Synchronic/diachronic linguistics
The study of a language at a given point in time. The time studied may be either the present or a particular point in the past; synchronic analyses can also be made of dead languages, such as Latin. Synchronic linguistics is contrasted with diachronic linguistics (or historical linguistics), the study of a language over a period of time. In the 20th century, synchronic description has come to be regarded as prior to diachronic description; the latter presupposes that synchronic descriptions at various stages of the development of a language have already been carried out. Previously, linguists had placed emphasis on diachronic linguistics. The terminological distinction between synchronic and diachronic linguistics was first made by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913).
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Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is composed of 449 languages and dialects, according to the 2005 Ethnologue estimate, about half (219) belonging to the Indo-Aryan sub-branch. "Indo" refers to the Indian subcontinent, as the language group geographically extends from Europe in the west to India in the east. The languages of the Indo-European group are spoken by approximately three billion native speakers, the largest number of the recognised families of languages. (The Sino-Tibetan family has the second-largest number of speakers.)
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Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for over a century, and there have been many attempts at reconstruction. Nevertheless, many disagreements and uncertainties remain.
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Conceptual model developed by Schleicher (1861–2) to describe the origin of individual languages which were believed to have ‘branched off from older languages. Influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, Schleicher reconstructed the origin of the individual Indo-European languages from a hypothetical Indo-European ‘proto-language’ in the form of a genetic tree whose branches are meant to correspond to the differentiation of individual languages caused by an interruption in their contact with other languages. Apart from its adoption of biological terminology (‘genetic,’ ‘descendant’) to describe the relationship between languages, which leads to faulty associations, the genetic tree model with its (abrupt) branching cannot depict possible mutual influences or parallel linguistic developments. The principal competing model is the wave theory.
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Originally developed by Schuchardt (1868) and perhaps independently, though later, by Schmidt (1872), image used to explain the origin and development of individual languages through gradual linguistic differentiation and not—as in Schleicher’s genetic tree theory—through abrupt branching. A nucleus of innovation is postulated which radiates outwards in the form of waves and spreads linguistic changes and developments, much like waves that are emitted and partly overlap when stones are dropped in water. Language varieties that are spatially and/ or temporally neighboring accordingly usually display a language inventory with correspondences common in many areas.
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INTERNAL RECONSTRUCTION
Internal reconstruction is a method of recovering information about a language's past from the characteristics of the language at a later date. Whereas the comparative method compares variations between languages — such as in sets of cognates — under the assumption that they descend from a single proto-language, internal reconstruction compares variant forms within a single language under the assumption that they descend from a single, regular form. For example, these could take the form of allomorphs of the same morpheme.[citation needed]
The basic premise of internal reconstruction is that a meaning-bearing element that alternates between two or more similar forms in different environments was probably a single form in the past, into which alternation was introduced by the usual mechanisms of sound change and analogy.[citation needed]
Language forms reconstructed by means of internal reconstruction are denoted with the pre- prefix, similar to the use of proto- to indicate a language reconstructed by means of the comparative method; for example, proto-Indo-European. So, an earlier form of English would be referred to as pre-English, intermediate between hypothetical Proto-Germanic and the earliest attested Old English.
It is even possible to apply internal reconstruction to proto-languages reconstructed by the comparative method. For example, performing internal reconstruction on proto-Mayan would yield pre-proto-Mayan. In some cases it is also desirable to use internal reconstruction to uncover an earlier form of various languages, and then submit those pre- languages to the comparative method. Care must be taken, however, because internal reconstruction performed on languages before applying the comparative method can remove significant evidence of the earlier state of the language and thus reduce the accuracy of the reconstructed proto-language.
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VOWEL HARMONY
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance (see below) assimilatory phonological process involving vowels in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on what vowels may be found near each other. Harmony processes are "long-distance" in the sense that the assimilation involves sounds that are separated by intervening segments (usually consonant segments). In other words, harmony refers to the assimilation of sounds that are not adjacent to each other. For example, a vowel at the beginning of a word can trigger assimilation in a vowel at the end of a word. The assimilation sometimes occurs across the entire word.
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METATHESIS:
Metathesis (IPA: /məˈtæθəsɨs/) (from Greek μετάθεσις) is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. The most common instance of metathesis is the reversal of the order of two adjacent phonemes, such as "comfterble" for comfortable (in rhotic dialects such as American English). Many languages have words that show this phenomenon, and some use it as a regular part of their grammar (e.g. Fur). The process of metathesis has altered the shape of many familiar words in the English language, too. What is sound before and after metathesis depends on assumption of language ancestry if protowords cannot be attested.
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PIDGIN / CREOLE
A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common, in situations such as trade. Pidgins are not the native language of any speech community, but are instead learned as second languages.[1][2] Pidgins usually have low prestige with respect to other languages.[3]
Not all simplified or "broken" forms of language (patois) are pidgins. Pidgins have their own norms of usage which must be learned to speak the pidgin well.[4]
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that originates seemingly as a nativized pidgin.[1] This understanding of creole genesis culminated in Hall's[2] notion of the pidgin-creole life cycle. While it is arguable that creoles share more grammatical similarities with each other than with the languages they phylogenetically derive from,[3] no theory for explaining creole phenomena has been universally accepted. The relationship between pidgins and creoles and their similarities means that the distinction is not clear-cut and the variety of phenomena that arise to create pidgins and creoles are not well understood.[4] Likewise, efforts to articulate grammatical features (or sets of features) that are exclusive to creoles have been unsuccessful thus far.
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IDIOLECT: An idiolect is a variety of a language unique to an individual. It is manifested by patterns of word selection, vocabulary and word lexicon, grammar, or words, phrases, idioms, or pronunciations that are unique to that individual. Every individual has an idiolect; the grouping of words and phrases is unique, rather than an individual using specific words that nobody else uses. An idiolect can easily evolve into an ecolect—a dialect variant specific to a household.
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DIGLOSSIA LANGUAGE: The term diglossia refers to a sociolinguistic situation similar to bilingualism. But instead of two different languages, in a diglossic situation two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play.
VERNACULAR:
Vernacular refers to the native language of a country or a locality. In general linguistics, it is used to describe local languages as opposed to linguas franca, official standards or global languages. It is sometimes applied to nonstandard dialects of a global language.
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LANGUAGE/DIALECT
There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects. Anyway we can say that dialects refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. Language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages:
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Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in the south of England between 1200 and 1600. The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by Otto Jespersen (1860–1943), a Danish linguist and Anglicist, who coined the term.
The values of the long vowels form the main difference between the pronunciation of Middle English and Modern English, and the Great Vowel Shift is one of the historical events marking the separation of Middle and Modern English. Originally, these vowels had "continental" values much like those remaining in Italian and liturgical Latin. However, during the Great Vowel Shift, the two highest long vowels became diphthongs, and the other five underwent an increase in tongue height with one of them coming to the front.
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