Development of languages, language families, etc, through time with influences by other languages or pre-existing ones.
2
votes
3answers
242 views
Possible diachronic developments of th sounds
What are possible diachronic developments of th sounds?
Of course, I am aware of th-stopping /ð/,/θ/ -> /d/ and of th-fronting/θ/ -> /f/. Are there other developments of ð/ and /θ/ attested in the ...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
At what point does a language become its descendant?
With the possible exceptions of constructed languages, languages seem to evolve. As a real-world example, we note that Latin has evolved into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.
What ...
3
votes
2answers
139 views
Absence of vowel combination /ou/ in Spanish
Spanish has many words containing the diphthongs /au/, /eu/ and /iu/, but the only instances of words containing /ou/ (as a diphthong or in hiatus) are a very small set of foreign loanwords:
bou, ...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
Why are the Sinitic languages so different from the rest of Sino-Tibetan?
Compared to other Sino-Tibetan languages, the Chinese languages have a lot less inflection. Why is that? Did Old Chinese lose affixes and agreement systems? Or did other languages in the family get ...
1
vote
2answers
79 views
Are modern chuch Latin and classical Latin different languages?
From a (probably now-deleted comment) elsewhere on SE:
[Church Latin and Classical Latin] are more or less the same languages. Some new words were added and the pronunciation changed over the years,...
5
votes
3answers
252 views
How fast is the number of languages spoken today decreasing/increasing?
Speciation and extinction
From one ancestral language (e.g. latin), several languages are born (e.g. spanish, portuguese, french, italian, romanian, ...). Languages therefore speciate. Such ...
4
votes
2answers
138 views
How is it possible to reconstruct old accents of a language?
I just a video of a guy who delivered the opening lines of Romeo and Juliet in the modern received pronunciation of (British) English and then the same lines in what he claimed was the original accent ...
3
votes
1answer
89 views
What is the relationship between perfectivity and the Classical Japanese conjunctive particle “-て” (“-te”)?
In Classical Japanese, the auxiliary verb "-つ" ("-tsu") has a perfective function, indicating the completion of an action or process. According to Haruo Shirane's Classical Japanese: A Grammar, "-て" ("...
1
vote
0answers
74 views
Is this what English/Mandarin Chinese or other 21st century dominant langauges would eventually do too? (details below)(yup that's opinion based) [closed]
Umbrians, for example, continued to make inscriptions in their language for centuries after Roman annexation. But eventually the power and status of Latin prevailed, particularly after all residents ...
9
votes
1answer
89 views
What is it called when a word is used based on an extant definition which no longer actually applies? e.g. “dial” with phones
It was difficult to phrase what I mean in an accurate and precise way here.
This is similar to a fossil word, but fossil words are words which have fallen out of general use except where they are ...
9
votes
3answers
225 views
Can two close languages be merged?
For example: Norwegian and Danish are very close. If for some reason, Norwegian and Danish people live together in the same place, after a certain time, they'll speak the same language, will they?
...
6
votes
2answers
699 views
Origin of Present Perfect in Romance Languages
Since in Latin no compound form of verb tense exists, AFAIK, I thought that origin of Present Perfect should be sought in Proto-Germanic also for Romance languages, but I found out that Present ...
10
votes
2answers
305 views
When does language “evolve” and when is it just wrong grammar?
Lately I seem to get into a lot of discussions about stuff that is "wrong" in a language and whether it's really wrong.
In my last discussion there was a native Japanese saying you can use "verb x" ...
1
vote
2answers
520 views
Language Change over Distance
I'm building a world where I'm tracking the languages and people throughout time. So I'm starting from a single point with a single language and then expanding that out as time progresses. My basic ...
8
votes
3answers
180 views
Why does the name for Germany vary so much between languages?
I understand that there are occasionally one or two different origins for the same word, but for Germany there are at least six distinct roots found in languages of nearby countries. Why so for ...
0
votes
1answer
69 views
What do you call a visual language based on color frequency?
I was thinking about this question and answer about how cephalopods might develop a language, in this case a visual one.
How would linguistics term a language that is communicated visually as a ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
Why did English evolve to have so little inflection? [duplicate]
Consider the sentence,
The boy hit the ball out of the yard.
