Language change over time, language families, and the comparative method used to reconstruct ancestral languages.
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- What is the comparative method in historical linguistics?
- A technique that compares similar words and sound patterns across different languages to reconstruct their common ancestor language.
- What are cognates?
- Words in different languages that descended from the same word in an ancestral language and share a common origin.
- Define sound change.
- A systematic alteration of phonemes in a language over time, affecting either individual sounds or sound classes in predictable ways.
- What is the Neogrammarian hypothesis?
- The principle that sound changes operate mechanically and regularly across all words containing the affected sounds, except in cases of analogy or borrowing.
- What does phonetic conditioning mean in sound change?
- Sound changes that apply only in specific phonetic environments, affected by surrounding sounds or syllable position.
- What is analogy in historical linguistics?
- A process where speakers regularize irregular forms or extend grammatical patterns by false association with similar forms.
- Define borrowing in the context of language change.
- The adoption of words or grammatical features from one language into another, usually through contact between speakers.
- What is semantic broadening?
- A type of semantic change where a word's meaning becomes more general or inclusive, covering a wider range of referents.
- What is semantic narrowing?
- A type of semantic change where a word's meaning becomes more restricted or specific, covering fewer referents than before.
- Define amelioration in semantics.
- A type of semantic change where a word's connotation becomes more positive or prestigious over time.
- Define pejoration in semantics.
- A type of semantic change where a word's connotation becomes more negative or derogatory over time.
- What is a proto-language?
- The reconstructed, hypothetical common ancestor language from which related languages descended.
- What is a language family?
- A group of languages that share a common ancestor language and are therefore genetically related.
- What is the Indo-European language family?
- The largest language family, including most European languages, Persian, Sanskrit, and most languages of India and parts of Central Asia.
- Name three major branches of Indo-European.
- Germanic, Romance, and Balto-Slavic are three major branches; others include Italic, Celtic, Greek, Anatolian, Tocharian, and Indo-Iranian.