Questions tagged [historical-linguistics]
The diachronic study of language and its evolution.
536
questions
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24 views
Is it correct for the rules of this voice alternations?
I'm a graduate student from Korea. I'm doing some practice about assimilation but I don't know if it is correct.
Here is the question:
"cat" and "cats"
"dog" and "dogs"
"hen" and "hens"
And this is ...
5
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2answers
228 views
Is agnosticism the current orthodoxy regarding linguistic macrofamilies?
I'm asking this very much much as a interested layman. As I understand things, the academic linguistics community, by and large, views macrofamily hypotheses - Nostratic, Altaic, etc - rather poorly.
...
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0answers
50 views
Historically speaking, have words for describing components of weather always been “discrete?”
I chose weather as an example, but this would apply to many other areas.
What I'm curious about is whether there existed, or still does exist, languages which combine certain ideas that today we see ...
2
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1answer
91 views
Similarities between Proto-Austronesian and Chinese?
Proto-Austronesian was a language that was spoken about 5,000 years ago near Taiwan. I am just curious about, partly because of the geographic connection, if Chinese is related to the Austronesian ...
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0answers
77 views
Is there credible evidence for Proto-Indo-Uralic? [duplicate]
Proto-Indo-Uralic is possibly an ancient language that was spoken around ten thousand years ago. I have heard that this has evidence but it hasn’t been proven. So, is there any real evidence (...
6
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1answer
114 views
Any reasons for unexplained centumization in Balto-Slavic?
Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages are called satem languages, because in them the Proto-Indo-European palatovelars *ḱ, *ǵ, and *ǵʰ developed into sibilants or affricats, usually into [s]/[z]- or ...
-1
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2answers
167 views
Ukranian зозуля cuckoo
I unfortunately did not find the etymology of Ukranian word зозуля zozúlja cuckoo. May it be a satemization ?
5
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0answers
91 views
“Reconstruction” of an attested and well studied language
I wonder has anyone ever tried to reconstruct Latin language via data on modern Romance languages as if we know nothing about what Latin actually was.
Both as a fun exercise and as a method to test ...
2
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1answer
80 views
The impact on the deciphering of the Carian language on proto-Anatolian
Despite written in an alphabetic script, the Carian language resisted decipherment for a long time and we can only read it for about three decades now. The Carian language turned out to be a member of ...
4
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1answer
862 views
The term “proto” in “proto-language”
I noticed that both Proto-Sinaitic and Proto-Indo-European have the title of "proto", although the Proto-Sinaitic has actual scripts which were found and studied, i.e. it is a fact that it existed, ...
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2answers
197 views
What is the origin of the “redundant” pronouns in the Venetian language?
From the examples taken from Wikipedia:
• Venetian: (Ti) te jèra onto or even Ti te jèri/xeri onto (lit. "(You) you were dirty").
• Venetian: El can el jèra onto (lit. "The dog he was dirty").
It ...
2
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3answers
123 views
Learning linguistics from scratch
I am a student of mathematics and physics but have been inspired to learn more about linguistics after having learned a new language this year. I found the subject deeply fascinating. As of now I am a ...
9
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2answers
2k views
How well do Semitic languages preserve consonants over time?
I'm not too familiar with the details of Semitic languages, but as far as I can tell it seems the tri-consonantal roots of words are relatively important. If the consonants change over time, did they ...
1
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1answer
97 views
How consistent are the Egyptian Hieroglyph carvings orthographically?
We design the snake to look like this, and the bird to look like that, and the human figure to look like this other. Does it have to be exactly like that, or can we have some freedom when designing a ...
4
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0answers
55 views
What is the historical-linguistic origin of the high variety of the Burmese language?
In Myanmar (Burma), a state of diglossia exists.
How did the high (formal) variety originate historically? Did it use to have native speakers at some point in the historical development of the ...
1
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1answer
80 views
Resemblance Between Turkish Ablative and Locative, Ancient Greek Ablative, Allative
I was studying some Ancient Greek, and found out that the declination of some irregular nouns are very similar.
I started wondering if there is actually a language that is mother of Altaic languages ...
