Outline of Chapter 10:
Language Change
 Phonological Change
 Morphological Change
 Syntactic Change
 Lexical Change
New Words
Loan Words
Semantic Change
Broadening
Narrowing
Meaning Shift
503
506
508
510
511
512
515
515
516
516
History of English
Old English
449-1066
449
Saxons invade Britain
6th c Religious literature
8th c Beowulf
1066 Norman Conquest
Middle English
1066-1500
1387 Canterbury Tales
1476 Caxton’s printing press
1500
Great vowel shift
Modern English
15001564
Birth of Shakespeare
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to
Language, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 500.
Regular Sound Correspondence
English /f/
father
fish
(patrimony)
(piscine)
French /p/
père
poisson
Spanish /p/
padre
pescado
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language,
7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 502.
Regular Sound Correspondence
Indo-European /p/
Latin /p/
Proto-Germanic /f/
French /p/ Spanish /p/ English /f/
poisson
pescado
fish
German /f/
F
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language,
7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 502.
Historical Phonological Change
Old/Modern English
ADD New Sounds
leisure
azure
over (ofer)
[]
[]
[v]
LOSE Old Sounds
night
drought
[nxt]
[druxt]
CHANGE Old Sounds
elk (eolh)
hollow (holh)
house
feet
[lx]
[hlx]
[u:]
[e:]
[lk]
[hlo]
[a]
[i]
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to
Language, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 503.
Modern English
Morphological Endings
INFLECTIONS (Only eight left)
Vs
Ns Aer
Ving
N’s Aest
Ved
(Ns’)
Ven
NO GENDER
Modern English
Morphological Endings
CASE ENDINGS Disappeared
EXCEPT: Genitive
’s
EXCEPT: Pronouns
I
you he she it we
they
me you him her it us
them
my your his her its our their
mine yours his hers its ours theirs
Irregular
Native English Words
(brother)
child
foot
goose
louse
man
mouse
ox
tooth
woman
OLD ENGLISH NOUN
DECLENSIONS
hound
child
foot
ox
Singular
Nom.
Acc.
Gen.
Dat.
hund
hund
hundes
hunde
cild
cild
cildes
cilde
f8t
f8
f8tes
f4t
oxa
oxan
oxan
oxan
f4t
f8ta
f8tum
oxan
oxena
oxum
Plural
N.-Ac. hundas
Gen. hunda
Dat. hundum
cildru
cildra
cildrum
The Origins and Development of the English Language, fourth edition. Thomas Pyles
and John Algeo. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993.
OLD ENGLISH VERB FORMS-1
INF
keep
buy
carry
end
have
say
PRET
c4pan
bycgan
ferian
endian
habban
secgan
PAST
c4pte
bohte
ferede
endode
hQfde
sQgde
PARTIC
gec4ped
geboht
gefered
geendod
gehQfd
gesQgd
The Origins and Development of the English Language, fourth edition. Thomas
Pyles and John Algeo. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers,
1993.
OLD ENGLISH VERB FORMS-1
keep
I
you(sg)
he,she,it
we,you(pl),they
Present-Subjunctive
singular
plural
Imperative
singular c4p
plural
helpaD
help
Present-Indicative
c4pe
c4pest
c4peD
c4paD
hilpst
c4pe
c4pen
helpe
hilpD((
helpaD
helpe
helpen
help
c4paD
The Origins and Development of the English Language, fourth edition. Thomas
Pyles and John Algeo. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers,
1993.
Infinitive
c4pan
helpan
t8 c4pennet8 helpenne
Present-Participle
c4pende
helpende
Preterit-Indicative
I
c4pte
you(sg)
c4ptest
he,she,it
c4pte
we,you(pl),they c4pton
healp
hulpe
healp
hulpon
Preterit-Subjunctive
singular
c4pte
plural
c4pten
hulpe
hulpen
Past Participle
gec4ped
geholpen
The Origins and Development of the English Language, fourth edition. Thomas
Pyles and John Algeo. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers,
1993.
Old English, Middle English,
and Modern English
Verb Forms
OLD
MIDDLE
ENGLISH ENGLISH
MODERN
ENGLISH
findan
finden
find
infinitive
fundon
f8[nde(n) found
pret. pl.
funden
f8[nde(n) found
past part.
The Origins and Development of the English Language, fourth edition. Thomas
Pyles and John Algeo. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers,
1993.
