Synchronic
Concerned only with the state of something at a given time, rather than
with its historical development. In modern linguistics, the synchronic study of
language as it is has generally been preferred to the diachronic study of
changes in language that dominated the concerns of 19th-century philology.
"synchronic" The Oxford Dictionary of
Literary Terms. Chris Baldick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?Subview=Main&entry=t56.e1114
Diachronic
Relating to historical change over a span of time. The revolution in
linguistics begun by Ferdinand de Saussure in the Cours de linguistique
générale ( 1915 ) is founded partly on the distinction between the diachronic
study of linguistic features evolving in time and the synchronic study of a
language as a complete system operating at a given moment. Saussure argued,
against the historical bias of 19th- century philology, that the synchronic
dimension or ‘axis’ must be given precedence.
"diachronic" The Oxford Dictionary of
Literary Terms. Chris Baldick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.
html?Subview=Main&entry=t56.e304
Families of languages
LANGUAGE FAMILY. A group of languages which are assumed to have arisen from
a single source: ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, GREEK, PERSIAN, RUSSIAN, SANSKRIT,
and WELSH are all members of the INDO-EUROPEAN language family, and are
considered to have descended from a common ancestor. Common ancestry is
established by finding systematic correspondences between languages: English
repeatedly has /f/ where Latin has /p/ in words with similar meaning, as in
father/pater, fish/piscis, flow/pluo rain. It also often has /s/ where Greek
has /h/, as in six/héx, seven/heptá, serpent/hérpein to creep. In addition,
English and German compare adjectives in similar ways, as in rich, richer,
richest: reich, reicher, reichste. These and other correspondences indicate
that the languages are cognate (genetically related). Various related words can
be compared in order to reconstruct sections of a hypothetical ancestor
language. The process of comparison and reconstruction is traditionally known
as comparative PHILOLOGY, more recently as comparative historical linguistics.
This process formed the backbone of 19c language study, though in the 20c it
has become one branch among many. A ‘family tree’ diagram (not unlike a
genealogy) is commonly used to represent the relationships between the members
of a linguistic family, in which an initial parent language ‘gives birth’ to a
number of ‘daughters’, which in turn give birth to others. This can be useful,
but is rarely an accurate representation of how languages develop, since it
suggests clean cuts between ‘generations’ and between ‘sister’ languages, and
implies that languages always become more divergent. In fact, languages
generally change gradually, and there is often considerable intermixing among
those which remain geographically adjacent..
"LANGUAGE FAMILY" Concise Oxford
Companion to the English Language. Ed. Tom mcarthur. Oxford University Press,
1998. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.
html?Subview=Main&entry=t29.e686
Dialect
The term dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos)
refers to a variety of a language
that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The
term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also
be defined by other factors, such as social class. A dialect that is associated
with a particular social class
can be termed a sociolect.
A dialect is distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation .
Where a distinction can be made only in terms of pronunciation, the term accent is
appropriate, not dialect (although in common usage, "dialect"
and "accent" are usually synonymous).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect
Sound Change
Sound change includes any
processes of language change
that affect pronunciation (phonetic change) or sound system structures (phonological change). Sound change can
consist of the replacement of one speech sound
(or, more generally, one phonetic feature) by another, the
complete loss of the affected sound, or even the introduction of a new sound in
a place where there previously was none. Sound changes can be environmentally
conditioned, meaning that the change in question only occurs in a defined sound
environment, whereas in other environments the same speech sound is not
affected by the change. The term "sound change" refers to diachronic
changes, or changes in a language's underlying sound system over time; "alternation," on the other
hand, refers to surface changes that happen synchronically
and do not change the language's underlying system (for example, the -s
in the English plural
can be pronounced differently depending on what letter it follows; this is a
form of alternation, rather than sound change).
Sound change is usually assumed to be regular, which means that it
is expected to apply mechanically whenever its structural conditions are met,
irrespective of any non-phonological factors (such as the meaning of the words
affected). On the other hand, sound changes can sometimes be sporadic,
affecting only one particular word or a few words, without any seeming
regularity.
For regular sound changes, the somewhat hyperbolic
term sound law is sometimes still used. This term was introduced by the Neogrammarian school in the 19th century and is
commonly applied to some historically important sound changes, such as Grimm's law. While real-world sound changes often admit
exceptions (for a variety of known reasons, and sometimes without one), the
expectation of their regularity or "exceptionlessness" is of great heuristic value, since it allows historical linguists
to define the notion of regular correspondence (see: comparative method).
Each sound change is limited in space and time. This means it functions
within a specified area (within certain dialects)
and during a specified period of time. For these (and other) reasons, some
scholars avoid using the term "sound law" — reasoning that a law
should not have spatial and temporal limitations — replacing the term with
phonetic rule.
