Linguistic history and historical linguistics

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-127
Author(s):  
George van Driem
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
History Of Linguistics ◽  
History Of

Abstract This invited response to a piece by LaPolla, published in issue 39/2 of LTBA, addresses both LaPolla’s misrepresentations of the history of linguistics and his flawed understanding of historical linguistics. The history of linguistic thought with regard to the Tibeto-Burman or Trans-Himalayan language family vs. the Indo-Chinese or “Sino-Tibetan” family tree model is elucidated and juxtaposed against the remarkable robustness of certain ahistorical myths and the persistence of unscientific argumentation by vocal proponents of the Sino-Tibetanist paradigm, such as LaPolla.

scholarly journals Chapter 3. The Toolbox: Linguistic Tools for Analyzing the History of Russian

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Slavic Language ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Font Size ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
History Of

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium;">In chapter 1 you learned that Russian belongs to the Slavic language family, which evolved from a reconstructed ancestor language called “Proto-Slavic”. You may ask how we reconstruct ancestor languages and describe language change. This chapter addresses these questions and provides you with some linguistic tools you need in order to analyze the history of Russian.</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria',serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">Click on the links below to learn more!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria',serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US"><a href="/index.php/SapEdu/article/downloadSuppFile/3493/146">3.4 Family Tree Model</a><br /></span></p>

scholarly journals Estonian traces in the tree of life concept and in the language family tree theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 297-326
Author(s):  
Urmas Sutrop
Keyword(s):  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Animal Life ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Tree Models

In this paper the tree model – a well-formed tree is shortly described. After that the language family tree model by August Schleicher is treated and compared with the Charles Darwin’s tree of life diagram and metaphor. The development of the idea of the linguistic trees and the tree of life is considered historically. Earlier models – scala naturae – and tree models, both well-formed and not-well-formed are introduced. Special attention is paid to the scholars connected to Estonia who developed the idea of tree models: Georg Stiernhielm was the first who pictured a language tree already in 1671; Karl Eduard Eichwald published an early tree of animal life in 1829; and Karl Ernst von Baer influenced the tree of  life models and diagrams of Charles Darwin.

History

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Owens
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
General Study ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Arabic Speaking

This article discusses the history of the Arabic language. It argues that Arabic should have a privileged place within historical linguistics. It is one of the few languages in the world for which a wealth of data exists both in the far-flung contemporary Arabic-speaking world and in a rich Classical tradition attested beginning 1400 years ago. Issues of maintenance and change, central concepts in historical linguistics, can be interpreted against a rich set of data. That they have not resides in the fact that basic concepts of historical linguistics have rarely been systematically applied to the language. Doing so will not only open new vistas to understanding the rich linguistic history of the language but also promises to contribute to the general study of historical linguistics.

Schleicher, Čelakovský, and the Family-Tree Diagram

1975 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. M. S. Priestly
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Family ◽  
Tree Diagram ◽  
History Of Linguistics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
And Linguistics

Summary The first family-tree diagram in August Schleicher’s (1821–68) published work appeared in 1853, seven years after his first printed discussion of the family-tree concept. In 1853 there also appeared Čteni o srovnavaci mluvnici slovanské by the Czech scholar František Ladislav Čelakovský (1799–1852); this book also contained a family-tree diagram. Since Čelakovský and Schleicher were contemporaries in Prague for over two years, their interrelationship is of interest: was this rivalry of collaboration? At first sight, a coincidence seems improbable. In the available work on and by Schleicher, Čelakovský is never mentioned; in the writings on and by Čelakovský, Schleicher’s name is never linked to his. However, the two had very many common interests. Apart from being colleagues at Charles University, they shared the same friends and enemies, were both interested in music and botany, and so on. Moreover, both were working on Slavic Historical Linguistics during the period in question. On the other hand, their personalities were such that the possibility of a mutual antipathy must not be excluded. Given the background to Čelakovský’s life and work, including the legends of the common origin of the Slavs and the obviously close interrelationships of the Slavic languages; the burgeoning of interest in Slavic history and linguistics, and in Panslavicism; the popularity of genealogy; and the developments in classificatory techniques along natural scientific lines, it is argued that Čela-kovský’s depiction of a family-tree for the Slavic languages could be quite naturally expected from him at this point in time, without any influence from Schleicher. On the other hand, Schleicher’s first family-tree diagrams were the next logical step in his own development. Moreover, the actual form of the diagrams in question suggests that they may indeed have been developed independently. This puzzle in the history of linguistics remains unsolved: collaboration, rivalry, and coincidence are all possible.

scholarly journals THE ARABIC ORIGINS OF ENGLISH AND EUROPEAN "PLACE NAMES": A CONSONANTAL RADICAL THEORY APPROACH

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Zaidan Ali Jassem
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Genetic Relationships ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Radical Theory ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
European Languages

This paper examines the Arabic origins of some common place names in English, German, French, Latin, Greek, Russian, and Sanskrit from a consonantal radical or lexical root theory perspective. The data consists of the names of around 60 key cities like Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Chester, Derby, Essex, Exeter, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Oxford, Queensville, York, etc. The results clearly show that all such names have true Arabic cognates, with the same or similar forms and meanings whose different forms, however, are all found to be due to natural and plausible causes and different courses of linguistic change. Furthermore, they show that place names play an important role in both near and distant genetic relationships. As a consequence, the results indicate, contrary to Comparative Method and Family-Tree Model claims (e.g. Campbell 2013; Harper 2012-18),� that Arabic, English, and all Indo-European languages� belong to the same language, let alone the same family. Therefore, they prove the adequacy of the consonantal radical theory in relating English, German, French, Latin, and Greek to Arabic as their origin all because, unlike any other language in the group, it shares cognates with all of them in addition to its huge linguistic repertoire phonetically, phonologically, morphologically, syntactically, and semantically.Keywords: Place names, Arabic, English, German, French, Russian, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, historical linguistics, consonantal radical/lexical root theory

