Historical Linguistics Research Articles

Describing Inscriptions of Ancient Italy. The ItAnt Project and Its Information Encoding Process

This article discusses the challenges addressed in the digital scholarly encoding of the fragmentary texts of the languages of Ancient Italy according to the TEI/EpiDoc Guidelines in XML format. It describes the solutions and customisations that have been adopted for dealing with the peculiarities of our epigraphical documentation and with the formalisation of epigraphical information deemed interesting for data retrieval in a historical linguistic perspective. The making of a digital corpus consisting of new critical editions of selected inscriptions is a work carried out in the context of the project “Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy. Historical Linguistics and Digital Models”, which aims to investigate the languages of Ancient Italy by combining the traditional methods, proper to historical linguistics, with methods and technology proper to the digital humanities and computational lexicography. More specifically, the purpose of the project is to create a set of interrelated digital language resources which comprise: (1) a digital corpus of texts editions; (2) a computational lexicon compliant with the Web Semantic requirements; (3) a relevant bibliographic reference dataset encoded according to the FRBRoo/LRMoo specifications. Additionally, selected textual data and scientific interpretations will be encoded using CIDOC CRM and its extensions, namely CRMtex and CRMinf. The present contribution thus tackles one of the main aspects of the project, and proposes significant innovations in the encoding of critical editions for epigraphic texts of fragmentary languages, which will hopefully foster future interoperability and integration with other external datasets, a paramount concern of the project.

A socio‐historical analysis of English in Libya

AbstractPolitical instability has been a mainstay in Libya since the Italian occupation in 1911. In the intervening years, the shifting political landscape has had an undeniable influence on the presence of English in the country. In this paper, I argue that Libya presents an ideal case study for Kachru's Concentric Circles of English, where ‘linguistic ammunition’ (Kachru, 1986: 121) is used to manipulate and control the masses and spread anti‐Western sentiment in this expanding circle country. To provide a much‐needed socio‐historical context for a country whose English language and linguistic history remains understudied (Hillman et al., 2020), this paper touches on key events in Libya's political history that have influenced the status of English and language use; from the Italian colonization, to Qaddafi's decade‐long ban of English, to the 2011 Revolution, and beyond. This paper is divided into six sections: (1) critical approaches to language policy (Tollefson, 1991) and Foucault's governmentality approach (1991); (2) demographic and geographic description of Libya; (3) historical and political overview; (4) educational language policy and the development of the education system; (5) English language policy in Libya (the ban on use of English in 1986 following the 1969 coup that brought Qaddafi to power and the reintroduction of English in the mid‐1990s); and will conclude with (6) English language in post‐Qaddafi Libya. Understanding these key moments in Libyan political history will provide the context needed to understand how a generation of Libyans found themselves without the linguistic skills necessary to compete in the global economy.

Words of Wonder: The Cognitive and Semantic Dimension of the Literal and Figurative Denominators for wonder in Old English Sources

Abstract Based on the most recent research on emotion and, specifically, on contemporary aesthetic emotion theories, and combining methods from cognitive and historical linguistics, this paper aims at looking into the cognitive and semantic dimension of Old English literal and figurative denominators of wonder. Exploring how these terms are used in the Old English corpus, this paper highlights a recurrent use of literal emotion terms for wonder with varying semantics, and a wide array of figurative expressions that rely on the most common action tendencies and somatic profiles that are attributed to this emotion. This research stresses the rich variety that Old English authors had at their disposal when describing wonder-experiences and the many ways in which these authors described and narrated these emotional experiences, all of which, in extreme, reveals important information about the semantic dimension of these terms and identifiable patterns of conceptualisation for this emotion.

Changes in Meaning and Function. Studies in historical linguistics with a focus in Spanish

Changes in Meaning and Function. Studies in historical linguistics with a focus in Spanish

Agouti historiography: the problem of widespread lexical forms and deep linguistic history in Central and South America

Abstract Throughout Central and South America, similar words for salient rodent species, the agoutis (Dasyprocta spp.), reconstruct to some of the most ancient known languages families in the species’ range, including Chibchan (*’kuri), Cariban (*akuri), Tupian (*akutˀi), and others. Unless these are dismissed as mere chance, this makes for as interesting as problematic evidence for deep linguistic history: what mechanisms account for the striking similarities that must go back far into prehistory? One possibility is that the words are lexical evidence for very old genealogical connections. While this is a possibility worth bearing in mind also in light of current and past suggestions that involve some of the relevant groups, we cannot conclude that this is indeed the case on the basis of the available evidence. Another, and perhaps less costly, hypothesis is very old borrowing involving relevant proto-languages or their ancestors However, is this a plausible scenario? On the basis of a large set of data featuring more than 400 languages from Central and South America, I show that neighboring languages have relatively frequently borrowed agouti-words from one another, involving reflexes of the above forms, but also others. This shows that it is natural to expect borrowing my. In either case, the similarities likely demonstrate very old interactions between the mentioned lineages, something with interesting implications on homeland hypotheses and scenarios of early spread.

