LIN 201

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LIN 201

• Fall 2007
• Lecture XXVII (27)
• Languages of the World I

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Note

• This week Esras Thursday Office Hour will be
  moved to Friday, 200-300.

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Reminders

• Final Exam, Thurs., 12/13, 245-445 PM, Stolkin
  Aud.
• Review Session, Wed., 12/12, 500-700 PM (NOTE
  THE TIME CHANGE), Room TBA.
• Review Sheet available.

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Agenda

• 1. Regular sound correspondences.
• 2. The Romance Languages.
• 3. Some terminology.
• 4. Reconstruction of languages.
• 5. Videotape In Search of the First Language.

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Agenda

• 1. Regular sound correspondences.

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Regular sound correspondences (1)

• Northern US Southern US.
• pie pa
• high ha
• my ma
• Regular sound correspondence between the ie sound
  in pie and the a sound in pa, etc.

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Regular sound correspondences (2)

• Regular sound correspondence explained
• Early Modern English (1600 AD).
• pie
• no change change
• N. US (2000 AD) S. US (2000 AD)
• pie pa

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Regular sound correspondences (3)

• r-ful r-less.
• farm fam
• farther fatha
• Regular sound correspondence between Vr in r-ful
  dialects and V in r-less dialects.

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Review Regular sound correspondence (4)

• English of 1500
• farm
• no change change
• r-ful (2000) r-less (2000)
• farm fam

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Agenda

• 2. The Romance languages.

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The Romance languages (1)

• Mod Fr. Mod Ital., Sp.
• cher caro
• champ campo
• chandelle candela
• Regular sound correspondence between Mod Fr. ch
  and Mod Ital. and Sp. c.

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The Romance languages (2)
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The Romance languages (3)

• Latin of 100 BC
• c
• change no change
• Mod Fr Mod Ital, Sp.
• ch c

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The Romance languages (4)

• Course Reader, p. 163. Find the regular sound
  correspondences among the underlined sounds in
  Modern Italian, Modern Spanish, and Modern French
  for the words meaning to know, bank, shore,
  she-goat.

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Romance lgs (5)

• Regular sound correspondence
• Italian Spanish French.
• p b v

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Romance languages (6)

• CR, p. 163 Other regular sound correspondences?

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Romance lgs (7)

• Regular sound correspondences
• Italian Spanish French.
• p b v
• t d --
• k g --
• d -- --

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The Romance languages and Latin

• 100 BC 2000 AD
• Latin Italian Spanish French.
• p p b
  v
• t t d --
  
• k k g --
• d d -- --

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Romance lgs A.D. 2000
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The Roman Empire and Latin -- A.D. 138
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Romance lgs (8) -- Dialect differentiation
(Stages)

• Stage I -- Latin is uniform all over the Roman
  Empire (138 AD).
• Stage II -- Communicative isolation among the
  areas of Modern Spain, France, and Italy when the
  Empire broke up (500 AD).

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Romance lgs (7) -- Dialect differentiation
(Stages)

• Stage III -- The changes from Latin p, t, and k
  to b, d, and g occurred in what became the modern
  Spanish-speaking areas and to v, --, -- in the
  modern French-speaking areas, but there was no
  such change in what became the modern
  Italian-speaking area.

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Romance lgs (7) -- Dialect differentiation
(Stages)

• Stage IV -- Dialects of Latin continued to change
  and became Italian, Spanish, and French --
  different languages since they were no longer
  mutually intelligible.

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Note -- General

• Differentiation of a uniform language into
  dialects and then different languages is what
  gives rise to regular sound correspondences of
  the kind we found among Italian, Spanish, and
  French.

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Agenda

• 3. Some terminology.

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Ancestor language and descendant language (1)

• Language A is the ancestor of Language B if it is
  the language from which language B developed.
  (Ex Latin is the ancestor of French, Spanish,
  and Italian Indo-European is the ancestor of
  Latin.)

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Ancestor and descendant (2)

• If language A is the ancestor of language B, then
  B is a descendant of A. (Ex French is a
  descendant of Latin.)

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Review Genetically-related languages

• If two languages share an ancestor language, they
  are genetically related. (Ex French and Spanish
  share Latin Latin and English share
  Indo-European all four are genetically related)

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Agenda

• 4. Reconstruction of languages.

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Comparative reconstruction

• The ancestor of two or more genetically-related
  languages can be reconstructed using cognates.

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Terminology Cognate (1)

• (FR, p. 480) Cognates are words in
  genetically- related languages that developed
  from the same ancestral root,

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Terminology Cognate (2)

• Examples of cognates in the Romance languages
• Italian Spanish French.
• capra cabra chevre
• ripa riba rive
• sapere saber savoir

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Terminology Cognates (3)

• If words are similar in form and meaning across
  two or more languages, then they may be cognates
  and the languages may be genetically related.
  There are two other possible explanations for
  such similarities imitative words, borrowed
  words.

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Word similarities across languages and how they
come about

• Likely cognates or not?
• English Spanish Wolof.
• father padre bay
• fish pescado jun
• tweet peep kweet
• radio radio radio

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Relatedness between languages

• If extensive meaning/form similarities (regular
  sound correspondences) are found between words
  across two languages that cannot be attributed to
  borrowing or imitativeness, then they are
  possible cognates and this is strong evidence
  that the two languages are genetically-related.

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Borrowed or not? (1)

• Borrowed words Terms for inventions, culturally
  unfamiliar objects and practices, etc.
• Likely not to be borrowed pronouns (words that
  translate I, you, etc.), terms for body parts
  (head, foot, etc.), family relationships
  (mother, father, etc.), objects in nature
  (sky, fire, earth, etc.), etc.

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Borrowed or not? (2)

• Conclusion In determining genetic relationships
  among languages, only similar forms across
  languages for pronouns, names of body parts,
  natural objects that are found everywhere, family
  members, etc. (that is, likely cognates rather
  than borrowings or imitative words), should be
  considered.

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Agenda

• 5. Tape In Search of the First Language.
  Questions, Course Reader, pp. 165-167.