Review: Some general causes of language change

Language-external causes

Contact-induced changes

• pig, pork

Language-internal causes

Universal tendencies?

-SOV therein -> SVO in here

Ease of articulation?

-OE þæt [θ], wæs [s] -> [ð] and [s]

Efficiency/Transparency

-OE naman, land, tala, béc -> names, lands, tales, books

Phonological symmetry

-development of phoneme /ŋ/

-/m/, /n/, /ŋ/

-/b,p/, /d,t/, g,/k/

-development of phoneme /ž/

leisure /zj/ -> /ž/

fisc /š/

Spelling pronunciation

-ME human [j_] -< [hj_], herb [hrb] (hb, b...)

Reanalysis

• The money that was due “owing” to Fred
• -> The chaos that was due to Fred

Some general types of language change (phonology, morphosyntax)

with lazy links to the Wikipedia ...

Syntactic change: one kind of change is grammaticalization

1. ic sceal gán “I have to go”, ic will gán “I want to go” -> I shall go, I will go
2. I am going to market -> I’m going to be rich, I’m gonna collapse

Morphological change: one very general mechanism is analogy (here, extension)

1. OE word, ðing “words”, “things” -> words, things
2. OE hé bóc “he baked” -> he baked

Some subcategories of the same...

3. OE he wrát, wé writon -> he, we wrote ... analogical levelling (2 past tenses -> 1)
4. OE rædels “riddle” ... back formation
5. wedlock < OE wedd “pledge” + lác “gift”; sockeye Salish sukkegh ... folk etymology

Sound changes: “unconditioned” sound changes

1. *kel- “to cover, conceal, save”-> *hel- (IE->Gmc)
2. /bot/ -> /but/ (GVS)

Sound changes: “conditioned”

1. English [ʊ] split
• [ə]: luck, son, tongue, come
• [ʊ]: pull, bull, push, bush, wolf, full what do these words have in common?
2. Standard British English /r/
• [rɪŋ], hairy [heəri], hair [heə], court [kɔ:t] under what conditions does it disappear?

· burst (bust), curse (cuss) ditto?

3. Standard British English: pat [æ], pass [ɑ:], path [ɑ:] conditions for change are...?
4. General Canadian English: white [wʌyt] wide [wayd] conditions for “Canadian raising”?

One (subset of a) very common type: [deletion of a sound]

1. OE cniht, gnæt
2. ring [rɪŋg] -< [rɪŋ]; PDE dumb, comb

Another important type: assimilation of a sound

1. Gmc *fuliθ -> OE fylþ, OE talu, tellan front mutation in OE
2. Gmc *kIn ->. OE cinn palatalization in OE

A memorable but much more sporadic type is metathesis

1. OE beorht, brid -> bright, bird
2. OE wæps ->
3. “Ax me no questions I’ll tell you no lies.”
4. PDE nuclear “nuculur”

One key source:

Brinton, Laurel J. & Leslie Arnovick. 2006. The English language: a linguistic history. Oxford UP.

Also:

Campbell, Lyle. 1999. Historical linguistics: an introduction. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Schendl, Herbert. 2001. Historical linguistics. Series: Oxford introduction to language study. Oxford UP.

Sihler, Andrew L. 2000. Language history: an introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.