Historical Linguistics Research Articles

Book review of Sam Mersch, Studies in Luxembourgish Micro-Toponymy and Linguistic History

Sam Mersch, Studies in Luxembourgish Micro-Toponymy and Linguistic History. Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Lexical Studies. Regensburger Studien zur Namenforschung Bd. 13. Regensburg: edition vulpes 2023. 545 S. – ISBN 978–3–939112–36–5, Preis: EUR 52,00.

COMPARATIVE-HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL UNITS RELATED TO FOLK MEDICINE

This article delves into the intricate world of lexical units related to folk medicine within the Uzbek language, conducting a comprehensive comparative-historical analysis. It explores the multifaceted origins of these terms, tracing them back to Proto-Turkic, Persian, Arabic, and other influences. The study meticulously examines semantic shifts and diachronic transformations that have occurred within these lexical units over time, revealing the dynamic interplay between linguistic evolution and cultural change. Furthermore, it investigates the profound impact of sociolinguistic factors, including oral transmission, social hierarchies, and cultural values, on the formation and dissemination of folk medicine terminology. By meticulously comparing and contrasting these lexical units with their counterparts in other Turkic languages, the article illuminates both shared historical roots and unique linguistic developments within the Uzbek context. Ultimately, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of Uzbek culture, its historical trajectory, and the enduring legacy of traditional healing practices.

Language is a unique form of communication that transformed human evolution but how unique is linguistic evolution?: Comment on "Language follows a distinct mode of extra-genomic evolution" by B. Bickel et al.

Language is a unique form of communication that transformed human evolution but how unique is linguistic evolution?: Comment on "Language follows a distinct mode of extra-genomic evolution" by B. Bickel et al.

Eski Türkçede qod- ve qud- Fiilleri: Fonetik ve Etimolojik Bir Değerlendirme

The article examines the phonetic and etymological aspects of the Old Turkic verbs qod- and qud- to determine whether they represent two distinct lexical items or phonetic variations of a single verb root. By analysing Old Turkic inscriptions in different writing systems, including Turkic Runic, Brāhmī, Manichaean and Uighur scripts, the research explores how the vowel change o ~ u is recorded in historical sources. It takes a comparative approach, examining how these forms appear in different Turkic languages and loanwords in neighbouring languages such as Yeniseian and Slavic. The study also assesses the impact of phonological constraints and orthographic conventions on the transcription of these words. The results suggest that qod- and qud- were historically intertwined, and probably derived from a single root meaning ‘to lower something’ or ‘to move something downward’. Over time, phonetic shifts and dialectal differentiation led to distinct forms that influenced later developments in Turkic languages. The article contributes to the broader discussion of vowel shifts and phonological variation in historical Turkic linguistics.

Direct Effects of Bipedalism on Early Hominin Fetuses Stimulated Later Musical and Linguistic Evolution

Direct Effects of Bipedalism on Early Hominin Fetuses Stimulated Later Musical and Linguistic Evolution

PÉRDIDA Y SUSTITUCIÓN DE ARABISMOS EN ESPAÑOL: COMIDAS, DULCES E INGREDIENTES DE LA COCINA MEDIEVAL

With the loss of Arab political and cultural influence, many Arabisms fall out of use and are replaced by words mainly of Latin origin, as cultural borrowings. We have selected an inventory of 25 terms of Arabic origin that designate main courses, deserts or ingredients used in medieval cuisine, the latter being ingredients resulting from preparation, thus excluding natural ingredients such as fruit, vegetables or spices. The paper traces the linguistic history of these words over time, their disappearance, preservation or replacement by other terms, based on data from historical dictionaries and diachronic corpora of the Spanish language.

