Incoming and Outgoing Shipments in 3 STEPS Using Odoo 17
Chapter 11.1&2 Spring 2023.pptx
1. H I S T O R I C A L / D I A C H R O N I C L I N G U I S T I C S
11.1 Structure across time
2. Define english periods
Short video about english change
Define terms deletion, epenthesis, assimilation,
dissimilation, and metathesis.
Activity identify the processes above
Ask for most interesting things about 11.2 – bring my
own!
Explain Final project
3. Old English – 5th -11th century
Middle English - roughly 300 years from
around 1150 CE to around 1450
Modern English – 1450 - present
4. Opening Lines of Beowulf In Old English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH-_GwoO4xI
5. Beowolf: Old English to Modern English
HWÆT: WE GAR-
DENA
IN GEARDAGUM.
þeodcyninga
þrym gefrunon.
Hu ða æþelingas
ellen fremedon!
Oft Scyld Scefing
sceaþena þreatum…
So. The Spear-Danes in
days gone by
And the kings who ruled
them had courage and
greatness.
We have heard of those
princes’ heroic
campaigns.
There was Shield
Sheafson, scourge of
many tribes…
6. How words change
Define terms deletion, epenthesis, assimilation,
dissimilation, and metathesis.
7. Old sounds drop out - deletion
Time sees the deletion of consonants, vowels and
even whole syllables.
When consonants drop, loss is sometimes balanced
by lengthening of a neighboring vowel. This is called
compensatory lengthening.
Proto-
Germanic
Old English
Modern
English
Modern
German
*samftō sōfte soft sanft
*fimf fif five fünf
*tanþs tōþ tooth Zahn
8. Haplology
Haplology - Deletion of entire syllables
Typically with consecutive syllables that sound similar.
English examples
Anglaland > England
eahtatyne > eighteen
and eahtatig > eighty.
Probably
probly
Zaubererin
Zauberen
9. New sounds appear - epenthesis
Phonological change can also cause segments to
appear where they didn’t use to exist. This is called
epenthesis.
Epenthesis is less common than deletion, but can
result in regular historical changes. For instance, in
Romance languages a vowel was often added to the
start of words beginning with /s/+a consonant.
Latin status (state) > Spanish estado, Old French
estat.
10. Epenthesis in English
Examples of epenthesis in English.
No consonant added in German forms
Old/Middle
English
Modern
English
Modern
German
mommele mumble mummeln
kremele crumble krümmeln
ganra gander Ganre
þunor thunder Donner
11. Epenthesis in English
Consonants can also appear at the end of words:
agenes
against
paisent (paysan in French)
peasant
parchemin
parchment
The consonants are sometimes later dropped,
resulting in contrasting forms: amongst/among,
amidst/amid.
12. Epenthesis in Modern English
something
sumpthing
arithmatic
arithametic
Athlete
athelete
Film
fillum
14. Sound modification
There are three ways sounds change their shape: to
be more like neighbouring sounds (assimilation),
less like them (dissimilation), or through swapping
positions (metathesis).
Most changes are assimilatory, with palatalisation
the most common type of accommodation.
For instance, in English the [ʃ] in the words nation,
sure, sugar and pleasure came from this process.
15. Sound modification (continued)
Non-contiguous sounds can also assimilate. While very
rare for consonants, it is seen in orangutan >
orangutang.
More usual is vowel harmony, or distance assimilation
of vowels. English used to harmonise certain vowels,
which is where we get irregular plural nouns like foot-
feet and mouse-mice.
This was caused by an old pronunciation rule wherein
the main vowel of a word fronted to be more like the
vowel of the plural –i ending (as in *fōti ‘feet’ or *mūsi
‘mice’). The ending dropped, but the alternation stayed.
16. Sound modification (continued)
Finally, sounds can devoice (lose their voiced
quality) at the end of words. This assimilatory
change can be thought of as assimilating to the
voicelessness of the silence that follows the word.
Old High German Modern German Translation
tag [ta:g] Tag [ta:k] ‘day
rad [ra:d] Rad [ra:t] ‘wheel’
hund [hund] Hund [hunt] ‘dog’ (‘hound’)
bad [ba:d] Bad [ba:t] ‘bath’
17. Dissimilation
Dissimilation (movement away from neighbouring
sounds) is rare, but nasals and liquids are prone to it.
