Linguistics Study Guide Language Change and History | Michigan State University

University:
Michigan State University
Course:
LIN 401 | Introduction to Linguistics
Academic year:

2022
Views:

124

Pages:

3
Author:

drolowpzco

Notes- Language Change and History Why languages change • Contact with other languages → borrowing o languages borrow whole sounds or sound sequences → can change the phonological systems o can also have syntactic borrowings ▪ Ex: English borrowed Romance syntax o Norman Conquest → Old French became widely spoken amongst nobility and influence spread throughout English o as different groups spread, so do their languages • Cases of internal instability o Similarly- changes can cause some parts to have irregularities which can then regularize over time • Language play o ex: teen slang o users are conscious of the language play but not necessarily aware of what is being manipulated and its regularity Velar Softening • K --- S / V ___ V o certain forms in modern English o ex: public → publicity, critic → criticism, medic → medicine o productive phonological rule restricted to a small domain of cases Grim’s Law • Proto-Indo-European sound rule about how PIE sounds translate to Proto-Germanic sounds • “unvoiced IE stops became Germanic unvoiced continuants, that voiced IE stops became Germanic unvoiced stops, and that unvoiced IE continuants became Germanic voiced stops” 28 • PIE voiceless stops became corresponding voiceless fricatives in proto-Germanic • The changes: o p in PIE → f in Germanic o t in PIE → Θ in Germanic (thuh) o k in PIE → x in Germanic → h o b in PIE → p in Germanic (?) o d in PIE → t in Germanic o g in PIE → k in Germanic • PIE voiced stops became voiceless and affects the whole class • Ex: dental → tooth The Great Vowel Shift • Roughly 1350-1600, many vowels shifted to other vowels but not in all positions • Happened gradually • Shifts: o High vowels → corresponding dipthongs o Mid (tensed) vowels → corresponding high vowels o ɑ→e o a = the ah sound became ay (ex. “make”) o e = the eh sound became ee (“we”) o i= the ee sound became eye (“night”) o o= the oh sound of some words became oo (“boot”) o o = the aw sound of some words became oh (“boat”) o u = the oo sound of some words became ow (“out”) • Chaucer is pre-shift, Shakespeare is post-shift 29 30