Linguistique et biologie : de l’idéologie scientifique au scientisme

In this article, we show that the incursions of linguists into biology, from Schleicher through aphasiology to evolutionary linguistics, have created an unchanged space, the permanence of which lies in the absence of a break with the representation of language as an entity. This break, made by Saussure, nonetheless remained a dead letter in linguistics, whose relationship with biology has since been placed under the sign of scientific ideology, in the sense of Georges Canguilhem, coupled with reductionism. These relationships are established in place of a definition of language, and within the framework of the definition of common knowledge. Theoretical elaboration is then replaced by the spatialization and temporalization of this definition, spatialization and temporalization constituting the elective axes, respectively, of aphasiology and evolutionary linguistics.

War, Colonization, and Language Evolution: Tracing Linguistic Shifts in Global History

This study investigates the intertwined roles of war and colonization in driving language evolution, focusing on the ways in which historical conflicts and colonial encounters have reshaped linguistic systems. By examining pivotal case studies—including the Norman Conquest, 20th-century conflicts, and colonial language imposition in various regions—the research reveals how power dynamics, cultural exchange, and forced linguistic contact contribute to shifts in vocabulary, syntax, and identity. Employing a multi-method approach that combines comparative historical analysis, corpus-based investigation, and qualitative case studies, the study highlights both the rapid lexical integration observed during wartime and the more gradual processes of creolization and pidgin formation that emerge in colonized settings. The findings underscore the dual nature of language as both a repository of cultural memory and a tool for negotiating social identity, offering valuable insights for contemporary language policy and cultural preservation efforts. This work aims to enrich our understanding of language change by situating it within the broader context of historical events, thereby contributing to ongoing discussions in historical linguistics and sociolinguistics.

Reconstructing the Historical Structure of the Bantu Language Family: Old Challenges, New Insights

Recent publications in historical linguistics tend to express a near certainty about the structure of the Bantu language family and explicitly draw on archaeological and genetic studies as support for the emerging historical scenario of the Bantu expansion. In this review, I explain that the actual empirical picture is far more complicated and uncertain. A detailed examination of linguistic, archaeological, and genetic data reveals common faulty assumptions and misinterpretations and shows that no coherent narrative of Bantu history can be supported by the data at the moment. At the same time, the open questions and contradictions challenge us to move away from simplistic answers and to look for fine detail when analyzing the history of Bantu-speaking Africa: Many facts are in fact certain; they just do not fall neatly into the existing models.

Linguistic Personality in the Old English Epic "Beowulf": a study of heroic and social elements

The subject of the study is the system of hero nominations and titles in the Old English epic "Beowulf" as a reflection of the linguistic personality and cultural concepts of Anglo-Saxon society. Special attention is paid to the analysis of an extensive system of nominations for warriors and rulers, reflecting the complex social hierarchy and value orientations of society. The author examines in detail the nominations related to the institution of donation, which allows for a deeper understanding of the social mechanisms and cultural concepts of the era. The research is aimed at identifying the features of the linguistic worldview and the social structure of the Anglo-Saxons through the prism of the nomination system in the epic. This study also seeks to uncover the relationship between the linguistic features of the nominations and their cultural and historical context, which contributes to a deeper understanding of Anglo-Saxon society and its literary traditions. The research methodology includes linguistic, cultural and conceptual analysis, as well as elements of historical and comparative linguistics. A comprehensive approach is applied to the analysis of nominations in terms of reflecting linguistic personality and cultural concepts in them. The main conclusions of the study are the identification of an extensive system of nominations in the epic "Beowulf", reflecting the complex social hierarchy and value orientations of Anglo-Saxon society, as well as the establishment of a link between nominations and the institution of giving. A special contribution of the author is a comprehensive analysis of the nominations of heroes, which made it possible to identify deep connections between linguistic structures and the socio-cultural realities of Anglo-Saxon society. The novelty of the research lies in the integration of linguistic analysis methods with cultural and historical approaches, which provided a new perspective on the relationship between language, culture and social structure in the context of the Old English epic. The results of the research make a significant contribution to the fields of historical linguistics, cultural studies, literary studies and social anthropology, providing a new perspective on the relationship between language, culture and social structure in the context of the Old English epic. The analysis of the nominations in "Beowulf" revealed the deep connections between linguistic structures and the socio-cultural realities of Anglo-Saxon society.