As you can see, the process can work in different directions.
Compare [r…r] to [r] and [l] vs. [m…n] to [v/b] and [n]
Early form Modern English Modern German
peregrine pilgrim Pilger
turtur turtle -
purpure purple purpur
marmor marble Marmor
*emna- ev(e)n eben
*heman heaven Himmel
18. Metathesis
Metathesis is also unusual, and refers to a process where
adjacent segments reorder themselves.
Metathesis often starts as a mistiming or slip of the tongue,
but these slips can endure. Consider the following examples
from English and German:
Early form Modern English Modern German
thirdda three (cf. third) Dritte
beorht bright bricht
brid bird Vogel (other history)
wæps wasp Wespe
19. Phonetic vs phonological change
In a language’s history, both phonetic (physical aspects of
sound) and phonological (sound relations within a system)
changes occur.
Phonetic changes involve adjustments to the realisation of a
phoneme or distribution of its allophones. However, they
cause no change to the number of phonemes or their
relationships.
For example, in English, /r/ always used to be articulated.
However, /r/ only exists before vowels in most English
dialects, American English being the large exception.
20. Phonological change
In contrast, consider the velar nasal /ŋ/ (as in sing)
English and German have three nasal phonemes: /m/ /n/ and
/ŋ/. The phoneme /ŋ/ does not have the same distribution as
/m/ and /n/. It can only appear word finally and between
vowels.
This phoneme began as a variant of /n/, occurring only before
other velar sounds. That is, it was an allophone of /n/. So sing
was [sɪŋg], not the current [sɪŋ].
At some point, stops fell off of [nasal+stop] clusters. Once /g/
disappeared from words like sing (and /b/ disappeared from
words like lamb), /ŋ/ came into contrastive distribution with
other nasals (see some/sun/sung), expanding our phonology.
21. Name the process
(deletion, epenthesis, assimilation, dissimilation, and metathesis)
Old word
spinel
hros
timr
frist
parabola
acsian
new word
spindle
horse
timber
first
palabra
ask
Process
epenthesis
metathesis
epenthesis
metathesis
metathesis (haplology)
metathesis
26. Talking about morphology
Grammar is less investigated in historical linguistics,
partially because it’s harder to do so. Sounds are finite,
grammatical constructions are less so.
Broadly speaking, languages fall into three main groups
(although they differ in degree), and can shift groups
over time.
Isolating (analytic) languages include Turung,
Chinese and Vietnamese. A pure isolating language
would have no bound morphemes. That is, each word
would be a single morpheme.
27. Changes in morphology
There are changes that drive isolating languages
towards agglutination, agglutinating languages
towards inflection, and inflectional language towards
a more analytic structure.
This should not be taken to imply hierarchy.
One way these changes occur is through analogy,
where forms become like associated forms. For
instance, -ed as a past tense has caused climbed and
shined to (mostly) overtake clomb and shone.
28. Changes in syntax – word order
Languages can change word order type (e.g.,
between SVO, SOV, and/or VSO)
English and German were once flexible, with the
verb even able to come first in some situations.
However, Modern English is now rigidly SVO/SVX
(X representing ‘everything else’).
29. Changes in syntax – creating grammar
The creation of grammar is called
grammaticalisation, and we study it through looking
at lexical sources (ordinary words) that give rise to
grammatical forms and constructions.
For instance, going has a lexical sense in sentences like
Fred’s going to university.
This lead to the grammatical and more abstract use in
sentences like Fred’s going to go to university. We have
shifted from movement in space to movement in time.
30. Creating grammar (continued)
When words lose lexical status, there is often a reduction
of vowels and consonants
go+ing to > gonna.
The meaning of the source element(s) often shapes the
subsequent grammatical meaning. For instance go-
derived futures are common and typically ‘immediate
futures’.
Generally, the lexical items pressed into grammatical
service are drawn from everyday basic vocabulary, are
culturally independent, relate to fundamental
experiences, and are frequently used.