If we think of the words which make up the sentence, we realize that none of them have much inflectional possibility. The conjugation ...
0
votes
1answer
114 views
Fronting of /u/ from Latin to French
When Latin evolved to French, the vowel /u/ fronted to become /y/... except in Latin "VRSVS" /ur.sus/ > French "ours" /uʁs/, in which the vowel /u/ was kept.
I do not think that the /rs/ environment ...
4
votes
0answers
298 views
Past participle agreement in French
Background (skip if you know French)
In French, to generate the past tense, you use the past participle of the verb, attaching in front a conjugated form of avoir or être. For example:
J'ai mangé. ...
4
votes
1answer
177 views
Latin to French - evolution of certain forms of “FACERE > faire”
All forms of the Latin verb "FACERE" that went to French had a "c", but it has disappeared in all forms of the French verb "faire".
In FACIS > fais, the "c" completely disappeared.
In FACIUNT > font,...
3
votes
0answers
90 views
Romance languages - “to mean” as “to want to say”
I have noticed this phenomenon in quite a few Romance languages, that the verb "to mean" can also be conveyed by the phrase "to want to say", regardless of the origin of the verb "to want".
For ...
0
votes
1answer
36 views
Name of phenomenon of wrong segmentation
I think it would be best to illustrate by examples instead of by words:
an + other → another → a + nother → a whole nother
myn + Edward → my Ned
les enfants /le.zɑ̃.fɑ̃/ (French) → les *zenfants → ...
3
votes
0answers
151 views
How did West Germanic languages evolve?
I'm trying to make a comprehensive phylogenetic tree of Germanic languages, with dates of divergence, and I have been unable to find details on West Germanic languages and how they diverged. I have ...
2
votes
2answers
283 views
Where does the spelling <ea> and <ee> in English come from?
I am referring to <ea> as in "meat" and <ee> as in "meet".
Apparently, <ea> comes from Middle English [ɛ] and <ee> comes from Middle English [e], which come from Old English ...
9
votes
2answers
728 views
Is it realistic for the Grounders' language as depicted in “The 100” to have developed within 97 years?
In the show "The 100", the Grounders speak a language called "Trigedasleng". This language is intended to be a descendant of modern English, and we are to understand that it arose through natural ...
4
votes
1answer
264 views
How did the letter “v” come to represent the voiced labio dental fricative?
When I learned Latin we were taught classical pronunciation. When it came to the letter "v" we were taught to pronounce it as /w/. It was also explained that many people (my parents, for example) had ...
7
votes
4answers
4k views
Why there are no grammatical cases in the French language?
As far as I know, the French language is considered as a Romance language, which is derived, in its turn, from the Latin language. The last one has a rich grammatical cases system.
I am interested to ...
11
votes
1answer
481 views
Where did the discussion of the language faculty between Fitch, Hauser, Chomsky and Pinker and Jackendoff terminate?
Many of you may be familiar with the debate between FHC and PJ on the language faculty. The "discussion", which became quite heated, first appeared as PJ's response to an article in Science that was ...
4
votes
1answer
271 views
Globalized mass-media deterring language or dialects differentiation
I was wondering about how strong are the region-wide or country-wide mass-media institutions (be them newspapers or TV channels) as deterrent of language or dialects differentiation.
For example, a ...
6
votes
4answers
222 views
Is there a trend toward more homophones over time? What can counteract that trend?
It is my understanding (correct me if I am wrong) that many homophones develop as a result of phonemic mergers.
For instance, I, like many Americans, have a "cot-caught" merger where I do not make a ...
1
vote
0answers
32 views
Are Biological and Linguistic Evolution Similar? [duplicate]
Natural selection, based on Darwin's theories, states that organisms with characteristics that benefit survival survive while the weaker, less adapted individuals are weeded out.
Languages also ...
9
votes
5answers
1k views
Examples of Borrowing Languages
In the Wikipedia page History of the English language it is mentioned that English is a "borrowing language", with the implication that there are many loan words in English. What other languages may ...
1
vote
1answer
139 views
Was there an evolution of the greek alphabet in the middle-east?