Teaching the minority languages of the Iberian Peninsula at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest

The main objective of this paper is to describe the history of the teaching of Catalan, Galician, and Basque at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest: its beginnings and the different subsequent periods. The periods are distinct in their different systems of inclusion of the courses into the curricula of the faculty, the offer of language courses available as well as other subjects related to the language, the composition of the teaching staff responsible for the courses, and the support received from Iberian institutions. The double objective of the language courses is discussed, i.e.the practical didactic one, and the endeavors to provide synchronic and diachronic philological information on languages, with dialectology, historical linguistics, or sociolinguistics as theoretical background.

Visualizing map data for linguistics using ggplot2: A tutorial with examples from dialectology and typology

Abstract Maps are important in many areas of linguistics, especially dialectology, sociolinguistics, typology, and historical linguistics, including for visualizing regional patterns in the distribution of linguistic features and varieties of language. In this hands-on tutorial, we introduce map making for linguistics using R and the popular package ggplot2. We walk the reader through the process of making maps using both typological data, based on the World Atlas of Language Structures, and dialect data, based on large corpora of language data collected from German and American social media platforms. This tutorial is intended to be of use to anyone interested in making maps of linguistic data, and more widely to anyone wanting to learn about mapping in R.

¿El principio de ordenación onomasiológica como perturbación del orden?

This contribution is intended as a plea for the application of the onomasiological method in the historiography of linguistics. For periods in which the consolidation of linguistic concepts had not yet been completed and in which conceptual developments occurred in the texts that gave rise to variants, an alphabetical arrangement, as is usual in linguistic dictionaries, is not very appropriate. A first result of the application of the onomasiological method to the history of linguistics will be presented with the lexicon of the linguistic-theoretical foundations of the 17th and 18th centuries (Haßler & Neis, 2009). In this contribution, we will explain the methodological approach of onomasiological studies on the history of linguistic concepts, using examples that illustrate the applicability of the onomasiological method in future projects. Given the enormous variety of terms and designations, we cannot limit ourselves to looking for a word or a group of words in texts. There is an asymmetry between the conceptual and denominational sides that makes it impossible to establish direct correspondences.

Lancelot Hogben’s hybrid tongues

Abstract Lancelot Hogben (1895–1975), a peripatetic and prolific mathematical geneticist and science populariser, occupies a special niche in the history of scientific communication and translation. Not only was he a trenchant observer of the increasing dominance of Global English in scientific publications, he also leveraged his command of the cosmopolitan scientific lexicon to offer an alternative: a constructed language he called ‘Interglossa’. His extensive attention to linguistic evolution and linguistic futures peaked during World War II, particularly as a result of his forced circumnavigation of the globe during the ‘Phoney War’ of 1940. Both political and linguistic disillusionments following the war pushed him inexorably to a grudging reconciliation with some form of English as the basis for scientific (and other) communication.

Length-Minimizing LED Trees

In this paper, we introduce a previously not studied type of Euclidean tree called LED (Leaves of Equal Depth) tree. LED trees can be used, for example, in computational phylogeny, since they are a natural representative of the time evolution of a set of species in a feature space. This work is focused on LED trees that are length minimizers for a given set of leaves and a given isomorphism type. The underlying minimization problem can be seen as a variant of the classical Euclidean Steiner tree problem. Even though it has a convex objective function, it is rather non-trivial, since it has a non-convex feasible set. The main contribution of this paper is that we prove the uniqueness of a stationary point of the length function on the feasible set. Moreover, we prove several geometrical characteristics of the length minimizers that are analogous to the properties of Steiner minimal trees. We also explore some geometrical and topological properties of the feasible set. At the end, to demonstrate the applicability of our theoretical results, we show an example of an application in historical linguistics.

