Table of Contents

List of Tables ix

List of Figures and Maps xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xvii

Phonetic Symbols and Conventions xix

Phonetic Symbols Chart xxi

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 What is Historical Linguistics About? 4

1.3 Kinds of Linguistic Changes: An English Example 6

1.4 Exercises 9

2 Sound Change 15

2.1 Introduction 15

2.2 Kinds of Sound Change 16

2.3 Non-phonemic (Allophonic) Changes 17

2.4 Phonemic Changes 18

2.5 Sporadic Changes 25

2.6 General Kinds of Sound Changes 25

2.7 Kinds of Common Sound Changes 30

2.8 Relative Chronology 42

2.9 Chain Shifts 43

2.10 Exercises 50

3 Loanwords (Borrowing) 61

3.1 Introduction 61

3.2 What is a Loanword? 62

3.3 How do Words get Borrowed? 65

3.4 How do we Identify Loanwords and Determine the Direction of Borrowing? 69

3.5 Loans as Clues to Linguistic Changes in the Past 74

3.6 Calques (Loan Translations, Semantic Loans) 77

3.7 Emphatic Foreignization 77

3.8 Exercises 78

4 Analogical Change 87

4.1 Introduction 87

4.2 Proportional Analogy 89

4.3 Analogical Levelling 91

4.4 Analogical Extension 92

4.5 The Relationship between Analogy and Sound Change 93

4.6 Immediate and Non-immediate Analogical Models 94

4.7 Other Kinds of Analogy 95

4.8 Exercises 100

5 Lexical Change 102

5.1 Introduction 102

5.2 Lexical Change and New Words 103

5.3 Obsolescence and Loss of Vocabulary 113

5.4 Suppletion 114

5.5 Exercises 117

6 Semantic Change 118

6.1 Introduction 118

6.2 Traditional Notions of Semantic Change 120

6.3 Attempts to Explain Semantic Change 132

6.4 Exercises 138

7 The Comparative Method and Linguistic Reconstruction 140

7.1 Introduction 140

7.2 The Comparative Method Up Close and Personal 142

7.3 A Case Study 160

7.4 Indo-European and the Regularity of Sound Change 166

7.5 Basic Assumptions of the Comparative Method 174

7.6 How Realistic are Reconstructed Proto-languages? 175

7.7 Temporal Limitation to the Comparative Method 176

7.8 Exercises 177

8 Internal Reconstruction 194

8.1 Introduction 194

8.2 Internal Reconstruction Illustrated 194

8.3 Relative Chronology 197

8.4 The Limitations of Internal Reconstruction 204

8.5 Internal Reconstruction and the Comparative Method 207

8.6 Exercises 209

9 Language Classification and Models of Linguistic Change 219

9.1 Introduction 219

9.2 The World's Language Families 220

9.3 Terminology 229

9.4 How to Draw Family Trees: Subgrouping 230

9.5 Models of Language Change 242

9.6 Sociolinguistics and Language Change 248

9.7 Exercises 253

10 Language Contact 256

10.1 Introduction 256

10.2 What Can be Borrowed besides Just Words? 256

10.3 Areal Linguistics 260

10.4 Pidgins and Creoles 269

10.5 Mixed Languages 275

10.6 Endangered Languages and Linguistic Change 276

11 Change in Syntax and Morphology 278

11.1 Introduction 278

11.2 Mechanisms of Syntactic Change 279

11.3 Generative Approaches 285

11.4 Grammaticalization 288

11.5 Reconstruction of Morphology and Syntax 292

11.6 Exercises 305

12 Explanation of Language Change 311

12.1 Introduction 311

12.2 Early Theories 312

12.3 Internal and External Causes 314

12.4 Interaction of Causal Factors 315

12.5 One Form, One Meaning 321

12.6 Explanation and Prediction 322

13 Distant Genetic Relationship 326

13.1 Introduction 326

13.2 Lexical Comparison 328

13.3 Sound Correspondences 330

13.4 Grammatical Evidence 331

13.5 Borrowing 333

13.6 Semantic Constraints 333

13.7 Onomatopoeia 334

13.8 Nursery Forms 335

13.9 Short Forms and Unmatched Segments 335

13.10 Chance Similarities 335

13.11 Sound-Meaning Isomorphism 336

13.12 Only Linguistic Evidence 336

13.13 Erroneous Morphological Analysis 337

13.14 Non-cognates 337

13.15 Spurious Forms 338

13.16 Areal Linguistics and Proposals of Distant Genetic Relationship 339

13.17 Some Examples of Long-range Proposals 339

13.18 Methodological Wrap-up and Looking to the Future 343

13.19 Exercises 344

14 Writing and Philology: The Role of Written Records 352

14.1 Introduction 352

14.2 Writing and the History of Writing Systems 352

14.3 Philology 366

14.4 The Role of Writing 371

14.5 Exercises 375

15 Linguistic Prehistory 380

15.1 Introduction 380

15.2 Indo-European Linguistic Prehistory 381

15.3 The Methods of Linguistic Prehistory 393

15.4 Limitations and Cautions 416

15.5 Exercises 418

16 Quantitative Approaches to Historical Linguistics and Technical Tools 422

16.1 Introduction 422

16.2 Glottochronology 423

16.3 Word Lists, Stability and Replacement Rates 433

16.4 Other Recent Quantitative Approaches 433

16.5 Historical Corpus Linguistics 458

16.6 Conclusions 460

Bibliography 461

Index 480