Modern English Verb
keep
he, she, it
OTHER
Present-Indicative
keeps
keep
Present-Subjunctive
ALL
keep
Imperative
Infinitive
Present-Participle
keep
help
helps
help
help
help
keep
help
To keep
to help
keeping
helping
Preterit-Indicative / Subjunctive, Past Part.
kept
helped
Etymology of Nag
nag: < Scandinavian (as in Swedish
nagga, obsolete Danish nagge, to
nibble, gnaw, nag) < Old Norse gnaga;
for Indo-European base see GNAW;
for sense development see FRET1
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, third edition. Victoria Neufeldt, editor in
chief. New York: Macmillan, 1997.
Sources of New Words
Derivation
Compounding
Acronyms
Back-formation
Clipping / Abbreviations
Eponyms (words from names)
Blends
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to
Language, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 511.
Lexical Change
Borrowings
20,000 most common
500 most common
Tokens in running text
Native
English
40%
71%
80%
Foreign
Source
60%
29%
New Words
Chapter 3: Morphology
Loss of Words
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language,
7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 512.
Uncommon Words
in Modern English
fain
wot
wherefore
beseem
mammet
gyve
gladly
know
why
to be suitable
doll or puppet
a fetter
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language,
7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 515.
Semantic Change
Broadening of Meaning
dog
specific breed
holiday
only religious days
picture
only painted
Narrowing of Meaning
meat
food
deer
animal
hound
any dog
Meaning Shifts
knight
young man
lust
pleasure
lewd
ignorant
silly
happy
fond
foolish
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to
Language, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, pp. 515-516.
Comparative Method of
Reconstruction
French
cher
champ
chandelle
Italian
caro
campo
chandela
Spanish
caro
campo
candela
Portuguese
caro
‘dear’
campo ‘field’
candeia ‘candle’
[k] [m] [p]
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language,
7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 521.
Four Hypothetical Languages
Lang A
hono
hari
rahima
hor
Lang B
hono
hari
rahima
hor
Lang C
fono
fari
rafima
for
Lang D
vono
veli
levima
vol
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language,
7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 521.
Three Chinese Dialects
Mandarin
Cantonese
1 /i/
/ jt /
2 /  /
/i/
3 / san /
/ sa:m /
4 / sz /
/ sei /
5 / wu /
//
6 / lou /
/ lok /
7 / ti /
/ tst /
8 / pa /
/ pa:t /
9 / tou / / kau /
10 / r // sp /
/ tsap /
Taiwanese
/ dzit /
/ n /
/ sã /
/ si /
/ g /
/ lak /
/ tsit /
/ pue /
/ kau /
These are not official IPA spellings. Only a limited font was
available. The transcriptions may also be inaccurate because of
faulty hearing.
Zhuang
and Chinese Words
Cung go
Zhongguo
Yin min
Ren min
Yan man
Yinhang
Yinhang
ha gak
Wu jiao
gok
ha cib maen
Wu shi yuan
sap man
Chapter 11 Homework
(Exercise 3, pp. 538-539)
a. It nothing pleased his master
Nothing pleased his master
b. He hath said that we would lift them whom that him please.
He has said that we would lift those who please him.
c. I have a brother is condemned to die.
I have a brother who is condemned to die.
d. I bade them take away you.
I asked them to take you away.
e. I wish you was still more a Tartar.
I wish you were even more of a Tartar.
I wish even more that you were a Tartar.
f. Christ slept and his apostles.
Christ slept and his apostles did too.
Christ and his apostles slept.
g. Me was told.
I was told.
Chapter 11 Homework
(Exercise 5, p. 540)
a. False
‘thing’
/ k / before / a / in Latin becomes French /  /
b. True
‘tail’
Otherwise we might have expected /  /
c. False
There are NO examples of / s / and /k/ in
complementary distribution.
d. True
Latin / kertus /
We have two examples of Latin words with
/ ke / (‘deer’ and ‘hundred’) that become
/ s /
(A)
Original Language
Today’s Languages
(B)
Original Languages
Today’s Languages
Source(s) of Today’s Languages
Adapted from David Crystal. 1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 291.
In Search of the First Language
Nova Series
Overview / Table of Contents
 Introduction to Historical Linguistics
 Comparative Method
 Indo-European languages
 Interlude
 Sino-Tibetan languages
 African languages
 Native American languages
 Language Isolates
 Language Change
 Nostratic
 Evolution of Language
 Conclusion