31. H I S T O R I C A L / D I A C H R O N I C L I N G U I S T I C S
11.2 Structure across time
32. Skim over information
leave 20 minutes for thinking, brainstorming about
research topic
33. W H Y D O N E W E L E M E N T S T A K E O F F ?
The ‘how’ of change
34.
35. The ‘how’ of change
New expressions, pronunciations and structures can
take off due to anything from faddish demands to the
influence of certain speakers (such as celebrities).
Social media is a key player in the spread of current
linguistic cults and trends, as within hours a new
feature can have a worldwide following.
However, the progression of change involves much
more than can be seen in individual examples of
fashionable language.
36. All changes occur in a social context
Language is a social product, yet it wasn’t until the 1960s that we
had any real understanding of the social factors promoting
language change.
One reason is the Swiss linguists Fedinand de Saussure (1857-
1913). He strictly separated synchronic (static) and
diachronic (historical) perspectives, and was the architect of
linguistic structuralism which treated language as highly
organised.
This view privileged the underlying structure of the language
(langue) over actual use (parole). While successful, this view
neglected social, behavioural, and historical aspects of language.
37. Saussure’s paradox
For Saussure and his followers, the following proved to be a
puzzle: if language is structured, how can it change without
disrupting the system? In the same way, how can language be
effective if it is ceaselessly on the move?
However, there is no mystery if all forms of language use are
factored in as part of the structure of a language. Through
variation change occurs. Speakers shift allegiance with time,
and change follows.
Two common occurrences are a conscious shift to a prestige
form set by the upper classes (change from above), and
changes influenced by the ‘covert prestige’ (street cred) of
lower classes (change from below).
38. Variation and change
Variation is the synchronic (now) aspect of change,
change is the diachronic (historical) aspect of
variation.
Careful though: variation is not always indicative of
change.
Referring back to Chapter 10, William Labov was the
first to show that we could study relationships
between society, linguistic variation and change in a
systematic way.
39. Change in the presence of social variation
Labov’s work showed that language change always occurs in the presence of
socially relevant variation.
For instance, in the 1990s New Zealand linguist Janet Holmes investigated
the incidence of T-flapping in the pronunciation of words like atom as
[æɾəm].
It was found more frequently in casual contexts, and was generally more
commonly used by men than women, and by the working class than the
middle class.
However, it occurred more commonly in young middle class women than
young middle class men, with the women acting like a spearhead for this
vernacular change to infiltrate the middle class. That is, flapping entered
New Zealand English through working-class vernacular speech, but spread
to the middle class through young, middle class women.
The feature now appears to be firmly entrenched, and here to stay, with the
vernacular overtaking the ‘standard’.
40. Gradual change through the system
Change is both socially and linguistically structured.
Shifts, for instance, are gradual. They spread slowly,
and affect different word groups at different times.
This is called lexical diffusion, and typically
results in what we call an S-curve:
A handful of words are affected first,
and then the change gains steam,
but may not reach 100%.
41. Gradual change through grammar
Grammatical changes are also gradual and subject to the
same kind of gradual dispersal.
Take disappearing adjective endings. Phrases with more
and most (more tasty and most tasty) are gradually
pushing out corresponding –er –est forms (tastier and
tastiest).
However, the takeover is not clean, but the exceptions
are not random. For instance, typically single syllable
adjectives (big) keep their endings, while tri-syllabic
adjectives (beautiful) have lost their endings completely.
42. E X P L A I N I N G L A N G U A G E C H A N G E
The ‘why’ of change
43. The ‘why’ of change
We have already touched on some forces that drive
change, but any change occurs for numerous and
complicated reasons, and involve psychological,
physiological, systemic and social changes.
Human factors must also be considered: cultural
preoccupations can be powerful triggers for dramatic
and unexpected changes.
Change is not random, but it is highly complex.
44. Physiological factors - simplicity
A popular and supported theory for why sounds chance is
simplicity.
Sound changes in language are described as economy of
effort, following the line of least resistance (or human
laziness), as the end results are often more efficient and
streamlined production
Simplicity can’t account for everything though. Some changes
that could happen don’t, and some changes do result in
greater complexity. Even simplicity can create complexity,
such as sound changes resulting in irregular plurals in
English.