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3answers
183 views
Etymological Fallacy
What is actually wrong with using Etymology to infer a word's meaning?
I mean other than semantics( or more subtle meaning, nuance) of what other use could studying etymology be.
I cannot see the ...
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1answer
70 views
Are there any existing attested records or any manuscripts from Eastern Hungarian languages?
As a native Hungarian speaker, I've always been fascinated by the history of my native tongue. As we all know, Friar Julianus found Hungarian speaking people in the Ural mountains in the 13th century. ...
1
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1answer
133 views
Why is Latin considered a dead language, but Old High German simply a precursor to modern German?
Or, to put it another way: If the Church hadn't preserved Latin, would it even be considered a different language from Italian as opposed to simply an older form in the development of the Italian ...
33
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4answers
10k views
Were ancient languages as sophisticated as modern languages?
Reading some dialogues from Socrates, it struck me how eloquently the people seemed to speak from those times thousands of years ago. (Although this might be a result of the translation.)
And yet ...
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0answers
95 views
How could Proto-Indo-European not get dissolved into creoles during the Indo-European expansion?
First of all, I must say that I realise that this is not exactly a linguistics question so much as it is an anthropological, sociological, or historical question, but I suspect this might be the best ...
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3answers
187 views
why is syntax interesting? [closed]
I hear a lot the argument that "language is just a way of communication, therefore it is not "really" interesting to waste the time on studying aspects such as syntax, rather the truly interesting ...
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5answers
318 views
Could Proto-Indo-Uralic be reconstructed?
I am interested in linguistics and how words spread from place to place. I have seen that there are two language families, and that there are signs that they might be related. Proto-Indo-Uralic is the ...
6
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1answer
1k views
Problems with the adoption of the Latin script in English?
How did the Middle English adapted itself to the Latin script?
As I read it, Latin script didn't really suit the sounds in this language.
Was the adaptation authoritative, ruled by a central ...
3
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2answers
89 views
What happened to “accented velars” in Anatolian?
One of the oldest splits within Indo-European was between the Centum and Satem languages; they differ in what they did to the "accented velar" phonemes (like *ḱ and *ǵ).
However, if I understand ...
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1answer
94 views
Some scholars says that you cannot make the plural and feminine form of word Allah from arabic linguistic perspective [closed]
Is it possible from arabic linguistic perspective to make the plural and feminine form of word الله? for example اللهون plural form of word الله and اللت feminine form of word الله because in Arabic, ...
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3answers
60 views
Is there a specific name for the area of linguistics studying external constructs as encoded/embedded in languages?
I've recently become curious about this area of language/linguistics. I'm thinking about how mental, environmental and societal constructs are encoded within languages. Also about what a language ...
0
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1answer
112 views
How to find the first use of a word?
I already know how to use the Ngram to check the frequency,
And how to use the use the date ranges with Google books to find old usage of a word in medieval books.
But how to check the first use of ...
3
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1answer
96 views
When was Proto-Austronesian spoken?
I read on Wikipedia that the language that Hawaiian comes from, distantly, is called Proto-Austronesian. It says that it had more sounds/phonemes was spoken around Taiwan and Southern China. However, ...
4
votes
1answer
259 views
How might one swear in Proto-Indo-European?
Proto-Indo-European is an interesting topic. I'm fascinated by how it spread. But, I wonder how to use curse words. These words, like others, will probably be reconstructed from other languages: Latin,...
2
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0answers
98 views
Which factors influence the linguistic conservatism of a language, and to what extent?
Presumably the number of speakers is a factor, as a language cannot change if nobody speaks it (is this even true in absolute?)1, but it does not necessarily follow that more speakers results in ...
2
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1answer
100 views
Why are PIE C+glide clusters so rare?
I noticed that *Cj/*Cy (depending on if one uses IPA or IEist notation) and *Cw sequences are rare in PIE (with most being the result of schwebeablaut or regular ablaut). Among sequences that aren't ...
