Historical Linguistics Research Articles

Grouping sounds into evolving units for the purpose of historical language comparison

Computer-assisted approaches to historical language comparison have made great progress during the past two decades. Scholars can now routinely use computational tools to annotate cognate sets, align words, and search for regularly recurring sound correspondences. However, computational approaches still suffer from a very rigid sequence model of the form part of the linguistic sign, in which words and morphemes are segmented into fixed sound units which cannot be modified. In order to bring the representation of sound sequences in computational historical linguistics closer to the research practice of scholars who apply the traditional comparative method, we introduce improved sound sequence representations in which individual sound segments can be grouped into evolving sound units in order to capture language-specific sound laws more efficiently. We illustrate the usefulness of this enhanced representation of sound sequences in concrete examples and complement it by providing a small software library that allows scholars to convert their data from forms segmented into sound units to forms segmented into evolving sound units and vice versa.

Ancient languages and algorithms

Abstract Historical linguistics has experienced an upsurge in methodological innovation. However, owing to the constraints of contemporary publication, these innovations often appear in print in a format which is technical, dense and less than fully accessible. Moreover, because these innovations are still young and have often arisen in other fields before being translated to historical linguistics, our own discipline has yet to accumulate a stock of trusted explanations of them, presented lucidly and addressed specifically to our field and to its scientific concerns. This special issue is dedicated to promoting the accessibility of new methods. Despite their technical details, most new methods in historical linguistics rest upon a rationale and an essential logic that are perfectly comprehensible to interested historical linguists, so long as they are communicated in a fashion that is sympathetic and respectful to a linguistic audience. This introduction contextualizes the five papers of the special issue.

Twenty-first-century light over the Indo-European homeland: triangulating language, archaeology and genetics

The reviewed volumes represent the past and future of triangulating human prehistory. Both works address the integration of the knowledge embedded in the Indo-European group of languages into the interpretation of archaeological and genetic data, but approach this very differently. By enlisting the expertise of scholars from the three different fields, with 22 contributions from more than 40 scholars from more than 10 different countries, The Indo-European puzzle revisited is both a seminal work and a resounding commentary on the, by its very nature, limited perspectives voiced by Jean-Paul Demoule as a sole archaeologist author of his book The Indo-Europeans. The title of the former is based on the subtitle of Colin Renfrew's Archaeology and language: the puzzle of Indo-European origins (1987), another archaeologist's foray into historical linguistics.

WORD FORMATION THROUGH COMPOUNDING IN GEN-Z SLANG ON TIKTOK

Language is dynamic and reflective of societal changes, with Gen-Z, the first true digital natives, playing a pivotal role in linguistic evolution. This study examines the phenomenon of word formation through compounding in Gen-Z slang on TikTok, exploring its linguistic structures and meanings. By analyzing the common compounding patterns in Gen-Z slang, we gain insights into the creative processes and social influences shaping language use among this demographic. Utilizing a qualitative approach, data was collected from TikTok videos and comments between January 2023 and May 2024. The findings reveal 15 distinct compound words, with compound nouns being the most prevalent, followed by compound verbs and compound adjectives. Endocentric compounds were more common than exocentric ones. This research highlights the innovative nature of language within Generation Z, reflecting their values of self-expression, technological engagement, and creative problem-solving. The study underscores the role of social media in shaping contemporary language and provides a foundation for further exploration of linguistic innovations and their implications for language development and cultural expression in the digital age.

『경상남도지』의 ｢방언｣에 담긴 경남방언 연구

This article aims to closely examine the ‘Bangeon’ (1963:966-1029) included in the Kyungsangnamdoji published by the Kyungsangnam-do Compilation Committee in 1963 and to reveal the significance of this work in the context of the overall history of South Kyungsang dialect research. The ‘Bangeon’ proactively recognized dialects as "independent language variations" and attempted a synchronic description of the overall South Kyungsang dialect. This endeavor can be considered a groundbreaking achievement, as it overcame the atomistic research approach based on traditional historical linguistics. Meanwhile, the ‘Bangeon’ goes as far as to subdivide the South Kyungsang dialect by examining dialectal features such as the phoneme inventory and the distribution of grammatical morphemes in the South Kyungsang dialect. The fact that the research results of the ‘Bangeon’ are still validly referenced in discussions on this dialect to this day clearly demonstrates the noteworthiness of this work in the history of South Kyungsang dialect research.