In short, simplicity is a factor, but it can’t be the only one.
45. Social factors – the speech community
Dramatic linguistic change also appears to go hand in hand with
social upheaval, as the changes affect our social networks.
Speech communities are like clusters, not layers, and networks have
different density and can involve mobile participants.
Dense networks (usually with fewer participants) generally enforce
norms. However, where there is less social cohesion, loose networks
are created, and these put much less pressure on cohesion.
Mobility in new communities due to factors like disease (destruction
of tight-nit networks) or new technology (the internet gives rise to
new communities) can be a major factor in linguistic change.
46. Frequency factors – repetition
The frequency with which we use words and phrases can
also be a motivating factor for change.
For instance, as swear words become used more and more,
they lose their potency, with bloody now little more than a
variant of very.
Repetition can also bring about reduction: day’s eye >
daisy, God be with you > bye.
Grammars will similarly reflect daily discourse, as high-
frequency terms are the best candidates for
grammaticalisation.
47. Why does repetition lead to reduction?
Frequently used words pop up in casual settings, and here short
cuts and reductions are more tolerated.
High frequency words are easier to understand, so less phonetic
detail is necessary.
Repetition of articulatory movements results in automation, and
speed of execution increases.
In contrast to sound, in grammatical change every day words are
the last to change. For instance, while –ed is spreading across
English verbs, the common go-went is strongly resisting this
change.
48. F R O M L I N G U I S T I C C H A N G E
T O G E N E T I C A F F I N I T Y
Language families and
establishing a genetic relationship
49. Genetic affinity
Up to now, we’ve focused on change. But how do we uncover genetic
affinity, or the linguistic relationships that arise do to change.
Consider the Lord’s Prayer at different stages of English and German.
Old English (c. 1000)
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofunum, si þin nama gehagod.
Middle English (c. 1400)
Our fadir that art in heuenes halowid be thi name.
Early Modern English (c. 1611)
Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Old High German (c. 830)
Fater unser thu thar bist in himile, si hiheilagot thin namo.
Modern German
Unser Vater in dem Himmel. Dein Name werde geheiligt.
Genetic affinity
— Up to now, we’ve focused on change. But how do we uncover genetic
affinity, or the linguistic relationships that arise do to change.
Consider the Lord’s Prayer at different stages of English and German.
Old English (c. 1000)
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofunum, si þin nama gehagod.
Middle English (c. 1400)
Our fadir that art in heuenes halowid be thi name.
Early Modern English (c. 1611)
Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Old High German (c. 830)
Fater unser thu thar bist in himile, si hiheilagot thin namo.
Modern German
Unser Vater in dem Himmel. Dein Name werde geheiligt.
50. Genetic affinity (continued)
We see striking similarities between English and German in
lexicon, sounds, syntax and morphology.
Not surprisingly, they came from a single parent language:
Proto-Germanic. The further back in time, the more striking
the similarity. Speakers of Old High German and Old English
would even have been able to understand each other!
However, consider the Welsh version of the Lord’s prayer.
While there is nothing to suggest similarity to English, we
know that Welsh is relative… how can this be?
Welsh
Ein tad, yr hwn wyt yn y nefoedd: sancteiddier dy enw
51. Confirming genetic relationships
More than similarities, it is the existence of
systematic differences that confirm the relatedness
of languages.
Consider the Dutch, Swedish, English and German
words below. The differences are systematic (d vs.
th). This is known as a sound correspondence.
Dutch Swedish English German
Proto-
Germanic
du du thou du *þu
dat det that das *þat
52. Cognates
Words that are similar in form and meaning because
they are historically (etymologically) related are
called cognates.
We can differentiate them from borrowings due to
scale: the presence of hundreds of cognate sets.
Borrowing can occur on a large scale, certainly, but
chance won’t result in so many sets.
Cognates are also everyday terms. Why would you
borrow the words brother or you?
53. The comparative method
We can even reconstruct languages using the
comparative method. This gives us hypothetical
forms that represent sound/meaning relationships
that carry through all modern languages in the
family. For instance, in Proto-Germanic:
54. The comparative method
When reconstructing a parent language, we seek out forms
from the earliest available evidence of the child languages.
