4. Comparative
reconstruction
It was found out through
similarities in
different
languages
their relation
to an ancestor
In order to find
Cognates
a similar word in
one language and
another
form or
pronounciation
process in wich cognates are
compared in order to find similarities
6. In comparative reconstruction there are two
important principles:
The
majority
principle
Principles
The natural
developmen
t principle
the ones more similar
demonstrate the less
that those languages
have changed from the
proto-language
are a series of rules in
language change (or
evolution) that show the
antiquity of that
language in relation to
the proto-language.
7. This shows that the more the word
respects these rules, the more similar
it is towards the proto-language.
The natural
development principle
9. Old English
Germanic tribes
(Angles, Saxons and
Jutes) invaded the
British Isles in the V
century
Words belonging
to this period:
mann (man),
drincan (drink),
etan (eat)
Then, another
northern-
european tribe
arrived, The
Vikings
. They brought
the Old Norse,
words like: give,
leg, skin
12. Middle
English
Normans arrival to
the British Isles in
1066. William “The
Conqueror” (a
norman) was
crowned King of
England
French relevance
during this period,
although English
never ceased
being spoken (by
the lower class)
Words like:
defense, court,
faith, army
14. From 1400 to 1600 English started
changing becoming Modern English
(more specifically, early modern
English)
Middle to Modern
English transition
Pronounciation Syntax Lexicon
15. Pronounciation
change
Not only some sounds
changed, but also
some others
disappeared. i.e. the
voiceless velar fricative
/x/ wich in old english
pronounciation of nicht
as [nixt], but is absent
in the present-day
form of night [nayt]
Metathesis
is a reversal in
two adjoining
sounds, had
changed the
pronounciation
of some words
Prothesis
That is the
addition of a
sound to the
beginning of a
word
17. Syntactic changes
In the transition from old
english to modern
english, we can find
several differences in the
order of the sentence, i.e.
18. Lexical changes
A lot of borrowed
words have been
added to the
english language
along its
evolution, from
latin, greek and
other languages.
New words
were
created
Some
other
words
have
ceased to
be used
In terms of meaning,
there are two
processes: Broadening
and Narrowing
19. Meaning
(semantic)
features
Broadening Narrowing
A word that
previously had only
one meaning, now
it has some others,
for example:
In old english the word
“dogca” was used to refer to
any breed of dogs, but now,
its evolution “dog” is used
to refer to any breed.
Is the reverse
process, a word
that before had
several different
meanings or uses,
now it has only
one, for example:
The old english word “mete”
refered to any kind of food,
now it refers only to a specific
breed, “meat”
20. It’s worth mentioning that this process of
change in the language was not from one
day to another, on the contrary a language
changes gradually, it takes time and
requires some factors to make it possible.
Another important point to conclude is that
language is in a continuous process of
evolution, it’s always changing.
