Language
History and Change
Hello!
Some Definitions
SUBFIELDS OF LINGUISTICS
–Historical linguistics (Ancestors of languages)
–Comparative linguistics (Languages compared)
–Diachronic Linguistics (single features of language
are traced over time)
–Synchronic Linguistics (language structure at a
certain point in time)
ANALYTICAL PROCESSES
–Reconstruction of the ProtoLanguage
–Comparative Method
Incredibly Different or Incredibly Alike?
• Martin Joos (1957):
unlimited and unpredictable
differences
• Chomsky (1957): human
speak a single language
with many mutually
unintelligible dialects.
(The “Martian” view)
The Tower of Babel
Genesis 11:-1-9 Account
Language Origins
• Neanderthals – Anatomy allowed only
limited range of sounds.
• 5000 BCE – Oldest records of IndoEuropean Languages: Hittite, Snaskrit,
?Proto-Indo-European
• 500 CE – Emergence of Romance,
Germanic Languages (Old English)
Proto-Language Theory
• Sir William Jones (1786) - In India, observed
commonalities among Sanskrit, European and
Middle Eastern languages.
(So many similarities can’t be the effect of chance)
• Analogous to Darwin’s theories: thus became
known as “The Family Tree” theory, formulated
by A. Schleicher (1871).
– “Languages change in regular, recognizable ways”
– the comparative method.
Sanskrit: a literary language of India
SANSKRIT: a language of India
(studied by Pānini, a Indian 4th century BC
grammarian)
Nostratic Hypothesis
Nostratic
Afro-Asiatic (Hebrew, Arabic, Berber…)
Kartvelian (South Caucasian)
Dravidian
Eurasiatic
Indo-European
Celtic, Italic, Greek, Germanic,
Balto-Slavic, Armenian, Albanian,
Indo-Iranian, (Tocharian),
Anatolian
Uralic
Altaic
Source: The Atlas of Languages, 1996, London
Genetic Families – Linguistic Tree
Indo-European
“Family Tree”
Indo-European Spreading?
Indo-European Spreading?
The Comparative Method
• August Schleicher (1821-68), German Linguist
• Proto-Latin *ptr
– Classical Greek:
– Sanskrit:
– Latin:
•
•
•
•
•
Italian:
Spanish:
French:
Portuguese:
Catalan:
– Gothic:
– Old Irish:
patēr
piter
pater
padre
padre
père
pai
pare
fadar
athir
Wave Models
• Difficulties with the “Family Tree” model:
– Languages do not form uniform speech
communities
– Language “splits” are not sudden—they have many
intermediate stages
• Wave Model shows gradual and over-lapping
relationships
Neither model accounts for the evidence that
languages can exhibit similarities without
necessarily being related: pidgins & creoles,
for example.
Darwinian View
• “Progress, therefore, is not an accident,
but a necessity…It is part of nature”
• “[in language] the better, the shorter, the
easier forms are constantly gaining the
upper hand, and they owe their success
to their inherent virtue.” (Darwin 1871)
Flaws of Darwinian View:
(the “Survival of the Fittest”)
• Implies that existing forms are better than old
ones.
• Confuses progress/decay with
expansion/decline
• Expansion/decline just reflects sociopolitical
issues (not the intrinsic merit or decadence of
language)
• Counter examples in history: dominant
languages in the world reflect conquering
(political, economic, military, technological)
powers, not “betterness” of those languages
(Gaelic example)