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The Study of Language and Change
1. The study of Language
George Yule
Language history and
change
● Florencia Martinez
● Julieta Dattoli
Language and Written Expression IV, 2020
ISFD N°41
2. Family Trees
All languages have a common ancestor
Proto-indo-european
This was the original form (proto) of
a language that was the source of
modern languages in the Indian
subcontinent (Indo) and in Europe
(European) Indo- European family tree traces
the lineage of many modern
languages
3. Family Connections.
There are some common
features in writing some word in
different language:
The fact that similarities
occur is a good evidence of a
family connection
4. Cognates
A COGNATE of a word in one language is a
word in another language that has a similar
form and IS or WAS used with a similar
meaning.
Somes examples:
A COGNATE is necessary to
establish family connections
between languages
Can you notice any similarities?
Modern English and
German have a common
ancestor which is the
branch called
“Germanic” in the
family tree
6. Sound Reconstruction
Look at these examples of three different languages
What can you notice?
● The initial sounds of the
words in languages A and
B are all /k/ sounds while
in language C the initial
sounds are all /ʃ/
But… Which sound was the original one?
1. Following the majority principle
we can claim that the initial
sound in A and B is older than
the /ʃ/ sound in language C
1. According to the most natural
development principle, change
occurs in the direction on stops
becoming fricative. /k/ sound is
older than /ʃ/ sound
Let’s see the direction in which changes
take place
7. 1
FINAL VOWELS OFTEN
DISAPPEAR
VOICELESS SOUNDS
BECOME VOICED
2 4
CONSONANTS BECOME
VOICELESS AT THE END
OF WORDS
3
STOPS BECOME
FRICATIVES
● Any final vowel disappeared
● Any voiceless consonant became
voiced
● Stops consonants DO become fricative
Looking at
the previous
examples
The /k/ sound is more
likely to have been the
original
THE MOST NATURAL DEVELOPMENT
PRINCIPLE
8. WORD RECONSTRUCTION
A set of cognates
from three related
languages
Using the majority principle, we
can suggest that the older
forms will most likely be
based on language 2 or
language 3.
then the consonant
changes must
have been [p] → [b],
[t] → [d] and [k]
→ [ɡ] in order to
produce the later
forms in
language 1.
There is a pattern in these
changes that follows one
part of the “most
natural development principle,”
i.e. voiceless sounds become
voiced between vowels.
9. THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH
Language has undergone
substantial changes through time,
we can take a brief look at
the history of English, which is
traditionally divided into four
periods.
10. The primary sources
for what developed
as the English
language were the
Germanic
languages spoken by
a group of tribes
from northern
Europe who moved
into the British
Isles in the fifth
century.
11. OLD ENGLISH
From the sixth to the eighth
century, there was an extended period
during which these Anglo-Saxons were
con-
verted to Christianity and a number of
terms from Latin (the language of the
religion) came into English at that time.
from this period have emerged
some words like angel, bishop,
candle, church, martyr, priest
and school.
12. Middle English
The End of the Old
English period
The Beginning of the
Middle English
periodArrival of the
Norman French
in England
The Normans had a deep influence on England
The french-speaking
invaders became the
ruling class. French
was the prestige
language
The language of
peasants
remained English
13. In the two hundred years, from 1400 to 1600, the
sounds of English underwent a change known as the
Great Vowel Shift (raising of long vowel sounds).
This was the result of:
● EXTERNAL CHANGES
● INTERNAL CHANGES
15. Syntactic changes (between Old and Modern English
● Word order: In Old English there are a number of different orders that are no
longer used.
○ The subject could follow the verb
■ He travelled/ Ferbe he
○ The object could be placed before the verb or at the beginning of the sentence.
○ The use of negative also differs from Modern English. Double negative construction
is possible:
16. Semiotic changes
Modern English differs from Old English in:
1. Borrowed words
a. tax, defense, beef...
2. Words that have ceased to be used.
a. A common Old English word for man was “were” but it has fallen out of use
There are two semiotic processes:
1. Broadening: a specific term which was used to talk about a specific
meaning now is used to refer to a general meaning.
a. Holy day: change from “Religious feast” to the very general break from work
2. Narrowing: From general meaning to specific.
a. Wife: It was used to refer to any woman but has narrowed in its application
nowadays to only married women.
