Historical Linguistics: Change, reconstruction

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Historical LinguisticsChange, reconstruction

• LING 400
• Winter 2010

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Overview

• Reconstruction
• Time-depth
• Conversative vs. innovative languages
• Reconstruction and prehistory
• More historical change
• Morphological, morphosyntactic
• Semantic

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For further learning about historical
linguistics LING 454
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Time-depth

• Persian is an old language.
• All (modern) daughters of proto-language have
  equal time-depth.

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Time-depth

• Proto-Indo-European 5000-6000 years ago
• Proto-Germanic 2500-3500
• Oldest IE written documents
• Hittite 1300 B.C.
• Sanskrit 1200 B.C.
• Greek 1000 B.C. (Mycenean earlier)

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Reconstruction

• The comparative method
• assemble cognates
• deduce proto-form, meaning
• Reconstructible
• Not necessarily attested in all branches
• eg?w- drink
• Hittite
• Latin ebrius drunk

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A cognate set

• Sanskrit snu?a
  daughter-in-law
• Old English snoru
  daughter-in-law
• Old Church Slavonic snuxa daughter-in-law
• Latin nurus
  daughter-in-law
• Greek nuós
  daughter-in-law
• Armenian nu bride,
  daughter-in-law
• Albanian nuse bride

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Reconstruction

• sn or n? daughter-in-law
• Latin nix, niv- snow
• English snow
• PIE sneig?w- to snow
• vs.
• Latin ne- not
• Old English ne not
• PIE ne not
• u, OCS u, OE o lt u
• Medial s? ?? r?
• Sanskrit s gt ? / u__
• Latin s gt r/ V__V, ? Germanic
• Greek, Armenian s gt 0 / V__V
• (ending, accent)
• PIE snusos
• daughter-in-law or bride?
• most early IE societies patriarchal and
  patrilocal
• daughter-in-law in most bride restricted

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Conservative vs. innovative

• Sanskrit snu?a lt snusos
• conserves sn, u accent
• innovates s gt ? / u__
• Albanian nuse bride
• conserves u, medial s
• innovates s gt 0 / __n, semantics

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Reconstruction and prehistory

• Calvert Watkins the lexicon of a language
  remains the single most effective way of
  approaching and understanding the culture of its
  speakersThe reconstruction of vocabulary can
  offer a fuller, more interesting view of the
  culture of a prehistoric people than archaeology
  precisely because it includes nonmaterial
  culture.

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Proto-Indo-European

• med?u- mead, honey
• daiwer- husbands brother
• wifes relatives
• sneig?w- snow
• laks- salmon (lox)
• mori- body of water lake (?), sea (?)
  (mermaid)
• gr?-no grain (gt corn)
• owi- sheep (gt ewe)
• dem?- house, household
• dem(?)- to build (gt timber)
• kwel- to revolve, go around, kw(e)-kwl-o-
  wheel

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Historical linguistics

• 1786 Sir William Jones observed similarities
  between Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin, Gothic,
  Celtic, Old Persian
• 19th century reconstruction of PIE
• 20th century on
• Hittite, Tocharian
• Comparative method applicable elsewhere

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Major branches of Athabaskan family
38 daughter languages
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Language change

• Languages may change on various levels
• phonetics, phonology
• morphology
• syntax
• semantics

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Morphemes disappear

• PA Deg
  Xinag Witsuwiten Tsekene
• mans daughter -tshe? -t?h??
  -tsh?? --
• arm -q??ne? -qon
  -- -kònè?

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Paradigm leveling

• Elimination of irregularity among morphologically
  related forms

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Babine-Carrier Babine-Carrier Witsuwiten Witsuwiten
progressive future progressive future
1sS i-s- th-i-s- i-s- th-?-s-
2sS ?-n- th-?-n- i-n- th-?-n-
3sS i- th-i- i- th-?-
Leveled progressive paradigm (uniformly
i) Leveled future paradigm (uniformly ?)
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Semantic change
Reduction (hyponym formation)

• Proto-Athabaskan Tsekene
• -??m snore, growl -hxõh snore
• Witsuwiten
• -nt??c dance -ntec (white
  people) dance

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Extension
Hypernym formation

• Proto-Athabaskan Tsekene
• ci?ce blueberry ???e berry

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Where was Proto-Athabaskan spoken?

• Michael Krauss
• the PA homeland (Urheimat) was in eastern
  Alaska, interior, perhaps extending into Canada
  already.

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Considerations

• Deep vs. shallow differentiation
• Location of related languages
• Reconstructed vocabulary

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Differentiation

• Deep differentiation long occupation of
  territory
• Alaska, western BC
• Closely related recent spread
• Mackenzie R.
• Pacific Coast
• Apachean

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Na-Dene family
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Related languages

• Usually nearby
• Eyak
• mouth of Copper R.
• Tlingit
• Alaska panhandle

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Reconstructed vocabulary

• Mountains and snow
• ts?? mountain
• ?aç snowshoe
• ?u ice, icicle, glacier

1910 map
Hudson Bay Mt., B.C.
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Summary

• All languages change over time
• Change occurs at all levels of grammar
• Earlier stages can often be reconstructed, with
  implications for prehistory

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Question

• Bronze Age 3300-1200 BC (bronze lt coppertin)
• PIE ajes- copper or bronze (attested in Latin,
  Greek, Sanskrit)
• Iron Age (1300 BC on) (iron, steel)
• isarno iron only attested in Germanic, Celtic
• Are ajes and isarno relevant to dating of PIE?
  (PIE estimated 5000-6000 BC.)