro
tschinch
Example: Skin
the Europea
have noted the “parade
duces iregularty, and $36 _CHAPTER 10 Language Chengs: The Syilsbies
inc: What dost thow mean by this?
HAMLET: Nothing burro show you how a king may go a progress
through the guts ofa begga.
‘Whereis Polonius?
Infbeaven, Send thither to see, If your messenger find him not
there sek him ithe other place yourself. But indeed if you
in this month, you shall ose him as yOu go
he lobby.
11, Travelers to Spain who know a litle Latin American Spanish are often sur-
prised to encounter speakers who appear co have a lisp. That is, chey pro-
ounce an expected [a8], and moreover they pronounce an expected
[il as an “ly” opal | whose IPA symbol i [s], OF course if you've
{ea this book you know that ths isa dialectal variation. Consider the fl-
Towing data from ewo dialects of Spanish
Dialect Dialect Gloss Earlier Form
(obecompleted)
{kasa) [kaa] hunt (noun) :
yes &
kindof bench :
May :
house :
five 3
[eos] (dos) to, ‘
{pojo] [poo} chicken :
44. Find the correspondence sets—there are fourteen of them, for example
pp.
tb, Reconstruct each ofthe fourteen protosounds, for example *p.
©) What if any are the sound changes that rook place in the two dialects?
12, Here are some data from fou Polynesian languages:
Gloss
pow post
‘pu forbidden
tanh ey,
twice al keel
fon vono stay, sic
malama malama light, moon
aso kaso thatch,
‘a. Find the correspondence sets,
20-00 pb)
b. For each correspondence se, reconstruct a protosound, Mention any
sound changes that you observe, For example: “1
pepb'p pb
Complete the rable by
Polynesia.
ng in the reconstructed words in Proto-
13. Consider these data from two American Indian languages:
Yerington __Northfork
Paviotso=YP — Monachi=NM Gloss
mpi smupi nose
ama, tava tooth
piss pit Theat
Eewalpono — Sawapono feminine name)
‘imi iwi _
amano ravano springtime
pahwa pahwa
uma
ing tothe west
‘older brother
‘daughter
tet ‘bow, gun
‘a. Identify each sound coceespondence. (Hint: There ae ten correspon
tence sets of consonants and sx coreespondence sets of vowels: for
fexample, p-p, mw aa, and ae)
For each correspondence you identified in (a) noc containing an m
fr, econstruce a protosound (6. fr hh, "hs 0-0, *0)
(2) Ifthe protosound underwent a indicate what the change is
land in which language it cok place.
Whenever a w appears in YP, shat appears in the coresponding
positon in NMP
‘henever an mr occurs in YB, what two sounds may corespond t0
inNM?
(3) On the bass oft
‘which sound will eorespond co
position of m in YP words, can you predict
5? How?
should you reconstruct two or thre protesounds?
you chore theee protosounds, what ae chey and what did they
‘accom inthe two daughter languages, YP end NM?
For the theee correspondences you discovered in (involving m and
ce RETESET ITE 538_cHAPTER 10 Language Change: The Sylabies of Time
(8) Hfyou chose two protosounds, what are they and what did they
‘become in the daughter languages? What further statment de you five" sharp"
‘eed to make about the sound changes? Hint: One protosound will Smnan” Smother
bbecome two different pairs, depending on its phonetic envizonmene, svat
Tis an example ofa conditioned sound change) see"
5 Based on the above reconstruct all the words given in the commor posits pu, place™
ancestor from which both YP and NM descended (eg, "porcupine" is “outside” par “equal
reconstructed 3 *m wise repos
14. The people ofthe Isle of Eggland once lived in harmony on a diet of soft ame aor
boiled eggs. They spoke Conte
“huge,
“tongue, language”
ofthe eg sh uae
Big End Egy
Below are data fr
es, and reconstruct
the cognates descende
it changes that have affected each language. Use
0 express the change when possible, (Hint: There are
ioned sounds changes)
Ghose Proto-Egglish
(tobe completed)
OT
‘omelet
yolk
cee
agshel
soul
eee whice
hard-boiled (obscene)
ul Greek words. Each of them has provided
4 r00r for many English words, Give three examples of Englah wade
ed from each ofthe Latin and Greek soots below (the 00t isn by
English word need not begin withthe root, depose
