Abstract Burial patterns of ancient communities based on the analysis of human remains are difficult to define. In this regard, the existence of a sex bias in megalithic tombs of western Europe remains unclear. Sex estimation using standard osteological methodologies based on dimorphic features is a complex task in commingled and fragmentary human skeletal assemblages, as those found in megalithic burials usually are. Fortunately, advances in molecular archaeological research have made it possible to accurately estimate karyotypic sex. In this work, karyotypic sex is estimated from 85 individuals of all age groups from the megalithic burials of La Lora region (Burgos, Spain) through amelogenin peptides from dental enamel to compare with and extend osteological sex estimations and to calculate sex ratios in these assemblages. The results suggest an overall over-representation of males, in agreement with previous osteological data, despite inter-site variability. Some diachronic variations in the sex ratio have also been detected, which may nuance the trend. Specifically, an increase in the ratio of males at the end of the 4th millennium cal. BC, which may be linked to diachronic changes related to social organisation. The results also suggest that sex-related selective burial in non-adult groups would be less restrictive, as more juvenile females were identified, which could point towards patterns of adult female exogamy.

This paper outlines the theoretical and methodological framework of the Urban Lexicon of Granada project, developed from the corpus of the Coordinated Study of the Educated Linguistic Norm of Spanish Spoken in the Main Cities of Ibero-America and the Iberian Peninsula. The research is structured around two complementary goals: the digitalization and informatization of the educated lexicon of Granada, aimed at preserving and providing open access to Francisco Salvador’s original corpus, and the creation of a new urban lexicon that reflects current lexical dynamics and diachronic variation. This dual approach combines linguistic heritage recovery with methodological innovation, through the use of relational databases and digital tools applied to lexical geolinguistics. The project is linked to the international networks VARILEX and Lexical Availability (LD) and proposes a model for updating and reusing historical corpora of educated Spanish in contemporary urban contexts.

This study examines lexical and syntactic convergence between Dai Lue and Chinese in the multilingual environment of Sipsongpanna, employing an apparent-time approach across three generational cohorts (N = 90, balanced gender). Through mixed-methods analysis (structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews), significant diachronic variation was observed. Younger speakers exhibited pronounced convergence, adopting Chinese-derived syntactic patterns (e.g., prenominal quantifiers and preverbal adjunct phrases) and borrowing Chinese lexical elements (e.g., an adverb sɛn55 ‘first’ ← Chinese 先 xiān, and a superlative marker tsui35 ‘most/best’ ← Chinese 最 zuì). Middle-aged speakers use transitional hybrid structures, while older speakers more consistently maintain native Dai Lue features. The results conform with Labov’s age-grading model in contact linguistics and refine Thomason’s borrowing hierarchy by revealing two factors: First, the prestige of the Chinese language drives convergence among youth. Second, syntactic compatibility with Chinese is mediated not merely by language structure, but by discourse-pragmatic needs, functional load redistribution, and the social indexicality of borrowed structures. This underscores the interplay between sociolinguistic motivations and structural-adaptive constraints in language change. The findings provide critical insights into language contact mechanisms among ethnic minorities of China, with implications for sociolinguistic theory, language revitalization efforts, and bilingual education policy implementation in linguistically diverse communities.

Abstract This paper presents a framework for building lemmatised Occitan corpora, focusing on early modern texts. Due to strong dialectal and diachronic variation, lemmatisation is essential for enabling cross-text and cross-period comparison. We adopt a semi-automatic approach based on the Pie neural model, combining tokenisation, super-lemma selection, and POS tagging aligned with Universal Dependencies. Initial experiments on 17th–18th century texts show promising results, particularly for frequent and grammatical words, while highlighting challenges with unknown lemmas. Despite its exploratory scope, the study demonstrates the feasibility of cost-effective corpus construction and lays the groundwork for a larger, more representative language model of Occitan.

Abstract This study explores the relationship between manual text classifications linked to corpus metadata and computationally derived text groupings in corpora of Early New High German. We employ vector space models which can arrange texts in a multidimensional space based on semantic similarities and then cluster 463 texts from the ReF and GerManC corpora (1350–1800) into lexically and semantically defined groups. This operationalization of text types allows for the observation that there are more or less prototypical representatives of a text type and that there are overlaps and divergences in the development of such types. We evaluate the result of our quantitative analysis in a LASSO regression model which predicts the relative frequency of wh-relative pronouns, a linguistic variable known for genre-sensitive and historical variation. Our results show that data-driven clustering are at least complementary to traditional classifications in capturing semantic distinctions and diachronic variation in textual traditions. The findings contribute to historical text linguistics by proposing a bottom-up methodology for identifying text types and revealing how genre evolution correlates with linguistic change.