Kinship Terminology as a (Still) Significant Anthropological Analytical Category

This paper explains the concept of kinship terminology as an analytical category in anthropology and highlights its importance. Special attention is given to the differences in approach and methodology employed in anthropology compared to comparative philology and historical linguistics when it comes to this type of research. In addition to discussing the typology of kinship terminology systems, the paper addresses current knowledge regarding two longstanding questions: 1. the relationship between kinship terminology and non-linguistic elements (principles of social organisation and kinship behaviour), and 2. historical changes and transformations of kinship terminological systems.
 From the perspective of contemporary anthropology, when interpreting the prevalence of different types of kinship terminology worldwide, it is necessary to consider and distinguish between two principles of grouping: the ‘principle of propinquity’ and the ‘principle of form.’ The principle of propinquity can be applied when dealing with societies that are linguistically, geographically, and historically connected. When terminologies with the same formal characteristics, including identical rules of kinship classification, exist in geographically, linguistically, and historically distinct and distant societies, the principle of form is applied, which focuses more on logical rather than historical connections between systems.
 While earlier studies focused on finding logically powerful and empirically efficient analytical means of classification, in recent decades the emphasis has increasingly shifted towards broader social, historical, and cognitive issues and processes. Contemporary approaches to kinship terminology aim to identify and explain variations rather than categorise such systems into one general category or another. Because what matters is not which category fits better, but rather which features can be combined in different ways to form a concrete system in the real world.

Reflection of Consonant Phonemes /b/ dan/d/ in Toba Batak Language into /p/dan /t/ in Angkola Batak Language

The aim of this research was to describe the reflection of consonant phonemes /b/ and /d/ in Toba Batak language into /p/ and /t/ in Angkola Batak language. The theory used in this paper was the theory of Comparative Historical Linguistics which consists of two views, namely Types of Phonetic Changes and Types of Phonological Processes. The method used by the author was a comparative method between the Toba Batak language and the Angkola Batak language with a focused on the phoneme changes /b/ to /p/ and /d/ to /t/ in both languages. Based on the analysis described in the discussion chapter, it can be concluded that the consonant reflection phonemes /b/ and /d/ in Toba Batak language undergo linear changed to /p/ and /t/ in Angkola Batak language in the initial, middle and final positions. The changing included b > p and d > t, the changed occured consistently in the initial, middle and the final positions

Hubungan Kekerabatan Bahasa Jawa Dan Bahasa Melayu (Kajian Linguistik Historis Komparatif)

Language as a means of human communication has become one of the interesting studies from time to time considering that language is dynamic. The science that studies language is linguistics, in which between branches of linguistics there is comparative historical linguistics. This study aims to describe how comparative linguistic studies are between Javanese regional languages and Malay regional languages. This research uses descriptive qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitatively it functions to collect data and analyze it both orally and in writing, while quantitatively to get comparisons and the number of percentages between language kinships obtained by using lexicostatistics techniques. The data source for this research is a Pontianak Malay language text entitled Bawang Merah and Bawang Puteh . The steps taken to determine language kinship are: (1) determine the basic vocabulary of Bawang Merah and Bawang Puteh folklore, (2) determine the pairs of the two languages, (3) determine the time of separation and age of language kinship. Based on the results of the analysis, Javanese and Malay were the only languages between 2325 – 1845 years ago. Javanese and Malay languages separated into a proto language between 302 - 178 AD (calculated by 2023).

The Origin of Friulanisms of the Type medih ‘doctor’ and lampadarih ‘chandelier’ in Dialectal Slovenian in the Slavic-Romance Contact Area in Friuli

The article discusses the origin of the nominal forms ending in -ih [iχ] of the type medih ‘doctor’ and lampadarih ‘chandelier’ in dialectal Slovenian on the Slovenian-Friulian language boundary. Regarding their origin, these forms represent loanwords from Friulian, where they typically end in -i (cf. Friul. mièdi ‘doctor’, lampadàri ‘chandelier’), reflecting their original Romance pre-forms MEDICU(M) and LAMPADĀRIU(M). The contribution tries to account for the presence of the voiceless velar fricative h [χ] in both groups of borrowings, taking into consideration the linguistic history of both Friulian and Slovenian. While the voiceless velar fricative χ in the medih-type can most probably be explained by assuming a more archaic phonetic reflex of the original MEDICU(M) in Old Friulian, the origin of χ in the lampadarih-type seems to be the result of analogical processes in the linguistic history of Slovenian.

The BiTe_Corpus as a Tool for Data Exploration in the History of Hispanic Linguistics

Abstract Digital humanities make it possible to approach traditional academic topics (such as Hispanic linguistic historiography) from a novel and revelatory perspective. Using tools such as Voyant Tools or Gephi, one can study both primary and secondary sources from the history of linguistics and extract various theoretical and historical values subject to historiographical and meta-historiographical reflection. To that end, combining corpora that facilitate analysis using digital tools is necessary. This article explains the steps that have been followed to create a corpus based on more than 3,000 abstracts gathered in the Bibliografía Temática de Historiografía Lingüística Española: fuentes secundarias [BiTe]. In doing so, researchers have access to a set of data which can be analysed in order to continue advancing in the history of Hispanic linguistics, thus offering a working methodology that can be exported to other traditions and currents in the field of linguistics.