Negative politeness and no worries in Australian English

AbstractThis paper explores how a distinctive politeness token can establish itself in a variety of world English by virtue of its pragmatics. It examines the usage of no worries as a negative politeness thanking response in a large multigenerational corpus of informal dialogues by men and women recorded at the University of Western Australia (UWA). Data from this UWA corpus reflect the steady evolution of no worries, from its indexical association with Australian men's talk to be taken up by younger Australian women. Though rooted in laconic spoken exchanges, the data also show extended uses of no worries in quoted speech as well as narrative reconstructions of spoken encounters to highlight their outcomes. In its further linguistic evolution, it works as a stance adverbial in dramatized interior monologues. It thus acquires new functions in various discourse contexts where a modicum of negative politeness adds value to the narrative or argument.

RelChronVis: an interactive web application for visualizing the relative chronology of language changes

AbstractModels of the relative chronology of language changes resemble the structure of a graph. They consist of a set of changes that are in many cases related to each other. It follows that they can be visualized in a diagram, which opens up new possibilities for publishing historical linguistics data. In this paper, we introduce the RelChronVis application, a web application designed for visualizing language history. Based on detailed models of the relative chronology of Russian and Croatian sound changes, we show how interactive graph representations can help visualize language changes and the relationships between them. In addition to graphs, the application provides textual information about the included changes and relations as well as reconstructions of example lexemes. The RelChronVis application is primarily designed for doing research and for teaching. It allows the researcher to transparently compare different models and to access relevant data. At the same time, the RelChronVis application can be used to teach the history of the included languages as well as methods of historical linguistics. It provides the option of visualizing custom data and can easily be accommodated to novel discoveries. We believe that these features and uses make the RelChronVis application an immensely useful tool for publishing models of the relative chronology of language changes.

Russian Diachronic Linguistics and Philology. Three Decades of Research in Italy (years 1991-2021)

Russian Diachronic Linguistics and Philology. Three Decades of Research in Italy (years 1991-2021)

Remaking the Late Holocene Environment of Western Uganda: Archaeological Perspectives on Kansyore and Later Settlers

AbstractArchaeological and environmental research by an international and interdisciplinary team opens new perspectives into the settlement histories of Kansyore, Early Iron Age, and Bigo period peoples in the once forested regions of the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda. The research examines the role of Kansyore agropastoralists and their Early Iron Age and Bantu-speaking contemporaries in remaking a once forested environment into a forest-savannah mosaic from circa 500 BC to the end of the first millennium AD. Archaeological settlement and subsistence evidence is examined within a framework of social interaction of Sudanic speakers with Bantu speakers, drawing on historical linguistics and environmental studies to arrive at a new synthesis of late Holocene history in western Uganda. This perspective also unveils the significance and chronology of Boudiné ware, a long enigmatic ceramic tradition that we identify as contemporary to Transitional Urewe and deeply influenced through social interactions with those making Kansyore ceramics and inhabiting the same landscape. Using archaeological evidence from fifteen sites and multiple burials spanning from 400 to 1650 calAD, new views of ceramic histories, lifeways, and symbolic values are revealed, including Bigo period settlements that arose in what was an environmental refugium beginning in the early fourteenth century AD. This research also shows that the Kansyore of the forested region east of the Rwenzori Mountains had greater affinities to late Holocene archaeological evidence from western Equatoria, in the southern South Sudan, and Kansyore Island, Uganda, than it does to the Kansyore in eastern Kenya.