ABSTRACT Birds have played both subsistence and symbolic roles in past human societies, with their significance evolving alongside sedentary lifestyles and agriculture. Although Neolithic settlements in Western Asia primarily relied on domesticated mammals, birds remained a marginal resource, their importance varying by region. This study investigates bird remains from Bronze Age Alalakh (Tell Atchana) to understand their role in an urbanizing society across shifting political and environmental conditions in the Amuq Valley. Avian remains recovered from Tell Atchana (2007–2012) were analyzed using zooarchaeological methods, including taxonomic identification via comparative osteology and further classification through traditional morphometrics. Quantitative analyses assessed skeletal representation, diversity indices, and abundance patterns across excavated time periods and areas. Contextual association with food preparation equipment, cut marks, and skeletal representation provided further insight into human–bird interactions. Results reveal a strong prevalence of waterfowl, comprising over 75% of identified birds, with mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) and teal ( Anas crecca ) as the most abundant bird species. Diachronic variation is evident across major bird taxa, with peak diversity and abundance observed in the Late Bronze Age I, along with a substantial and increasing frequency of migratory birds. These patterns may correspond with broader hydrological and cultural shifts in the region, as well as greater reliance on wild animal resources at times of political unrest. The emphasis on wing elements, particularly in pigeons and mallards, suggests these birds held specific ritual or symbolic significance. Further study is needed to clarify the multifaceted meanings birds held for Alalakh inhabitants, particularly regarding distinctions between consumption, management, and ritual use. Continued investigation into human–bird interactions at the site will contribute to broader discussions on environmental adaptation and cultural practices in early urban societies.

Previous research documents diachronic variation in preferred terms used for and by Black Americans. The current study builds upon this body of research by gathering contemporary data on racial identity terms. Unlike previous studies, however, we asked respondents to indicate how they identified well-known individuals from both the present and past, to uncover the extent to which they applied different labels to similar people or similar labels to people with different racial identities. Results from 142 participants residing in the northeast region of the United States indicated preference for African American over Black, but both terms dominated over People of Color, Non-White, and BIPOC (Black, Indigeneous, and People of Color). We offer potential explanations for our findings and conclude with recommendations to avoid creating or prescribing terms from outside the Black community, a practice that can result in the creation of confusing or irrelevant terms and further marginalization of the people such terms claim to center.

Diachronic variation in the use of terms denoting transgender and non-binary people in Russian

ABSTRACT Two key gaps exist that constrain the ability of strontium isotope analysis to reveal the life histories of the animals and people that lived in and moved around ancient southern Mesopotamia: (1) the aridity and salinity of the Iraqi alluvium pose concerns for the preservation of biogenic strontium in bioarchaeological remains, and (2) the range of 87Sr/86Sr variation associated with specific locations is as yet poorly understood, complicating interpretation of bioarchaeological values. This paper reports the successful recovery of biogenic strontium isotope values in faunal bone excavated at Tell al-Muqayyar (the ancient city of Ur), establishing that bone is a material appropriate for 87Sr/86Sr analysis in at least some southern Mesopotamian contexts. Our data also reveal intraurban variability in soil 87Sr/86Sr values (0.70799–0.70821). This variation may reflect some combination of differential proximity to ancient watercourses, diachronic variation in the sediments deposited within the city, anthropogenic activity, and modern influences from the water table, for example. These results address the aforementioned gaps in strontium isotope analysis in the region. Future work is needed to clarify the roles of fluvial geology and diachronic change in establishing strontium baselines and local bioavailable strontium signals across Ur.

In bioarchaeology, the concepts of resilience and frailty, and their quantification through indices, have gathered significant attention. This study is the first to apply, evaluate, and compare skeletal frailty indices and aims to trace frailty over time while identifying methodological challenges in their use on a sample representative of urban Milan's history. Two-hundred fifty individuals from five historical periods over 2000 years in urban Milan, equally represented by estimated males and females, were analyzed. Three skeletal frailty indices were applied-the "Health Index" GHHP, "Skeletal Frailty Index" (SFI), and "Biological Index of Frailty" (BIF)-and their diachronic variations interpreted. Index values were compared to each other through Spearman's correlations, and frailty values were assessed by periods (overall and by estimated sex) and by estimated sex through ANOVA and General Linear Models. Diachronic analyses revealed a gradual increase in frailty from the Roman era to the Late Middle Ages, which then progressively decreased, corroborating historical sources. While all methods identified the Late Middle Ages sample as the frailest, discrepancies arose when defining the least frail group, especially when considering estimated biological sex and age variables. Our study found practical and conceptual limitations in the GHHP. Most noticeably, criteria for GHHP and SFI limited sample size (and consequently) representation, while the more inclusive BIF proved overly permissive, allowing direct comparisons between skeletons with differential preservation. This study highlights common challenges and prospects, defines common criteria to standardize methodologies, and further investigates the relevance of stress markers in relation to frailty.

The passive voice has been commonly used in academic writing for decades. This research aims to investigate the diachronic changes in the use of passive voice in abstracts across four disciplines in natural sciences and social sciences over the past fifteen years. The study corpus comprises 180 abstracts in four disciplines, ranging from 2008-2012, 2013-2017, and 2018-2022. Both tag tools and statistical tools were utilized to reveal the changes in the use of passive voice. The results indicated a slight decline in the use of passive voice in the 180 abstracts over the years, with an increase in natural sciences and a decline in social sciences. Additionally, in the past five years, there has been a discernible difference between the use of passive voice in natural sciences and social sciences, with natural science abstracts containing more passive voice. This research offers insights into changes in passive voice use in abstract writing and contributes to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction.

Diachronic variations of metadiscourse markers in research articles

The early Irish dative case is typically found after prepositions, but there are a number of nonprepositional usages. Three of these are explored in this chapter: the instrumental dative, the dative of accompaniment or inclusion, and the dative of apposition. The main goal of the chapter is to describe the syntactic distribution and features of these constructions, compare their similarities and differences, and ultimately to sharpen the classification of these three usages of the dative into distinct constructions. The bulk of the chapter concentrates on the third construction, the dative of apposition, in which the dative-marked nominal is found in apposition chiefly to a pronominal item. Because this pronominal is virtually obligatory, comparison between the early Irish appositional dative and a typology of similar “adnominal pronoun constructions” in other languages is made. A major contribution of the chapter is to show that there are various number and person restrictions that are placed on the pronominal antecedent but these restrictions are subject to diachronic variation. Finally, the dative of apposition is contrasted with the nominative of apposition, which is shown have a distinct syntactic structure.

This paper takes a panchronic perspective to show that the evolution of a linguistic concept in a worldview embraces this concept’s diachronic depth and this concept’s diachronic variation. The diachronic depth of a concept is an archaic image (modal mental representation) that was prerequisite for this concept (amodal mental representation) to emerge; this image had formed perceptually in the human mind, through the direct visual experience humans had in perceiving the world, which accounts for this concept’s embodiment. Mental image at this concept’s diachronic depth and embodiment of this concept are the two facts that this paper assumes one can see when viewing this concept panchronically. This paper treats panchrony as the combination of diachrony of language with universal processes of human cognition, and suggests that the panchronic mechanism behind linguistic semiosis is the modal-to-amodal conversion that takes place in the human mind and has the inner form of the word as its panchronic product and the image-driven interpretation of the word as its emergent product. This mechanism operates at each stage in language evolution, determines the genesis of the word as that of a sign-symbol, and is universal for the speakers of language by virtue of their embodiment. This paper’s theoretical commitments find application in the case of SIN in the English worldview: archaic image at SIN’s diachronic depth is reconstructed using methodologies of etymological research, as the inner form of the word sin in English; SIN’s content in diachronic variation is reconstructed using methodologies of cognitive linguistic research.

Previous research has extensively discussed the grammaticalisation of Chinese analytic causative markers, yet no study has empirically examined the contextual features that constrain their choice over different historical periods. In light of this gap in the research, this study uses three exploratory quantitative methods, namely Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, Multi-dimensional Scaling Analysis, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis, to analyse 10,817 observations of analytic causative constructions with shi ([Formula: see text]), ling ([Formula: see text]), jiao1 ([Formula: see text]) and jiao2 ([Formula: see text]) as causative markers from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. Our analyses reveal distinct usage patterns of these markers and we effectively delineate their contextual features through the incorporation of eight syntactic and semantic variables. Our findings not only enhance the understanding of Chinese analytic causative constructions from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, but also provide corroborative evidence for previous research on synchronic variation.

Abstract This study explores the diachronic variation of mid-vowel aperture (/e, ɛ, o, ɔ/) in word-final and penultimate-syllable positions in vowel harmony (VH) contexts in declamatory/journalistic French from 1925 to 2023.Our corpora include two pre-existing corpora – the INA broadcast archives corpus (1940–1999) and the ESTER corpus (2000–2004) – as well as two novel corpora, which include recordings from the Archives de la Parole by Hubert Pernot (1925–1929) and a selection from Radio France and YouTube spanning 2020 to 2023.Our results suggest a general tendency of VH weakening over the last century. Additionally, we found a significant acoustic convergence in terms of aperture between vowels /o/ and /ɔ/, but no convergence between /e/ and /ɛ/ in word-final position, contrary to prior research.An auxiliary imitation experiment was designed to investigate the correlation between the loud/projected voice in older recordings and the F1 of mid-vowels in VH contexts. The imitation experiment reveals a significant increase in F1 in loud declamatory speech. However, no effect of speech style on VH was observed, supporting the diachronic process of VH reduction.

Abstract In this paper, we investigate evidence of diachronic variation in patterns of Discernment Politeness in letters written in the ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom (c. 2300–2200 bce) and Late Ramesside period (c. 1099–1069 bce). We present examples of requests, information acts and honorifics used in these letters, predominantly those letters sent by subordinates to their superiors, to explore how this relationship dynamic is linguistically indexed. Our evidence shows that throughout the Old and New Kingdoms, communicative acts were regulated by behavioural norms dependent on power structures rather than individual volition, with Power being the most dominant social variable. Finally, we argue that Discernment is a key approach for exploring politeness in texts from ancient Egypt, supporting current research on the topic, and that the approach used here for the ancient Egyptian material has wider applicability for diachronic linguistic analyses of remote civilisations which are highly hierarchical.

Abstract This paper aims to identify what archaic words/word groups were still known and used both among language speakers and Turkish National Corpus (TNC) as an indication of lexical change in Turkish from 1900 to 2020. The present study explores the diachronic variation of lexical change in Turkish by combining the corpus-based variationist sociolinguistic approach with the perspective of historical sociolinguistics. The words/collocations thought to be outdated from the original version of “Eylül” novel, written in 1900, were selected and randomly subsampled using a computer-based randomization algorithm. A survey was formed using the outdated words/collocations along with the context. The results indicated that demographical variables did not affect word knowledge and that the archaic words were unfamiliar to all participants uniformly. The overall comparison of words/collocations tested in TNC and survey indicated similar results as the most and the least frequently used words were also the most and least abundantly present in TNC.

ABSTRACT This research utilises an apparent-time approach to interrogate changes in the linguistic landscape of Xichang City, the capital of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in China, over the past two decades. By examining a variety of public signage installed in different periods, this study found that both official and private signs have shifted from monolingualism to bilingualism or multilingualism. The official signs afforded space for the Yi script in addition to Chinese. By contrast, the proliferation of bilingual or multilingual signs on private stores occurred at the expense of Yi. The diachronic variation of private signage is indicative of the decline of the Yi language and reflects uneven power relations that favour Chinese and English. This study contributes to the methodological approach to linguistic landscape research by using signs of chain stores as evidence to reflect a multilayered and historically mediated diachronic change. It also showcases that the apparent-time approach serves as an effective way to trace changes in linguistic landscapes over time, which are not discernible through a synchronic approach.

Abstract Using a cohort sequential quantitative design and evaluative features drawn from Systemic Functional Grammar, this study investigates diachronic variation in linguists’ use of evaluation to perform scholarly identities in English academic writing. More specifically, it focuses on the use of statements, commands, modality, comment assessment, and positive and negative lexis, in early and late career papers from 30 linguists born between 1905 and 1960. These linguists were grouped into three cohorts based on year of birth and studied in terms of variation along developmental and cross-generational timescales. Within the developmental timescale, scholars were found to use more evaluation in early career writing than in late career writing. Cohort-specific developmental changes are identified in the frequency of modality and comment assessment. Developmental and cohort-specific trends are found to occur within the backdrop of an overall decrease in the use of evaluative language within the discipline. Results point to a complex diachronic model of academic identity enactment in writing, whereby evaluative features pattern in similar or different ways depending on the timescale considered.