Accents in Flux: The Interplay of Geography, Culture, and Modern Influences in Linguistic Evolution

Accents are dynamic markers of linguistic, cultural, and geographical identity, reflecting the complex interplay of historical, social, and modern influences. This article explores the factors that shape the evolution of accents, focusing on the roles of geography and culture. Geographic factors, such as isolation, migration, and urbanization, have historically fostered regional variations, while cultural forces influence accents through social identity, media representation, and linguistic prestige. In the modern era, globalization, technological advancements, and sociopolitical dynamics have further complicated accent formation, leading to both convergence and diversification. By examining these elements, the article highlights how accents function as powerful tools of communication, identity, and cultural expression. It also underscores the importance of preserving linguistic diversity in a globalized world.

Historical linguistics, the pronunciation of Latin and teaching of classical languages

Abstract We present attempts at reforming the pronunciation of Latin in Slovenia, also analyzing — based on a survey on the use of pronunciation in primary and high schools — the reasons for the lack of their success. In addition, we discuss two related pedagogical projects that involved primary and secondary pupils. Our main conclusion is that the adherence to the traditional pronunciation makes it necessary to readdress the issue of how a more authentic way of Latin pronunciation is to be incorporated in the language instruction. One such attempt was made during the summer school, where we informed students about findings of modern historical linguistics concerning the phonological system of Classical Latin. In addition, we tried to adopt these findings in practice, by following them in reading a part of an authentic Latin text. Our results show that this approach to presenting the classical pronunciation of Latin can be an interesting and well-received part of Latin instruction.

ОБРАЩЕНИЕ “ТОВАРИЩ” С ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНЫМИ КОМПОНЕНТАМИ: ДИАХРОНИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article explores the vocative tovarishch (“comrade”) and its evolution in the Russian language. It examines changes in the meaning and functions of the term of address, as well as its use in combinations with names, surnames, titles, and positions. The study is based on data from explanatory dictionaries and the Russian National Corpus (RNC). The vocative tovarishch is analyzed as an important marker of social and political transformations. First appearing in the 18th century, it initially conveyed equality and closeness between speakers. During the Soviet era, it acquired ideological significance and became a universal address form, replacing gospodin (“mister”) and gospozha (“madam”). The most frequent combinations among the combinations with nouns were with military ranks and positions, typically used in official and formal contexts. In the post-Soviet period, tovarishch has been preserved mainly in retrospective and stylized contexts. The study demonstrates that the evolution of tovarishch reflects changes in communicative practices and ideological frameworks. It transitioned from a universal address emphasizing equality to a symbol of historical memory. The findings are of interest to scholars in linguistics, the history of language, and cultural studies.

James McElvenny (ed.): The limits of structuralism: forgotten texts in the history of modern linguistics

James McElvenny (ed.): The limits of structuralism: forgotten texts in the history of modern linguistics

AUXILIARY DO IN PERIPHRASTIC CONSTRUCTIONS IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

The paper delves into the syntactic changes that occurred during the Early Modern English period, focusing specifically on the mandatory use of the auxiliary verb do in various sentence types, including interrogative, negative, and imperative constructions when no other auxiliary is present. This study is directed towards the process of grammaticalization across various sentence types in Early Modern English, wherein do gradually transitioned from a lexical verb to a crucial auxiliary verb integral to the sentence structure. The analysis highlights both internal linguistic factors and the social factors that played a crucial role in this transformation. The study assumes that the emergence of do as an obligatory auxiliary was not solely a result of gradual linguistic evolution; rather, it was intricately tied to the social context of the time. The sociolinguistic research discusses how social variables like age and gender influence the language variation and change. The grammaticalization is explored within the broader context of the language change, where internal pressures interacted with external social influences to propel the shift toward the Present-Day English syntactic system. The paper provides insights into how both linguistic structure and social forces can interact in shaping the development of grammatical norms in a language over time.