The evolution of evolutionary linguistics

Abstract This paper presents a scientometric study of the evolution of evolutionary linguistics, a multidisciplinary field that investigates the origin and evolution of language. We apply network science methods to analyse changes in the connections among core concepts discussed in the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database, a searchable database of causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics. Our analysis includes a multipartite network of 416 papers, 742 authors, and 1,786 variables such as ‘population birth rate’ and ‘linguistic complexity’. Our findings indicate a significant increase in the size of concept networks from 1886 to 2022, providing an account of the growth and diversification of evolutionary linguistics as a field. We describe eight major clusters of concepts, and characterize the connections within and between clusters. Finally, we identify hypotheses cutting across clusters of concepts that have a high-betweenness centrality, implying that they might have a higher impact on the field if proven right (or wrong). Furthermore, we discuss the role of databases in cultural evolution and scientometrics, emphasizing the value of interdisciplinary connections and the potential for further cross-disciplinary collaboration in the field of Evolutionary Linguistics.

The dialect chain tree

A perennial conflict in historical linguistics centers around the theoretical and practical virtues of tree-like divergence and wave-like diffusion. This paper presents the Dialect Chain Tree, an extension of the tree model that incorporates both tree-like descent and disintegration of dialect chains in a systematic fashion. As such, it provides a formalization and sharpening of Ross’ (1997: 212–228) linkage concept that allows integration into quantitative approaches.

The Historical Pronunciation of Koinē Greek and Why It MattersThe Pronunciation of New Testament Greek: Judeo‐Palestinian Greek Phonology and Orthography From Alexander to Islam, BenjaminKantor, Eerdmans, 2023 (ISBN 978‐0‐8028‐7831‐1), liv + 842 pp., hb $99.99A Short Guide to the Pronunciation of New Testament Greek, BenjaminKantor, Eerdmans, 2023 (ISBN 978‐0‐8028‐7832‐8), xvi + 134 pp., pb $14.99

AbstractThis essay reviews two recent publications in historical Greek linguistics. While many in university and seminary education learn to read Greek texts, little attention is given to pronunciation and even less to how the language may have been pronounced historically. The volumes reviewed in this essay reconstruct changes in the pronunciation of Greek in Judeo‐Palestine by examining discrepancies in spelling and transliteration. The books also have implications for sociological studies in addition to pedagogical applications.

THE MALAY EPISTEMOLOGICAL BACKGROUND IN THE ISLAMIC WRITINGS OF HAMZAH FANSŪRĪ

The study of Hamzah Fansūrī’s writings has long been focused on understanding its connection to Islamic philosophy rather than its indigenous philosophical origins. The objective of this study is to identify and expose the traditional Malay epistemological background behind Hamzah Fansūrī’s writings. This objective is achieved through the evidence and analysis methods of historical linguistics on the one hand, and by judging these analytical conclusions based on Buddhist Yogācāra’s epistemology of Śrīvijaya on the other hand. Three important research findings are as follows: 1) the overall style of Hamzah Fansūrī’s writings is the logical tradition of Dignāga, 2) all the metaphors of Hamzah Fansūrī’s writings, which are of the type of pariṇāma theory, can be understood in the epistemological tradition of Vasubandhu, which was influential in the writings of Śrīvijaya from the end of the seventh century to the beginning of the eleventh century, and 3) Hamzah Fansūrī’s works are also influenced by the recent Malayu-Singapura philosophy of Saṃkhyā, mainly the distinction between śabda and katā, which is used to receive the new Islamic epistemological distinctions and traditions. In other words, to say that the Śrīvijaya period had no major impact on philosophy, and that pre-Islamic Malay mind was more aesthetic than philosophical cannot be supported by the writings of Hamzah Fansūrī.

Словарь речений из богослужебных книг прот. А. И. Невоструева (позвизданїе — помѣстный)

The “Dictionary of Locutions from Liturgical Books” by Protopriest A. Nevostruev, completed in the middle of the 19th century and never published, can be regarded both as a significant achievement of Church Slavonic studies and as a valuable lexicographic source. The manuscript is kept in the Russian State Library. The decrepit state of the manuscript has determined the necessity of its urgent study and edition. The significance of this project is primarily due to the fact that the text of the dictionary is being made accessible to linguists for the first time. The orthography and grammar of the dictionary reflect the linguistic views of the time of its creation and can be of interest for those who study the history of Russian linguistics. This paper contains the 4th part of dictionary entries beginning in letter P. The characteristic features of the publication of this Dictionary, the lists of sources, abbreviations and symbols were described in detail in the previous issues of St. Tikhon’s University Review. All previously published parts of the Dictionary together with the critical apparatus can be found at the website of St. Tikhon’s University for the Humanities.

