The document discusses language change from both diachronic and synchronic approaches. It describes incremental, decremental, and replacement changes in language over time. Examples are given of external and internal changes from Old English to Modern English in terms of phonological changes. The document also discusses the reconstruction of proto-languages and the comparative method used by historical linguists to establish genetic relationships between languages.

1. Language Change Ma. Fernanda Herrera Liza Guerra Negrete

2. Language Change Diachronic Approach The Linguist Study related to language and it’s development over time. e.g. Historical Linguistics which study language change.

3. Language Change Synchronic Approach The Linguistic Study related to language which analyze language in a particular period of time. e.g. The analysis of the lexis during de 1930 in English

4. Types of Changing Incremental Change Is the creation of new vocabulary used to designate some physical invention, new social motivation or new items of knowledge. e.g. Before the discovery of the new world, the word America did not exist in Europe.

5. Types of Changing Decremental Change words that are not used anymore since the object is not longer used. e.g. Words related to falconry and archery are not commonly use nowadays.

6. Types of Changing Replacement change Is the replacement of words or structures, but both ways actually co exist in the language used. e.g. ‘ rooves’ as the plural of ‘ roof’ in place of standard English ‘ roofs’ .

7. Language Change Dialect What is Dialect? Dialect as a barrier of communication “ related language”

8. Language Change The differences between two dialects of a same language could be: External or sociolinguistic political and socioeconomic boundaries that creates those differences Internal or linguistic physiological aspect of the speakers created dialect differences

9. Examples of external and internal changes from Old English to Modern English Phonological Changes 1 st The change from [k] to [ č] after the front vowel [ I ]in the southern dialect of old English. 2 nd The loss of k before consonants that produced the variants [i:] and [ I k] in the northern dialect. 3 rd The replacement of [ I k] by [I:] in the nothern dialect 4 th The change in the pronunciation from [i:] to [aj] in the transitional period

10. Language Change… “ All Languages show considerable linguistic variation at any given point in time” Constant and unavoidable

11. Language is unique and innate in humans. How this capacity have originated and evolved? A subfield of linguistics that studies language change Historical Linguistics The study of a language at a single point in time without references to early stages Synchronic Linguistics The study of a language at different historical stages Diachronic Linguistics A technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison Comparative method

12. Spe cu la tions Bow How Theory : Humans begin to mimic sounds of nature Vocal Language Theory: Language evolved from spontaneous cries of emotions Gestural Language Theory: Language evolved from a system of hand gestures and signals. Human Brain Theory: The evolution of human language is closely related with the development of human brain. Thesis “ Early parent”

13. The Reconstruction of an “Earlier Parent” Similarities among languages Sir William Jones Sanskrit Proto Indo European Language (India and Europe) How do Linguists establish historical relationships among Languages in order to learn about their early forms?

14. EXERCISE… Compare these three Languages What do they have in common? All are numerals A & C have some phonetics similarities Six out of ten words begin with the same consonant Only 1 & 8 begin with vowel Most of the words in A & C have the same number of syllables English Navajo Sanskrit Lang A One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Lang B Łáa’ii Naaki Táá’ Dį́į́´’ Ashdla’ Hastą́ą́h Tsosts’id Tseebíí Náhást’éí Neeznáá Lang C Eka Dva Tri Catur Pañca Sas Sapta Asta Nava Dasa

15. Genetic Relationships Pay attention to the following: If there are similarities among Languages it could be due to three reasons. Chance overlap in sound & meaning: similarities in sound structure and in word for common objects such as water, numbers, etc. Borrowing: Incorporation of words from another language. Mainly about religion, government, culture, technology and cuisine. True historical relationship: using the comparative method, you can establish a true genetic relationship. A group of words in each language that share phonemes, phonological rules, common words and related meanings.

16. The Indo European Language Family All Languages are related A group of Languages that have a true historical relationship. Proto Language Series of changes over time Do you know how many languages are spoken around the world? Between 4 & 5 thousand Between 7 & 8 thousand More than 9 thousand The correct answer is A. Half of the world’s population speaks Indo European languages

17. Changes: Causes and Mechanism There are two ways to see Language change Individual change: an spontaneous change in a language on the part of a single speaker. E. g Grammar simplification Community change: the transmission and sharing of changes among speakers in a linguistic community. E.g lexis, morphology, syntax or phonetics. Are these type of changes making languages decay or improve?

18. English Language: Changes Old English period 5th to 11th century Middle English period 11th to 15th century Modern English 15th century up today

19. Ex am pl es of these changes Lexical change Addition: new words have been incorporated from other languages. E.g. French, Latin, Greek. Phonological change Applicability: in old English fricatives became voiced when they occurred between voiced sounds. Not longer present. Morphological change Addition: the “able” rule for suffixes have created new words. E.g. doable, washable. Syntactic change Loss: adjective agreement is not longer a rule in modern English.

20. The Graphic representation of Language

21. Pictographic Idiographic

22. Logographic Cuneiform

23. Syllabic Writing System Hieroglyphics

24. The End