Historical linguistics, language change and the history of French

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Posner
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
French Language ◽  
Time Dimension ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language History ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
Modern Methods ◽  
History Of

AbstractThis is a personal delineation of part of a methodology for the History of the French Language, aiming to combine the methodology of linguistics with that of history proper. Both traditional and modern methods of ‘historical linguistics’ fail to take account of a real time dimension, whereas ‘language history’ often resembles institutional, cultural and social history. We ask how we identify the ‘event’ and the ‘object’ of linguistic history, and how we distinguish variation, innovation, shift and change. We ask also what the linguist can contribute to the historian's reconstruction of the past.

Historical Linguistics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane H. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
Dating Methods ◽  
History Of ◽  
Linguistic Methods

The Comparative Method in historical linguistics distinguishes resemblances among languages due to vertical transmission from those due to horizontal transmission, and from resemblances due to non-historical factors like chance. Alternative phylogenetic methods that seek long-range connections among languages have not been shown to consistently detect this distinction. Derived from the Comparative Method are the study of language contact and areal connections, lexicostatistical dating methods and linguistic-paleontological methods for reconstructing cultural knowledge. Methodological debates in historical linguistics, and application of these methods to cases in the linguistic history of the Southwest, are reviewed, suggesting that, in spite of the paucity of available data for many languages, historical linguistic methods have an important role to play in developing hypotheses about Southwestern prehistory.

An American at the origins of European Sprachwissenschaft and Italian historiographical thought

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-324
Author(s):  
Francesca M. Dovetto
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Italian Studies ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
History Of Linguistics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Natural Fact ◽  
Important Stimulus

Summary This contribution is dedicated to William Dwight Whitney (1827–1897), a scholar who generally has a modest space dedicated to him in the historiography of linguistics, despite his name and works having had considerable circulation among his contemporaries. His originality and method are outlined with particular attention being given to his reception in Europe and in the setting of Italian studies of theoretical and empirical linguistics. Whitney was among the first to contest Schleicher’s concept of language as a natural fact, claiming, instead, that it has social nature, as an ‘institution’ created by man; he was a forerunner in recognizing the relevance of signs and their value, and of language acquisition. In his demonstrations and in his methods he proposes a science of historical linguistics but at the same time it is open to 20th century linguistics and the concept of language as a complex system ordered and crossed by relationships. Both his unique approach to the study of Sanskrit, which emphasised the study of its use and its variants, and his interest for modern languages, makes him a particularly interesting scholar, as he and his reception testify the rise, in Europe and especially in Italy, of a new approach to linguistic issues, no longer exclusively historical-comparative, but also theoretical and general. Nonetheless, Whitney ought to occupy a prominent place in the history of linguistics, because he was also the author of one of the first introductory texts of the discipline, which was published in 1875; in that same year a French translation came out, which was soon followed by an Italian, and a German translation (both 1876).The number of almost contemporaneous translations gives an idea of the gap which a general and introductory work like Whitney’s filled and illustrates that there was a clear need for it. In several works, including recent ones, De Mauro identified the specific characteristics of Italian linguistic studies: we can find a good many of these traits in Whitney as well. Although the fruitful contribution of Whitney’s ideas in an environment which is ‘naturally’ inclined towards the themes and methods the American linguist dealt with, i.e., the ‘Italian linguistic school’, has not been fully recognised until now, it is undeniable that his ideas provided an important stimulus for new interpretations and new models.

scholarly journals The sound patterns of Englishes: representing phonetic similarity

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
APRIL MCMAHON ◽  
PAUL HEGGARTY ◽  
ROBERT MCMAHON ◽  
WARREN MAGUIRE
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Phonetic Similarity ◽  
Strong Focus ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Membership ◽  
Relative Similarity

Linguists are able to describe, transcribe, and classify the differences and similarities between accents formally and precisely, but there has until very recently been no reliable and objective way of measuring degrees of difference. It is one thing to say how varieties are similar, but quite another to assess how similar they are. On the other hand, there has recently been a strong focus in historical linguistics on the development of quantitative methods for comparing and classifying languages; but these have tended to be applied to problems of language family membership, at rather high levels in the family tree, not down at the level of individual accents. In this article, we outline our attempts to address the question of relative similarity of accents using quantitative methods. We illustrate our method for measuring phonetic similarity in a sample of cognate words for a number of (mainly British) varieties of English, and show how these results can be displayed using newer and more innovative network diagrams, rather than trees. We consider some applications of these methods in tracking ongoing changes in English and beyond, and discuss future prospects.

Let's talk about trees: Genetic relationships of languages and their phylogenetic representation

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-457
Author(s):  
Robert Blust
Keyword(s):  
International Symposium ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Genetic Relationships ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Stated Purpose

This volume contains an introduction and eight papers presented at an international symposium ‘Let's Talk about Trees’, which was organised by Ritsuko Kikusawa and hosted by the National Museum of Ethnology of Osaka, Japan, in February 2013. The stated purpose of the meeting was to evaluate the pros and cons of the classic tree model of historical linguistics in describing the order of splits within a language family. Because the problem of modelling relationships of descent is common to other disciplines, contributors were invited from a range of academic disciplines, including not only linguistics, but also what is described on page one as ‘cladistics’, ‘biology’ and ‘genetics’, although cladistics is clearly a part of biological taxonomy, and not an independent discipline.

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