An Introduction to Historical LinguisticsAll languages change, just as other aspects of human society are constantly changing. This book is an introduction to the concepts and techniques of diachronic linguistics, the study of language change over time. It covers all themajor areas of historical linguistics, presenting concepts in a clear and concise way. Examples are given from a wide range of languages, with special emphasis on the languages of Australia and the Pacific. While the needs of undergraduate students of linguistics have been kept firmly in mind, the book will also be of interest to the general reader seeking to understand langauge and language change. For this fourth edition, a number of new sections have been written, including many new problems and several datasets. Existing materials have been supplemented with new sections on grammaticalization, tonogenesis, morphological change, and using statistical methods in language classification. |
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Review: An Introduction to Historical Linguistics, 4th Edition
User Review - A AJ - GoodreadsI have read the two editions for the same textbook (ie, 3rd and 4th). However, I will review the fourth edition since it has covered many areas in comparison with the third edition. I should note that ... Read full review
Contents
1 Introduction | 3 |
2 Types of Sound Change | 23 |
3 Expressing Sound Changes | 55 |
4 Phonetic and Phonemic Change | 65 |
Procedures | 78 |
6 Determining Relatedness | 108 |
7 Internal Reconstruction | 121 |
8 Computational and Statistical Methods | 136 |
12 Syntactic Change | 217 |
13 Observing Language Change | 246 |
14 Language Contact | 264 |
15 Cultural Reconstruction | 299 |
Datasets | 327 |
Notes | 345 |
Language References | 355 |
359 | |
Common terms and phrases
allophone assimilation Australia Austronesian languages basic Bislama chapter cognate sets comparative method consonants copied core vocabulary correspondence sets creole languages cultural Dataset daughter languages derived developed dialects Dyirbal earlier English ergative evidence example express fact Fijian French fricative gaju gala German glottochronology grammatical grammaticalization guages he/she historical linguistics inflectional instance internal reconstruction involved isoglosses kind of change Koita language change Latin lexical lexicon lexicostatistics look M¯aori marker meaning modern morphemes morphological Motu Mountain Koiari nasal Neogrammarians noun phrases occur original form original phoneme Paamese Papua New Guinea particular phonological pidgin pidgins and creoles plural Polynesian languages possible pronounced Proto-Polynesian protolanguage Rarotongan referred relationship Samoan Rarotongan Hawaiian Sanskrit sentence similar Sinaugoro single sound change sound correspondences speak speakers split spoken stops structure subgroup suffix syllable taken place Tok Pisin Tongan Tongan Samoan Rarotongan tree typological Vanuatu velar verb voiced voiceless word-final words