Sound change which affects the phonological system, in the number or
distribution of its phonemes,
is covered more fully at phonological change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_law
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
is a type of assimilation which takes place when vowels come to share certain
features with contrastive vowels elsewhere in a word or phrase (Crystal 1992
168 ).
Example: A front vowel in the first
syllable of a word would require the presence of a front vowel in the second
syllable.
http://www.sil.org/LINGUISTICS/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsVowelHarmony.htm
Diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a
given society, there are two (often) closely-related languages, one of high
prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and
one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. The high-prestige
language tends to be the more formalised, and its forms and vocabulary often
'filter down' into the vernacular, though often in a changed form.
http://www.123exp-comm.com/t/23394175489/
Interlanguage
A language or use of language having features of two others, often a pidgin
or dialect form.
"interlanguage noun" The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Katherine
Barber. Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad
de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?Subview=Main&entry=t150.e35349
Protolanguage
An unattested language from which a group of attested languages are taken
to be historically derived. Thus Proto-Indo-European is the protolanguage
posited as a source for all the Indo-European languages, Proto-Germanic the
source for English and the other Germanic languages, and so on.
"protolanguage" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. P.
H. Matthews. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTR
Y .html?Subview=Main&entry=t36.e2736
Dissimilation
Change or process by which two sounds in a sequence become less like each
other. E.g. French pèlerin ‘pilgrim’ is from Latin peregrin (us) ‘foreigner’
by, among other things, dissimilation to l of the first of two r's.
Often sporadic: see Grassmann's Law for a more regular instance.
"dissimilation" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. P.
H. Matthews. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY
. html?Subview=Main&entry=t36.e943
Unattested
(Linguistics) denoting a form or usage or pronunciation of a word for which
there is no evidence: logically possible but unattested word- formation.
"unattested adj." The New Oxford American Dictionary, second
edition. Ed. Erin mckean. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?Subview=Main&entry=t183.e82417
Genetic
tree theory
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/w iki/Tree_model
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 Neogrammarians and 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.[1]
"wave model" Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_model_(linguistics)
Sanskrit
An ancient Indo-European language of India, in which the Hindu scriptures
and classical Indian epic poems are written and from which many northern Indian
(Indic) languages are derived.
"Sanskrit noun" The Oxford
Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus
Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e68223
Vernacular
1. the language or dialect of a particular country (Latin gave place to the
vernacular).
2. the language of a particular clan or group.
3. plain, direct speech.
adj. (of language) of one’s native country; not of foreign origin or
of learned formation.
"vernacular n. & adj." The
Oxford American Dictionary of Current English. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de
Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t21.e34164
Shibboleth
(a) M17 A word used as a test for detecting people from another district or
country by their pronunciation; a word or sound very difficult for foreigners to
pronounce correctly. (b) M17 A peculiarity of pronunciation or accent
indicative of a person's origin; the distinctive mode of speech of a
profession, class, etc. (c) E19 A custom, habit, style of dressing, etc.,
distinguishing a particular class or group of people.
"shibboleth noun" The Oxford
Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English. Ed. Jennifer Speake. Berkley
Books, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t33.e6533
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the
invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain
starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation,
lasting until the Norman conquest of 1066. The Benedictine
monk, Bede, identified them as
the descendants of three Germanic tribes:
They spoke closely related
Germanic dialects and may have traced a common
heritage to the Ingvaeones as described by the Roman historian Tacitus.
In contemporary usage, Anglo-Saxon is sometimes used
to denote modern peoples or groups considered largely descended from the
English, as in White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and is
sometimes used by non-English speakers, especially the French, to denote the Anglosphere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-saxon
The Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (also known as the Danelagh; Old English: Dena lagu; Danish: Danelov), is a historical
name given to the part of Great Britain in which the laws of the "Danes" dominated those of
the Anglo-Saxons.
The part of Great Britain that was part of the Danelaw is now northern and
eastern England. The origins of the Danelaw arose from the Viking expansion of the 9th century,
although the term was not used to describe a geographic area until the 11th
century. With the increase in population and productivity in Scandinavia,
Viking warriors sought treasure and glory in nearby Britain.
Danelaw is also used to describe the set of legal
terms and definitions created in the treaties between the English king, Alfred the Great,
and the Danish warlord, Guthrum the Old, written following Guthrum's defeat at the Battle of Ethandun in 878. In 886, the Treaty of Alfred
and Guthrum was formalised, defining the
boundaries of their kingdoms, with provisions for peaceful relations between
the English and the Vikings.
The Danish laws held sway in the Kingdom of Northumbria
and Kingdom of East Anglia, and the lands of the Five Boroughs of
Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln.
The prosperity of the Danelaw, especially Jórvík (York), led to its
becoming a target for later Viking
raiders. Conflict with Wessex and Mercia sapped the strength of the
Danelaw. The waning of its military power together with the Viking onslaughts
led to its submission to Edward the Elder in return for protection. It was to be part of his Kingdom of England, and a province of Denmark no longer, as the
English laid final claim to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw