History Of Language Research Articles

On the relations between the grammatical codifications of the serbian and ‘illyrian’ literary languages by Karadžić (1818) and Babukić (1836): plagiarism and adaptation

Contemporary debates regarding whether or not the Croatian literary language is equal to the Serbian literary language seldom touch upon the matter of the Illyrian national revival and its organiser, Ljudevit Gaj (German: Ludwig von Gay). Their Illyrian literary language, whose purpose was to become the common literary language of all Southern Slavs, was codified in Zagreb in the Osnova slovnice slavjanske narěčja ilirskoga by the Croatian linguist Vjekoslav Babukić, first published in the mouthpiece of the Illyrian movement Danica ilirska in 1836. This short grammatical sketch corresponds to Karadžić’s grammar in his dictionary Српски рјечник (1818) far more than it does not, and this fact is dealt with awkwardly in the histories of the Croatian language. In essence, the differences in Babukić’s text with respect to the source text consist in Slovene-Kajkavian lexemes and grammatemes, but they are not great in number. In this article, we propose to analyse the claim that Babukić’s short grammatical sketch constitutes a case of plagiarism and of adaptation with regard to the grammar appended to Karadžić’s dictionary, as seen through the scientific literature covering the Illyrian National Movement.

Order shaped by cognition. Evidence for (and against) the effect of domain-general biases on word and morpheme order

Abstract A foundational goal of linguistics has been to understand why languages look the way they do. A range of possible explanations exist – from domain-specific representations to cognition-external factors like history and grammaticalization – and all of these undoubtedly play some role. But determining exactly how these link with specific features of language remains challenging, and the role of domain-specific mechanisms has been particularly contentious. In this paper, I highlight a growing new approach, which uses artificial language experiments to link individual-level biases to cross-linguistic trends in language structure. Using word and morpheme order as case studies, I will show how a range of different paradigms and learner populations allow us to make progress on this crucial issue in linguistics. I will focus on typological trends in word and morpheme order. For some ordering trends, experimental evidence points to variation across populations, suggesting that the best explanation for these patterns likely has its root in language history and grammaticalization. In other cases, the evidence points to the role of universal but domain-general cognitive biases, like transparency and simplicity. These domain-general biases interact with linguistic representations in important ways. Taken together these studies help adjudicate between alternative explanations for a number of specific ordering patterns and suggest a new sense of domain-specificity in the evolution of language.

On etimologycal mysteries of words… (review of the book “a journey into the history of the Russian language” by linguist I. V. Yerofeeva)

On etimologycal mysteries of words… (review of the book “a journey into the history of the Russian language” by linguist I. V. Yerofeeva)

The role of merchants in language standardisation

Abstract This issue of the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics aims to contribute to our understanding of the role of merchants in language standardisation by focussing on how merchants can be seen as agents of linguistic change across various European vernaculars at various points in time. By analysing data from a varied set of languages, including Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Dutch, the authors provide insight into merchant writing in relation to language standardisation from different perspectives and at different times. The extant material available from merchants, their role as intermediaries in the commercial world, their functional and variable literacy, and their social and geographical mobility, all mean that merchant writing is able to offer unique insights into the vicissitudes of language history.

Is Bilinguality an Illusive Concept?

Background and Objective: In an effort to study bilinguality, researchers in this field have often compared bilinguals with monolinguals, generally considering each group to be a homogeneous, monolithic body with no discernable within-group individual differences. This approach overlooks the various levels of proficiency among bilinguals, the age and order of acquisition of each of their languages, as well as their language history, and daily usage. Although monolinguals may not be conversant, some may still at least partially comprehend a second language. By failing to actively consider and collect more details about a variety of participant language attributes, researcher assumptions can lead to conclusions that are not a true reflection of the similarities and differences between monolinguals and bilinguals. A number of studies have found bilingual advantage in health-related outcomes as well as performance on cognitive tasks. All these reported findings are based on the performance of participants who may or may not be true bilinguals consequently impacting the results of this research [9,11]. Recommendations: The impact of considering a wide variable of participant characteristics in bilinguality research, including age and order of acquisition, daily usage, and fluency is examined. In addition, a recently proposed psychometric model that evaluates the above variables is discussed. Finally, recommendations are made on how to further improve the standards of research in bilinguality, including performing objective fluency testing, and asking detailed questions about participants’ complete language history.

LÍNGUA BRASILEIRA DE SINAIS: BREVE HISTÓRICO DOS ASPECTOS EDUCACIONAIS DOS SURDOS

This article aims to present a compendium of the evolutionary history of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and its reflections on the deaf community, particularly concerning education for all. Schooling must be ensured for everyone, and therefore, addressing any disparities caused by specific needs is crucial. This dynamism reflects the shared responsibility of public and private agencies within legislative and educational contexts to provide specific training related to the language and prepare the environment for promoting teaching and learning. The method used involved exploratory bibliographic research in scientific articles and books, with filters for the central theme of this work. The results reveal a concerning state of involvement and interaction of public policies and effective actions for the integration and inclusion of deaf individuals in social and educational contexts, highlighting the challenge for more in-depth research on the topic to promote solutions and address the social disparities faced by these individuals.

Substitution of Auditory Functions and Interbehavioral History of Languages

Substitution of Auditory Functions and Interbehavioral History of Languages

«Confrontation of fonts: Gothic vs Antiqua» in the language politics of the Third Reich

The article is devoted to the consideration of the script in the modern history of the German literary language, associated with the design of its normative graphics (graphemics), in particular the «font dispute: antiqua vs gothic» in the first half of the 20th century. For a significant period of historical development, the German literary language is marked by «cognitive dissonance» caused in the linguistic consciousness of its speakers by the collision of «conflicting» variants of Latin characters. The parallel use of various graphic variants of writing (diglyph), especially at the stage of the modern history of the German language, is marked by the influence of various extra-linguistic factors (ideology, confessional, cultural differences, national and state policies, etc.). A pressing issue is the consideration of the radical and controversial language policy in the totalitarian Third Reich in 1933–1945. Declaring Fraktur as a «national script», a symbol of identity and the embodiment of basic doctrines (unity of the nation and German-speaking ethnic groups, anti-Semitism, «struggle for culture», the idea of superiority), the National Socialists in 1941, at the stage of reorienting their policy towards «Eurocentrism», declared it replacement of the previously rejected antiqua as «normative German writing». The article provides a critical stage-by-stage analysis of the scenarios of the language policy of National Socialism in the «dispute about graphics», attempts to use a «compromise font» (Futura). Ideologemes associated with this practice are analyzed as lexical markers (Sprachregelung, Kulturkampf, Schrifttum, Judenlettern, deutsche Volksschrift/Normalschrift, etc.). The result of the study was the construction of a model of «font strategy» as a special linguistic-semiotic phenomenon of the language policy of the Third Reich. The conclusions note a peculiar reflection of the «font dispute» in different types of texts of 1933–1945 and in the military discourse of the Third Reich.

Thoughts on the Etyma for ‘Corpse’ in Gyalrongic Languages*

AbstractThis paper studies the four distinct native terms for ‘corpse’ attested in Gyalrongic languages. Through comparative analysis, it establishes the sound correspondences among cognates and proposes preliminary reconstructions. In a second step, it hypothesises on the origins of the etyma by examining potential cognates in other Sino‐Tibetan languages. Two shared innovations can be found in the etyma for ‘corpse’. First, the Situ form *m‐g[á]m is an innovated compound meaning ‘a person that is killed’; and second, the etymon *rə̆.quʶ is a shared innovation of Horpa and Tangut. By analysing the etymologies above, this paper aims to enhance our understanding of sound correspondences and changes within the Sino‐Tibetan language family. Furthermore, it seeks to demonstrate the crucial role that etymological studies play in historical linguistics and language subgrouping. Despite their importance, such studies have not yet received sufficient attention from scholars specialising in Sino‐Tibetan languages.

Global language geography and language history: challenges and opportunities

As the several thousand languages spoken by people all around the world became more and more systematically assessed and catalogued in the 20th century, it became clear that linguistic diversity is unevently distributed across the globe. Up to the present day, the reasons for that are poorly understood. Linguists are thus in the embarassing situation that they do not understand significant regularities in the way the objects of their study –languages– pattern; human sciences at large are faced with the fact that the way humans produce that key cultural product which is often seen as defining the essence of what makes them humans –language–remains in the dark. In this essay, I explore three interrelated strands of thought associated with the problem of explaining patterns in global language diversity to create a perspective that is different from those explored so far. First, I suggest that instead of looking at present-day levels of diversity and find parameters of variation between the regions in which they are spoken, we should take a process-based approach that looks into how these distributions were generated. Related to this point and in contradistinction to extant work, second, I advocate an inductive approach that departs from qualitative case studies which inform theory-building. Third, I ponder that, in contrast to the traditional focus of historical linguistics on language diversification and expansion, understanding how the ranges of languages are reduced might be the key missing piece of evidence in a global theory of language diversity and its genesis.

Language Change and Languages in Contact

The hypothesis of the history of linguistics as a succession of paradigms was more appropriate to linguistic facts and to the continuity of history itself than to a substitution of models. One of the most assiduously maintained principles in historical linguistics was the theory of the regularity of linguistic change. However, both the history of languages in contact and linguistic change were part of acculturation, based on social and cultural diffusion, which implied the intrinsic relationship between linguistics, sociology and anthropology. It was not, therefore, a mere linguistic issue, but also a social and cultural one. In this sense, we had to differentiate two interpretations: 1) an autonomous version of the assumption of phonological regularity, and 2) a grammatical version of linguistic change. Within the anthropological history of Hispanic romances there was a linguistic and cultural continuity, based on the successive and diverse historical acculturations (Indo-European, Iberian, Phoenician-Greek, Roman, Christian, Germanic, Visigothic, Byzantine, Islamic, Castilian, Catalan-Aragonese, Hispanic and Anglo-Saxon), with the linguistic and cultural transfers that implied the social and cultural mixing of these groups, and the adaptation to a new sociocultural context. During the second half of the last century, great contributions to historical linguistics were accumulated, which were far from being recognized by historians of the language

Language Change And Languages In Contact

The hypothesis of the history of linguistics as a succession of paradigms was more appropriate to linguistic facts and to the continuity of history itself than to a substitution of models. One of the most assiduously maintained principles in historical linguistics was the theory of the regularity of linguistic change. However, both the history of languages in contact and linguistic change were part of acculturation, based on social and cultural diffusion, which implied the intrinsic relationship between linguistics, sociology and anthropology. It was not, therefore, a mere linguistic issue, but also a social and cultural one. In this sense, we had to differentiate two interpretations: 1) an autonomous version of the assumption of phonological regularity, and 2) a grammatical version of linguistic change. Within the anthropological history of Hispanic romances there was a linguistic and cultural continuity, based on the successive and diverse historical acculturations (Indo-European, Iberian, Phoenician-Greek, Roman, Christian, Germanic, Visigothic, Byzantine, Islamic, Castilian, Catalan-Aragonese, Hispanic and AngloSaxon), with the linguistic and cultural transfers that implied the social and cultural mixing of these groups, and the adaptation to a new sociocultural context. During the second half of the last century, great contributions to historical linguistics were accumulated, which were far from being recognized by historians of the language.

Toolkit to Examine Lifelike Language v.2.0: Optimizing Speech Biomarkers of Neurodegeneration

Plain Language SummaryNeurodegenerative disorders (NDs), such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, are a leading cause of disability, caregiver stress, and financial strain worldwide. The number of cases, now estimated at 60 million, will triple by 2050. Early detection is crucial to improve treatments, management, and financial planning. Unfortunately, standard diagnostic methods are costly, stressful, and often hard to access due to scheduling delays and availability issues. A promising alternative consists in digital speech analysis. This affordable, noninvasive approach can identify NDs based on individuals’ voice recordings and their transcriptions. In 2023, we launched the Toolkit to Examine Lifelike Language (TELL), an online app providing robust speech biomarkers for clinical and research purposes. This paper introduces TELL v.2.0, a novel version with improved data collection, encryption, processing, storing, download, and visualization features. First, we explain the app’s basic operations and its possibilities for online and offline data collection. Second, we describe its language survey, which covers questions about demographics as well as language history, usage, competence, and difficulties. Third, we describe TELL’s speech tests, which assess key clinical features. Fourth, we outline the app’s functions for analyzing, visualizing, and downloading data. We finish by discussing the main challenges and future opportunities for TELL and the speech biomarker field. With this effort, we hope to boost the use of digital speech markers in medical and research fields.

ПРОФЕССОР ҚҰДАЙБЕРГЕН ҚУАНҰЛЫ ЖҰБАНОВ

The article tells about the life path, scientific and pedagogical works of the famous scientist in the applied field of Kazakh linguistics Kudaibergen Zhubanov. The article analyzes the scientific contribution of Professor K. Zhubanov to the formation and development of the Kazakh language: the conversion of the Kazakh alphabet and spelling rules, the transition of the Kazakh alphabet to Latin, the formation of Kazakh terminology, the compilation of the first Kazakh scientific textbooks, etc. Various aspects of the Kazakh language were considered by the scientist from a scientific point of view. In order to identify and reflect the natural laws of the Kazakh language, K. Zhubanov conducted an in-depth analysis of the grammatical, phonetic and lexical features of Kazakh words, as well as the laws of their historical development. In this article, various scientific works of the Professor, devoted to the issues of Kazakh linguistics, have been studied in detail: "Lecture courses on the Kazakh language", "Textbook on the Kazakh language grammar", "Kazakh language program", "New grammar", "Spelling and grammar rules of the Kazakh language”, “From the history of the Slavic language in the Kazakh language”, “Booklet on a book and a folded book”, “Formation of the Kazakh book language”, “The form of the booklet in the Kazakh language”.

OF THE DEAR DICTIONARIES. ON THE SPECIAL LEXICOGRAPHY OF GERMAN IN ROMANIA – AN ENCOURAGING REVIEW

Starting from some considerations about the historic language usus, the article presents the status and the peculiarities of Romanian German. Statements regarding the current linguistic status of the German language in Romania and its speakers are being made with regard to the present linguistic context, aiming to highlight the profile of German as a regional language and to point out the need for its lexicographic charting in specialised dictionaries.

SWENER-1800

Named entity recognition (NER) is the process of automatically identifying persons, places, organisations and other name-like entities in text, in order to perform natural language processing tasks such as automatic extraction of metadata from text, anonymisation/pseudonymisation of sensitive personal data, or as a preprocessing step for linking different terms describing the same entity to a single reference. While NER is a mature language technology, it is generally lacking for historical language varieties. We describe our work on compiling SWENER-1800, a large (half a million words) reference corpus of historical Swedish texts, covering the time period from the first half of the 18th century until about 1900, and manually annotating it with named entity types identified as significant for this time period, as well as with sentence boundaries, notoriously difficult to recognise automatically in historical text. This corpus can then be used to train and evaluate NER systems and sentence segmenters for historical Swedish text. An additional concrete contribution from this work is a manual for annotation of named entities in historical Swedish.

Socioeconomic Deprivation Detrimentally Influences Language Outcomes in Toddlers With Cleft Palate.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of socioeconomic deprivation on language and developmental outcomes in toddlers with cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP ± L). Other factors known to influence language outcomes were also considered, including home language history, history of hearing problems, syndromic diagnoses, and sex. A multicenter, cross-sectional study design was conducted. Data for 566 16-month-old toddlers with CP ± L were collected from 17 outpatient cleft palate clinics located throughout the United States. Outcome measures included the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories, LENA Developmental Snapshot, age at first word as reported by the caregiver, and the Ages and Stages Questionnaires-Third Edition (ASQ-3). Multivariable linear or logistic regression was used to determine the influence of socioeconomic deprivation, as measured by the Area Deprivation Index, on language and developmental outcomes. Greater socioeconomic deprivation significantly predicted poorer language outcomes in toddlers with CP ± L, including receptive vocabulary words (p = .02), expressive vocabulary words (p = .02), and late-developing gestures (p = .02). Additionally, toddlers from less affluent neighborhoods produced their first words significantly later than their counterparts living in more affluent areas (p < .01). Lower maternal education levels predicted significantly increased risk for problem solving delays (p < .01), and patients with subsidized insurance were at significantly increased risk for personal-social delays on the ASQ-3 (p < .01). Children with CP ± L are susceptible to developmental delays associated with socioeconomic deprivation. These findings have implications for identifying a child's individual risk factors for developmental language disorders when conducting speech-language assessments. Future study should examine how inequities in care can be mitigated and addressed.

Le Petit Prince Hong Kong (LPPHK): Naturalistic fMRI and EEG data from older Cantonese speakers

Currently, the field of neurobiology of language is based on data from only a few Indo-European languages. The majority of this data comes from younger adults neglecting other age groups. Here we present a multimodal database which consists of task-based and resting state fMRI, structural MRI, and EEG data while participants over 65 years old listened to sections of the story The Little Prince in Cantonese. We also provide data on participants’ language history, lifetime experiences, linguistic and cognitive skills. Audio and text annotations, including time-aligned speech segmentation and prosodic information, as well as word-by-word predictors such as frequency and part-of-speech tagging derived from natural language processing (NLP) tools are included in this database. Both MRI and EEG data diagnostics revealed that the data has good quality. This multimodal database could advance our understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics of language comprehension in the older population and help us study the effects of healthy aging on the relationship between brain and behaviour.

On some nominations of children in the history of Russian and Chinese languages

The article is devoted to the history of children’s nominations in Russian and Chinese languages. The difference of time range of factual materials used in the article is due to the particularity of the historical development and the fixation of Russian and Chinese languages. The process reveals a serious typological similarity. This is manifested in the possibility of the formation of a large number of nominations from a small number of ancient roots, stability and preservation of the root material, and also in the fact that the semantics of lexemes in both languages can pass through the same stages of their evolution. The meanings of both languages may contain such semantic components as “slave”, “servant, worker”. There are also differences in semantic development between languages. In Russian, the semantics evolve in the direction of age: “child” “young man”. In Chinese, the process can go in the opposite direction-from naming adults to naming children.

Writing Confucian History in an Indian Language

Abstract This article uses a case study of an Urdu translation of the classical Chinese Shujing (Book of Documents) to bring to light a process of multiperson, mediated, and ultimately transimperial translation in which European source texts played crucial roles in transmitting detailed knowledge of China to the Indian public sphere. After outlining the theoretical approach of transimperial history and its value for Asian intellectual history, the article positions the Urdu Shujing in relation to earlier Indian and Middle Eastern accounts of China whose triangulated transmission—from East Asia to Europe and thence to South or West Asia—set various precedents for the translation of the Shujing from a prior English translation. The article then focuses on the Urdu version to reveal the transimperial mechanisms it used to not only translate and transliterate classical Chinese, but also to “transcalculate” dates and render Chinese history comparable to both Europe's and India's past. The conclusions argue that, from Ming China via the early modern Catholic empires to the occult subcurrents of British colonial culture, the transimperial pathways along which Confucian history reached India were ultimately Eurasian rather than narrowly inter-Asian in scope. This reliance on earlier European translations would later recur with the spread of “world literature” in the postcolonial era.