The first field of language study as a science to develop was historical comparative linguistics. Concerned primarily with the origin of languages, these scientists compared languages looking for similarities that would link them to a common linguistic root. They attempted to reconstruct the mother or root language based on the knowledge they had on existing languages and their development.
How do you know that languages are related? As you recall from the section defining language, one of its main characteristics is its arbitrary nature., The sounds that represent a concept have no direct relation to the actual object or idea that they represent. Therefore, if words from different languages sound alike and represent similar ideas, linguists know that they have to be related or from the same language families.
For example, look at the following language samples:
| French | Spanish | English | Italian | Persian | Japanese |
un |
uno |
one |
uno |
yek |
ichi |
deux |
dos |
two |
due |
do |
ni |
trois |
tres |
three |
tre |
se |
san |
Can you see the similarities between French, Spanish and Italian? Can you see the dissimilarity between Japanese and these languages?
After hypothesizing that certain languages are related, linguists then try to build backwards and reconstruct the original language. They know that languages change systematically over time and by studying mostly written texts can come very close to describing a language that many not even be in use anymore.
How do Languages Change?
Linguists have found that languages change in the following ways:
Phonological Change
The sounds of words in a language may change over time. For example in Chaucer's time, the vowel sound in English words such as house and mouse and south sounded more like the vowel sound in tooth.
Sounds may be added over time as can be seen in the Spanish word for school, escuela which has its roots in the Latin word for school, scola. The addition of sounds like e in escuela is known as excrescence . Loss can also occur which explains the so called silent e in English words such as name In Middle English the final e was pronounced). Both excrescence and loss can be seen in the French word for school, �cole which also has its origins in the Latin scola.
Assimilation is another example of how languages change phonetically. Originally, the word heaven was pronounced more like heaven. As time passed, the f sound became more vocalized, taking on (assimilating) the characteristics of the vowel sounds surrounding it.
The opposite, dissimilation can also occur as can be seen as the French word marbre became marble after being incorporated into the English language. The pronunciation of the second r became less similar to the first.
Metathesis, where sounds are interchanged also occurs over time. The English horse was once hros in Old English, and the Old English brrid became our modern day bird.
In almost all cases, phonological change is a process of simplification of complex or difficult to pronounce sound groups.
The most notable change in English pronunciation came as a result of the Great Vowel Shift where seven vowel sounds of Middle English changed slightly:
| Middle English | Modern English | |
i |
changed to | aj |
u |
changed to | aw |
e |
changed to | i |
o |
changed to | u |
|
changed to | e |
|
changed to | o |
a |
change to | e |
Syntactical Change
Syntactical or word order in sentences is another way that languages change. At one time, anyof the following structures would have been acceptable in English:
The man slew the king.
The king slew the man.
The man the king slew.
The king the man slew.
Slew the man the king.
Slew the king the man.
Look at these sentences from two of Shakespeare's plays:
Look you now what follows. (Hamlet; Act 3, Scene 4, Line 63)
This is the man should do the bloody deed. (King John; Act 4, Scene 2, Line 69)
Semantic Change
Finally, the meanings of words may change over time. Sometimes broadening the context in which they are used and other times restricting or narrowing their meanings.
A broadening of context can be seen with the English word pool which at one time was only used to refer to a small body of water, and thus we have our swimming pools. But as time has passed, pool has gathered new contexts as can be seen with pool table and car pool whcih have very little or nothing to do with water.
The opposite is true for the word meat which was originally used to refer to all foods, but whose context was narrowed, now referring only to what was once called flesh.
words also shift their meanings. For example, the word beads used to mean "prayer", but shifted its meaning to the symbol of prayer "rosary beads". (The context has since broadened to include all small objects pierced for stringing together).
What is the difference between a shift in meaning and a broadening/narrowing of context
Languages also change lexically or semantically through borrowing of words directly or indirectly from other languages.
Words such as rendezvous and etcetera were directly borrowed from French and Latin respectively. These are referred to as loan words; however, a similar type of borrowing exists known as loan blends. Often a language may borrow one element of a word from another language and combine it with elements of its own. This can be seen in some varieties of Spanish which use words such as lonchear (to have lunch) and parquear (to park).
Loan shifts may also occur where only the meaning is borrowed and then applied to an existing structure in the original language. This appears to be happening in some Spanish varieties where the phrase aplicar para un trabajo (apply for a job) is being used instead of the more standard version of solicitar un trabajo. The meaning of the word apply is used with the structure aplicar in Spanish, shifting the meaning of aplicar (meaning to put or stick something to an object) to the English meaning of the word "apply".
Relexification is another form of direct borrowing, but with the added component of translation. Words such as skyscraper are taken into Spanish and translated to rascacielo (rasca=scrape, cielo=sky).
Indirect borrowing can be seen in words such as "algebra" which was borrowed from Spanish but originally an Arabic word. Canoe is another word in English which was borrowed from Spanish which had borrowed it from the Taino Indians of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
Finally, languages also change lexically as they create new words. Take for example, the word e-mail which is now being used not only as a noun (I received the e-mail you sent me.), but also as a verb (I'll e-mail you the results of the study.)
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Pettus
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