The study of past events. Use this tag if your linguistic question is also related to history.
5
votes
1answer
107 views
Is it accurate - Chinese Wikipedia on Japanese/Korean classification
I'm not very updated on random theories regarding the Altaic theory (which I personally am agnostic about; though I slant towards not believing in it due to the extreme lack of any regular sound ...
0
votes
0answers
34 views
Do languages evolve via community usage or via influential individuals?
In the modern world, it's clear that some very influential people have a small effect on the evolution of a language by popularizing certain linguistic constructions as slang, which eventually evolve ...
1
vote
1answer
60 views
Is the word “abjad” borrowed from Arabic or was it coined in English then borrowed by Arabic?
"Abjad" is a technical term for a kind of writing system which is used when contrasting them with other writing system types such as alphabets, abugidas, and syllabaries.
There is also an Arabic word ...
2
votes
1answer
53 views
How much evidence of written language is needed to accurately define English in a particular period of history?
In older variations of English in history, how much evidence of written language samples is needed to accurately define the grammar and usage of that period?
For example, if we want to define how ...
5
votes
1answer
169 views
Why did English borrow more from Latin and Greek than, e.g., German did, in scientific and philosophical subjects?
Is there any known reason why the scholars of the time didn't think it easier to use calques, as for instance the Germans did for the names of some of the basic chemical elements?
7
votes
2answers
205 views
How much time does it take to create/fork a new language?
I wonder if there exists any summary or paper analysing the time it takes for the creation of a new language (with all reservations concerning definitions of languages et dialects etc.)?
Take, for ...
8
votes
2answers
110 views
What is the historical basis for the use of this type of phrasal verb in English but less so in Spanish?
For example, English uses phrases like to look for and to look at, which (I believe) are considered phrasal verbs. Spanish, however, would under normal circumstances use some derivation of buscar and ...
2
votes
1answer
116 views
References about the history of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian after the break-up of Yugoslavia
What is considered the best reference (papers/articles/books) that discusses the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language and outlines its history after the break-up of former Yugoslavia in the early 90s?
4
votes
1answer
174 views
Why did generative linguists abandon the notion of kernel sentences?
I've had a hard time finding answers to this question on Ixquick.
When I was young, transformational grammarians believed that sentences were derived from "kernel sentences," which were ...
3
votes
3answers
596 views
English words which are both verbs and adjectives
A question about UI design led me to speculate about English words which are both a verb and an adjective. My answer to the question addresses this linguistics issue as the root of the UI issue. I ...
4
votes
0answers
124 views
Where did Peirce publish his triadic model of signs?
A triadic model of signs can be found by various researchers. Probably the most famous illustration is the diagram in Ogden and Richards's The Meaning of Meaning (page 11, digitized here). It is also ...
8
votes
3answers
330 views
What are the Proto-Germanic words for sea, lake and a couple of others?
In Dutch "zee" means "sea" and "meer" means "lake", but in German "das Meer" means "sea" and "der See" means "lake".
Similarly, verbs like to want, to need, to have, to desire, etc. are all mixed up.
...
15
votes
2answers
277 views
Why is it that Latin was more “successful” in the western part of the Empire than in the eastern part?
The Roman empire ruled over the lands around the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, and I imagine imposed its language on its subjects.
But why is it that the western part of the empire (France, ...
7
votes
5answers
343 views
Outside of Modern Hebrew, do any previously dead languages have native speakers again?
What previously dead (i.e. no more native speakers) or remnant (i.e. not very well or hardly documented) languages have been revived to the point that there are native speakers?
Accounts of revival ...
2
votes
1answer
129 views
Where did the semantic categories of C. D. Buck's dictionary of synonyms come from?
The 22 categories of words used in Carl Darling Buck's "A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages" (1949) are quite different from for instance the categories in ...
3
votes
2answers
237 views
What are the rationale of people speaking/teaching Esperanto? [closed]
According to Wikipedia,
Esperanto's goal was:
to create an easy-to-learn and politically neutral language that
would foster peace and international understanding between people with
different ...
12
votes
4answers
471 views
True languages that pirates spoke
Ahoy, me hearties!
As many of you may already know, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Since I find the historical subject of piracy quite interesting, specially after reading Pirate Utopias, I would ...
8
votes
2answers
177 views
What is the reasoning behind the selection of the IPA symbols?
There are many weird characters in IPA, like Glottal Stop symbol ʔ for example.
Why these characters? Is there any reason for selecting them, or was their selection just arbitrary?
