Language History and Change Hello!

Some Definitions SUBFIELDS OF LINGUISTICS –Historical linguistics –Historical linguistics (Ancestors of languages) –Comparative linguistics –Comparative linguistics (Languages compared) –Diachronic Linguistics –Diachronic Linguistics (single features of language are traced over time) –Synchronic Linguistics –Synchronic Linguistics (language structure at a certain point in time) ANALYTICAL PROCESSES –Reconstruction of the ProtoLanguage –Comparative Method

Incredibly Different or Incredibly Alike? Martin JoosMartin Joos (1957): unlimited and unpredictable differences Chomsky (The “Martian” view)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 NeanderthalsNeanderthals – Anatomy allowed only limited range of sounds BCE5000 BCE – Oldest records of Indo- European Languages: Hittite, Snaskrit, ?Proto-Indo-European 500 CE500 CE – Emergence of Romance, Germanic Languages (Old English)

Proto-Language Theory Sir William Jones (1786)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) “The Family Tree”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 SANSKRITSANSKRIT: SANSKRIT: a language of India (studied by Pānini, a Indian 4 th century BC grammarian) SANSKRIT

Nostratic Hypothesis Nostratic Afro-Asiatic Afro-Asiatic (Hebrew, Arabic, Berber…) Kartvelian (South Caucasian) DravidianEurasiaticIndo-European Celtic, Italic, Greek, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Armenian, Albanian, Indo-Iranian, (Tocharian), Anatolian UralicAltaic Source: The Atlas of Languages, 1996, London

Genetic Families – Linguistic Tree

Indo-European “Family Tree”

Indo-European Spreading?

The Comparative Method August SchleicherAugust Schleicher ( ), German Linguist *p  t  rProto-Latin *p  t  r –Classical Greek: patēr –Sanskrit: piter –Latin: pater Italian: padre Spanish: padre French: père Portuguese: pai Catalan: pare –Gothic: fadar –Old Irish: athir

Wave Models Difficulties with the “Family Tree” model:Difficulties with the “Family Tree” model: –Languages do not form uniform speech communities –Language “splits” are not sudden—they have many intermediate stages Wave ModelWave Model shows gradual and over-lapping relationships Neither model 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”“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.”“[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)