Some Concepts studied in class
Wave theory: In historical linguistics, the wave model or wave theory (German Wellentheorie) is a model of language change in which new features of a language spread from a central point in continuously weakening concentric circles, similar to the waves created when a stone is thrown into a body of water. This should lead to convergence among dissimilar languages. The theory was directed against the doctrine of sound laws and the strict tree model introduced by the Neogrammariansand laid the foundations of modern sociolinguistics. Advocacy of the wave theory is attributed to Johannes Schmidt and Hugo Schuchardt. In modern linguistics, the wave model has contributed greatly to improve the tree model approach of the Comparative method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_model_(linguistics)
Grimm’s law: Grimm's law, principle of relationships in Indo-European languages, first formulated by Jakob Grimm in 1822 and a continuing subject of interest and investigation to 20th-century linguists. It shows that a process—the regular shifting of consonants in groups—took place once in the development of English and the other Low German languages and twice in German and the other High German languages. The first sound shift, affecting both English and German, was from the early phonetic positions documented in the ancient, or classical, Indo-European languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin) to those still evident in the Low German languages, including English; the second shift affected only the High German languages, e.g., standard German. Grimm's law shows that the classical voiceless stops (k,t,p) became voiceless aspirates (h,th,f ) in English and mediae (h,d,f ) in German, e.g., the initial sounds of Latin pater, English father, German Vater, and in the middle of Latin frater, English brother, German Bruder. It also shows that the classical unaspirated voiced stops (g,d,b) became voiceless stops (k,t,p) in English and voiceless aspirates (kh,ts,f) in German, e.g., the initial sounds of Latin decem, English ten, German zehn, and that the classical aspirated voiced stops (gh,dh,bh) became unaspirated voiced stops (g,d,b) in English and voiceless stops (k,t,p) in German, e.g., the initial sounds of Sanskrit dhar, English draw, German tragen.The Columbia Electronic
Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. .
Tree Model: In historical linguistics, the Tree Model (German Stammbaumtheorie) is a model of language change in which daughter languages are genetically descended from a proto-language through a regular process of gradual change and is due in its most strict formulation to the Neogrammarians. The model relies on earlier conceptions of William Jones and Franz Bopp by adding the exceptionlessness of the sound laws and the regularity of the process. The notions of exceptionlessness and regularity as factors of process and change are challenged by the proponents of the Wave Model of change.
However, what seemed at the outstart as two
incompatible conceptions of how languages change has coalesced today into one
single explanatory theory. Hock already noted in 1991 (1991:454):[1]
“The
discovery in the late nineteenth century that isoglosses can cut across
well-established linguistic boundaries at first created considerable attention
and controversy. And it became fashionable to oppose a wave theory to a tree
theory... Today, however, it is quite evident that the phenomena referred to by
these two terms are complementary aspects of linguistic change...
As demonstrated by Labov (2007)[2], what needed to be reconciled within one framework of thinking were the transmission and the diffusion principles of linguistic change. The transmission of change within a speech community is characterized by incrementation within a faithfully reproduced pattern characteristic of the tree model, while diffusion across communities shows weakening of the original pattern and a loss of structural features. This is the result of the differences between the learning abilities of children and adults as intercommunal contacts are primarily between the latter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_model
Proto-language: A proto-language is a language which was the common ancestor of related languages that form a language family. *In historical linguistics, a synonymous term proposed language is a language for which no direct evidence exists, most commonly the proto-language of a language family. Assumptions about proposed languages are based on the comparative method. The German term "Ursprache" (derived from the prefix "Ur-" "primordial" and "Sprache" "language") is occasionally used as well.
In all
cases, the ancestral protolanguage is not known directly and it may be reconstructed by comparing
different members of the language family via a technique called the comparative
method, by internal reconstruction or other methods. Through this process only
a part of the proto-language's structure and vocabulary can be reconstructed;
the reconstruction remains the more fragmentary the more ancient the
proto-language in question relative to the number of its descendants. Examples
of unattested but (partially) reconstructed proto-languages include Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Uralic, Proto-Bantu and Proto-Paman.
The
Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the most elaborated example of a proposed
language. Although there is no direct evidence that this language ever existed,
there is copious evidence for its existence in the many similarities of the
Indo-European languages. A great amount of work has been put into the
reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European, but there are no means of determining
its success.
o-called
proto-languages
Sometimes, however, the proto-language is a language which is known from inscriptions (perhaps due to misunderstanding), an example being the Proto-Norse language attested in the Elder Futhark runic inscriptions.
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/5305835