A typological approach to language change in contact situations

Abstract Language contact phenomena have increasingly been researched from different historical linguistic, sociolinguistic and areal-typological perspectives. However, since most of this research is based on case studies, an assessment of contact phenomena from a worldwide comparative perspective has been missing in the literature. In this article, we draw inspiration from historical linguistics and language typology to present a new typological approach for evaluating evidence that given linguistic domains have been affected by language contact. This method has three parts: (1) a new approach to sampling, (2) the analysis of typological data, and (3) making probabilistic inferences about language contact. We argue that this is a parsimonious method for evaluating contact effects that can serve as a starting point for the further development of typological approaches to language contact.

A Study of the Vocabulary in al-Qavânîn al-Kulliyya li-Ẓabṭ al-Luġat at-Turkiyya

The multi-layered cultural structure of the Mamluk Kipchak area can be seen in the language of the period. The linguistic evolution of the Turkmens and Kipchaks, the initial settlers of the region, is documented in contemporary grammars and dictionaries. The language of the Eastern Turks also became incorporated as their numbers in the region gradually increased. This study investigates the vocabulary used in al-Qavânîn al-Kulliyya li-Ẓabṭ al-Luġat at-Turkiyya, one of the grammars of the period. The first stage of the study was to identify words with the same meanings and equivalent pairs that may be indicators of how the dialect of the period has changed. The status of the words which were considered to be indicators of the dialectal differences between the historical text, and that of the Turkic languages of contemporary Oghuz and Kipchak groups, was then analysed. Results indicate that 37.03% of the fifty-eight words analysed in this study still exist in contemporary Oghuz, while 25.93% are still present, and even have the same meaning, in contemporary Kipchak. The rate of equivalent pairs identified in this historical text was 37.03%.

Fraseología dialectal en la obra literaria de B. Pérez Galdós

The prolific work of Benito Pérez Galdós is not, in general, characterised by the abundant presence of Canarian words and expressions. However, as Pérez Vidal (1979) and Corrales and Corbella (2020) point out, the conscious or unconscious use of lexical and phraseological items from the Archipelago can be traced in his literature. This paper analyzes and catalogs the dialectal phraseological units (PUs) extracted from a diachronic corpus of literary texts, compiled and managed by Sketch Engine. The main results of the study are the finding of a higher number of PUs than expected and the inclusion of Galdós’ dialectal phraseology in the research of the phraseological discipline from the postulates of diachronic linguistics.

Analyzing semantic shifts in English and German by exploring historical influences and societal dynamics

This research examines the mechanisms of semantic change in English and German, focusing on comparing and contrasting these processes across the two languages and investigating the influence of major historical events and societal shifts. By utilizing digital text corpora, libraries, archives, and modern digital media, the study conducts qualitative analyses, including case studies and discourse analysis, to explore semantic evolution. Thematic analysis was employed to thoroughly examine and interpret the data, allowing for the identification of recurring patterns, themes, and significant insights. The results showed that both English and German undergo significant semantic shifts driven by a metaphorical extension (i.e., narrowing or broadening of meanings, pejoration and amelioration, frequency and pathway of change, cultural and historical influences) and historical events and societal shifts that influence semantic change (i.e., wars and conflicts, industrialization, technological advancement, globalization, and cultural exchange, societal movements, and ideological shifts). The role of metaphorical extension is seen in adapting language to technological advancements while highlighting linguistic evolution through narrowing and broadening meanings influenced by cultural, historical, and linguistic factors. Additionally, pejoration and amelioration reflect societal changes and attitudes. Historical events and societal shifts, such as wars, industrialization, technological advancements, globalization, and social movements, significantly impact semantic changes in both English and German. These external influences catalyze language use and meaning shifts, illustrating the interaction between language and human experience.

History of linguistics as a path to dissertation progress and contextualization of research

History of linguistics as a path to dissertation progress and contextualization of research

Presentist, trajectorial and heliocentric approaches to teaching the history of linguistics

Presentist, trajectorial and heliocentric approaches to teaching the history of linguistics