I recently visited Jordan and noticed that many mosaic are commented
with included text. The text seems mostly ancien greek alphabet, but
it also contains non greek characters such as C, obviously
...
7
votes
4answers
827 views
Did a “cave man-style” language ever exist?
I recently had a discussion with a friend about whether a "cave man-style" language was likely to have ever existed. You know, the stereotypical "Fire bad! Need hunt, go tree-place now!" sort of ...
6
votes
2answers
200 views
What parts of speech do professional jargons tend to mint?
Many English-based jargons include newly created nouns, verbs and adjectives; and re-appropriate existing English nouns, verbs, and adjectives to new ends.
I can't come up with an example of a newly ...
5
votes
2answers
470 views
What is the origin of 't-' and 's-' words for second and third person possesive adjectives?
Many languages associate the t sound with the second person and the s with the third. For example Spanish (tu/tuyo, su/suyo), French (tu,ton/ta/tes,son/sa/ses), Italian (tu,tuo/tua/tuoi,suo/sua/suoi) ...
7
votes
6answers
1k views
Does language improve over time, or does it just change?
Obviously none of the languages that existed 5000 years ago are still in use today. Rather, we use their descendants. Over time, the lexicon and grammar change and transform, subtly, so that the ...
3
votes
2answers
157 views
Is the evolution & development of language better described by Deleuze concept of the rhizome than the traditional tree?
I originally asked this question on philosophy.stackexchange, but the consensus was that this was better asked here
Deleuze & Guattari introduce the idea of the rhizome in their text A thousand ...
8
votes
1answer
151 views
Influence of the regulatory bodies in the English language
Where could I find/read about studies about the influence in English of the lack of regulatory bodies of its use and lexicon?
It is easy to google and find long arguments on the topic. I am ...
0
votes
2answers
97 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
409 views
Impact of widespread literacy and global communication on language evolution
We live in a world that is incredibly different to the one that was here 200 years ago. Literacy, in the developed world at least, is no longer an elite privilege, but rather almost taken for granted. ...
8
votes
3answers
569 views
Should emoticons be considered punctuation?
Folowing on from my previous question Are "txt-speak" and "emoticons" examples of normal language evolution? I would like to propose that emoticons are simply now symbols of punctuation, rather than ...
8
votes
1answer
234 views
Is usage of 'SMS language' or 'textspeak' changing in any direction?
'SMS language' or 'textspeak' was popularised due in the 90s due to the use of phones with numeric keypads. However, most smartphones these days come with autocorrect / autocomplete which outputs ...
1
vote
2answers
188 views
Evolutionary advantage of descriptive statements
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I may as well try.
The evolutionary benefit of warnings, all-clear signals, communication on where to find food and so on is quite clear. But what ...
9
votes
2answers
679 views
Are “txt-speak” and “emoticons” examples of normal language evolution?
"txt-speak" appeared because of the need to fit a communication into 160 characters.
"Emoticons" appeared due to the need to convey an emotional context with your message so that it is read correctly ...
8
votes
1answer
297 views
Why do languages retain or re-create complexity?
It seems to me (but I may be wrong), that languages tend to evolve towards simplification. Some examples I can think of: loss of declinations in Romance languages or in English, loss of 2nd person ...
12
votes
2answers
854 views
Do atonal languages have a tonal ancestor?
One of the distinctions among languages is the tonal/atonal distinction. Dediu & Ladd (2007) suggest that this split between tonal and atonal languages is related to a recent mutation in the ASPM ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Are there any “simple” languages?
In all the languages I know, at least one of the following aspects is complex/difficult:
Alphabet: Complex meaning a large alphabet like in Chinese.
Pronunciation: Complex meaning that, for example, ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
Why do marked terms exist at all?
According to the definition of markedness, unmarked terms can be consider the "norm". So if there is something more "normal" about using unmarked terms, why would a language have marked terms at all?
...
4
votes
2answers
200 views
When some people spoke proto-XX, what did other people speak?
Tracing back in time through the language hierarchy, I imagine that geographical areas where ancestors of existing "alive" languages were spoken will narrow in, leaving lots of gaps (Since for ...