We then look for systematic differences. For instance, the
Gothic [ai] corresponds to Old Norse [ei] and Old English
[a]. This correspondence is regular, and can only be
accounted for by a common ancestor.
Gothic Old Norse Old English Translations
stains steinn stan ‘stone’
hails heill hal ‘hole’
heims heimr ham ‘home’
[ai] [ei] [a] [ou]
55. How do language families arise?
The concept of language families took off in 1786 after a
lecture by Sir William Jones, who proposed that Sanskrit,
Ancient Greek and Latin could be traced back to a common
source (which we now call Proto-Indo-European).
To get an idea of how language families evolve, imagine the
conditions that gave rise to the Germanic family:
Roughly 1500 BC a bunch of speakers left the P-I-E homeland.
With distance is a major cause of change, these speakers’ language
changed, and gave rise to the Germanic group.
One of the first changes was the First Germanic Consonant Shift,
which changed a number of voiceless stops to fricatives (p > f), voiced stops
to voiceless stops (b > p), and breathy voiced stops to voiced stops (bh > b),
making the Germanic group distinct from other Indo-European languages.
Other sound and grammatical changes continued, until Germanic parted
from Indo-European, and gave rise to its own dialects and languages.
56.
57. Mapping changes
However, the ‘tree’ model has received criticism, as it’s ‘single-
parent source’ approach does not accommodate the fuzziness
of language and dialect boundaries, or the continual nature of
influence.
Johannes Schmidt (1843-1901) proposed what we now call the
‘wave model’ or ‘wave theory’. To wit: linguistic changes are
restricted spatially, and can spread from a central point in
continuously weakening concentric circles.
By showing that each sound change has its own territory,
Schmidt introduced what we now called an isogloss:
geographical lines indicating the domain of sound changes.
58. On the map we can see how far
the ‘ripples’ of each usage extend.
When lots of isoglosses appear in
the same place, we recognize a
dialect boundary (the lines).
The ‘wave’ model is compatible
with the ‘tree’ model, and should
be taken to supplement it rather
than supplant it.
Isoglosses of West German dialects
59. W E E D S A N D F L O W E R S
Attitudes to change
60. Change for the better, or for the worse?
For most speakers, change is fine… so long as it
happened in the past.
Typically, innovation is seen as a change for the worse. In
Japanese, for example, a shortening of the –rare(ru)
affix to –re(ru) in casual speech was immensely
controversial in the 1990s and 2000s, and raised as
evidence of gengo no midare (language decline).
Why is this? Some of it is nostalgia, and some of it is
social (rejecting features associated with negatively view
groups). However, even fiercely resisted items (such as
the verb to contact) can become innocuous common
forms.
61. Internet and language change
How do we think the internet influences the nature
of language change?
Does it accelerate change?
Does it “normalize” dialects because people speak
with so many outside their regional dialect?
Do the new terms come and then quickly leave?
Does it
62. Change as weeds
Perhaps we can think of language change as weeds. What
we call a weed is context specific: it depends on the
location and the time. What we call a word is similar.
Linguistic weeds are structural features whose virtues
have yet to be realised. What is a weed for one speaker is
an ornamental feature for others.
The burning question is always: which ‘weedy’ tendencies
are likely to survive and transform into tomorrow’s
respected and rewarding species?
63. Final project!
Slight change from syllabus to something much
more interesting
Write a 3-5 page research paper dealing with
linguistic (or sociolinguistic) aspect of your LS.
Scholarly journals
Newpaper articles
Present findings/research to class
4-5 minute presentation (very short)
Powerpoint summarizing findings
“This is what I learned and here’s why that’s cool”
65. Ideas - detailed
Linguistic minority in LS country
Modern LS language changes
inclusive language
attitudes toward language change
LS internet speak/online communication
Language attitudes
Toward minority languages
Bilingualism/Spanglish
The use of LS swear words
The relationship between language and social class
The influence of regional dialects on national language policy
The linguistic landscape of multilingual cities
The linguistic barriers faced by immigrant communities
Language policy – regional dialects or minority languages
