![]() ![]() For example, we find that several dialects of English have a phonological rule that coda r sounds are deleted: in received pronunciation, the word "butter" is pronounced /ˈbʌ.tə/ (butt-ah). It is possible for several dialects or descendent languages to share innovations not present in the proto-language either by chance, or by innovative dialects splitting to create more dialects sharing its innovations. In general, the majority principle is preferred in reconstruction only in the absence of other lines of evidence. By the majority principle, we can conclude that the original word probably started with 'z' and ended with 'k'. Note that the 'h' ending in Zah is a glottal stop, and the 'z's are unaspirated voiceless alveolar affricates. Consonants between two vowels go from voiceless to voiced.Ĭonsider this example of the Chinese word 澤, 'swamp', or the 'ze' in 'Mao Zedong':.Consonants at the ends of words go from voiced to voiceless.Most natural development principle: Some types of linguistic change are more common than others.Majority principle: If, in a group of cognates (words in different languages of the same origin), most of the words share a certain feature, then that feature was probably present in the older language.Comparative reconstruction is based on several principles, including: The comparative method attempts to find regular sound changes between languages. Traditionally historical linguistics has attempted to reconstruct ancestor languages via the process of the comparative method. ![]() However, the field of historical linguistics is relatively new, dating back to the 19th century.Ĭomparative Method ![]() Changes due to influence from other languages are called external change those not caused by exogenetic factors are called internal change.įor a long time, people knew that languages could evolve into new languages, based on the development of Latin into Vulgate Latin, and thence into the Romance languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian. This can include changes from older versions of the language in speech and grammar, or the diachronic variation of language, as well as the etymology of loanwords and neologisms. Historical linguistics, also known as philology, is the study of how a language develops into its present form. ![]()
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