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2answers
139 views
Open ت and tied ة does both ت indicates at the end of the word that the word is feminine in arabic linguistics? [closed]
If a word ends with open ت or tied ة does both ت indicates at the end of the word that the word is feminine in arabic linguistics like ٱللَّتَ feminine form of word Allah in Quran 53:19?
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0answers
80 views
Are there any unattested, reconstructed Middle English words?
Are there any unattested Middle English words that were attested in Early Modern English? I'm asking this because, on Wiktionary, I saw that there are only 2 words: the F word and halibut that have ...
4
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1answer
277 views
Etymology of Persian سبز (sabz), meaning “green”
Where does سبز come from? (Wiktionary has no etymological information.) Urdu and Hindhi have the word "sabzi", which is derived from it, but is there a PIE root from which this derives, or is Old ...
2
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1answer
120 views
How to read and understand linguistics articles?
I was wondering if there is a good way to read and understand Quantitative linguistics articles that has graphs in it?
For example,
For a class, I am currently reading: "Recognition of spoken ...
3
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1answer
711 views
Is Uralic Possibly a Branch of the Indo-European Branch?
I've heard that there is a "family" of languages called the Uralic family. I looked up the association between the two languages. I found that there are possible cognates on Wikipedia.
I am floating ...
3
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1answer
201 views
What Languages have historically had Purification Movements? [closed]
Greek has been notorious for trying to purify the language. People tried to conserve the Attic Dialect which evolved to what is today called Katharevousa, which even means purified.
Historically, ...
3
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0answers
55 views
Which are the social differences which lead to the variance in the way to address a person?
My question is: Which are the social differences which lead to the variance in the way to address a person?
An example of the difference is T-V distinction some languages abolished it while others ...
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2answers
146 views
Is Rigveda the oldest religious recorded text (grandha)in the world? [closed]
Rigveda is considered to be the oldest recorded religious writings(grandha) book may be by the Indians.I do not know Whether it is a fact or not.Even the Wikipedia says so.
Is Rigveda the oldest ...
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3answers
2k views
Why do adjectives come before nouns in English?
Why does the attributive adjective come before a noun in English? In most languages, the adjective comes always after a noun. For example, white car is written as the equivalent of car white in Latin ...
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2answers
163 views
why can't we have two main verbs in a sentence in syntax
Would you please exlain to me why can't we have two main verbs in a sentence in syntax?
Thank you so much
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0answers
83 views
How and why do languages evolve to use different types of quotation marks?
For example, English uses "...", but French uses «...».
Also, which of these is more common? What did the first written languages use?
2
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0answers
54 views
(proto-)Germanic evidence for Late Latin vowel length
I would like to find a list of borrowings illustrating the reflexes in (proto-)Germanic of Latin long and short vowels. In particular I would like to find substantiation to the standard claim that it ...
4
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0answers
85 views
What language/script did Japan during the Yamato period and earlier have?
The Yamato period (300 - 710) had an organized ruler, civilozation, etc. However, only in Nara period (710 - 794), which existed along with the Tang dynasty of China, a Japanese script and language ...
23
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3answers
11k views
Is Sanskrit really the mother of all languages?
Hindus believe that "Sanskrit is the mother of all Languages".
It is a fact that Sanskrit has enriched most Indian Languages including the Dravidian Languages such as Telugu, as Latin enriched some ...
17
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7answers
6k views
Are language and thought the same?
I want to know whether language and thought are the same.
I think language enriches one's thought and thought helps one to use language better. Without language how could man think? Did they ...
8
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2answers
144 views
Can computational techniques solve historical problems that couldn't otherwise be solved?
Recently I've read that machine learning has been used to apply the Comparative Method (example with references here). Also, there are other mathematical approaches that have been applied to the ...
3
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1answer
229 views
What are the “cardinal sins” in historical linguistics? [closed]
Are there any explicit examples of poor methodology or application of the historical comparative method that most, if not all, can agree on?
2
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1answer
108 views
Reference Request: connection between PIE \*leg- and \*les
There's an obvious similarity between the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed roots *leg- and *les-, both "to collect, gather", reflected in logos, Latin lego and German lesen respectively. I have not ...