Archaeology, Language, and the Question of Sámi Ethnogenesis

Abstract Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their historical presence in Fennoscandia have long affected scholarly and public discourses. More recently, these debates have been fueled by new propositions launched by Finnish linguists regarding the origin and development of the Sámi language. In this article, we target this corpus of linguistic research and the wide-ranging implications it suggests for the Sámi past. While based on historical and comparative linguistics data, a notable feature of the studies examined is that they also lean heavily on assumptions about the archaeological record in their reasonings. These assumptions, we argue, are, to a large extent, based on very limited or outdated knowledge of archaeological research on the Sámi past, and in particular, that of northern Norway. The article raises critical questions regarding the notions of cultural areas, ancestral homelands, and migrations that abound in these linguistic studies and challenges the a priori primacy assigned to language as the constituent of cultural identity. In conclusion, we outline a Sámi archaeological past that does not concur well with recent linguistic accounts and which, in the end, begs the question of whether this discrepancy can be reconciled and, if so, how this can happen.

Economic stereotypes of Russian families through the prism of proverbs and sayings

Stereotypes and prejudices can influence our views and decisions in various spheres of life, including the economy. The author addresses the most important social group – the family and examines the features of the economic behavior of all its members in comparison with the models and patterns of behavior described in Russian proverbs and sayings. The family, both nuclear and extended, is the main object of research. Being the foundation of the state, the family remains the most important source of information for understanding the economic and financial culture of the population, the conditions for its formation and identifying strong points for further development. Sociological content analysis is chosen as the main method of analysis. The article is written at the intersection of sociological, linguistic, historical and philosophical sciences. The scientific novelty of the presented research is both the problematic topic itself, which was not previously presented in the scientific field, and the unification of three time modes during the author's analysis: past, present and future. During the content analysis, the author identified five thematic groups of proverbs and sayings that have semantic references to finance, attitude to money and economic roles in the family. Each of the groups is accompanied by up-to-date data from secondary sociological research and statistics in order to compare, highlight common and different in the economic life of Russian families over the past centuries. The focus of the research is focused on analyzing the dynamics of changes in the attitude of members of the Russian family to finance and the strength of the influence of economic stereotypes on families of the XXI century, expressed through specific linguistic forms. The conclusions of this research are of interest to a wide range of readers whose professional or social interests include economic sociology, demography, Russian history and historical linguistics, as well as population issues.

Widening Horizons

The transformation of Maureen Warner-Lewis’s intellectual career from colonial to postcolonial shaping was gradual and sometimes fortuitous. It involved a bifurcation in disciplines, evolving from English literary developments into Afro-Caribbean social and linguistic history. Linguistic fieldwork further led into concerns with religious, culinary, and musical folkways, as well as biographical investigation. Outlines of Warner-Lewis’s writings on the Caribbean and on Caribbean cultures inspired by Yoruba, Igbo, and Kongo matrices are presented.

KEKERABATAN BAHASA TETUN DAN BAHASA DAWAN (LINGUISTIK HISTORIS KOMPARATIF)

This research aims to describe the relationship between the Tetun and Dawan languages which is entitled “The kinship relationship between the Tetun and Dawan languages” using the theory of comparative historical linguistics. The method used qualitative and quantitative approaches using a lexicostatistic technique. The data collection methodology and technique used are effective methods of observation, interviewing, and recording. This research was conducted at the village of Rafae, Raimanuk District, Belu Regency. The research instrument used in the interview was a list of questions containing 200 basics (Swadesh) vocabulary. The results showed that there was a relationship between the Tetun and Dawan languages, attempts through 33 pairs of related words, with 5 pairs of identical words category, phonetic match 10, phonetically similar 6, and a different phonemic 12. The level of kinship Bahasa Tetun and Bahasa Dawan has a kinship at the level of rock (stock) with a percentage of 16,5 %.

ON THE ROLE OF O. P. PAVLOVSKY’S SPELLING SYSTEM IN THE HISTORY OF EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

The problems of evolution of the modern Ukrainian literary language as well as of linguistic normalization are relevant in modern linguistics. The article is devoted to a famous linguist of the 19th century, researcher of the Ukrainian language, author of Grammar book of Little Russian Dialect Oleksiy Pavlovich Pavlovsky (c. 1770/1773 – after 1826). His work is of exceptional importance being the first attempt to systematize the spelling of the Ukrainian colloquial language, which was based on the phonetic principle. The article analyzes and discloses the ownership marks of copies of Grammar book by O. P. Pavlovsky, stored in the Scientific Library of the Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University. The author managed to trace a copy of Grammar book (1818) that entered the library holdings of the Richelieu Lyceum (predecessor of the Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University – until 1865) and three copies of an offset print. Two of the latter belonged to Professor Artemiy Amvrosiyovych Moskalenko and Associate Professor Fyodor Pavlovich Smaglenko, well-known Odessa linguists of the 20th century who kept Grammar book in their personal book collections and used it for their scientific research. Grammar book of the Little Russian Dialect by O. P. Pavlovsky opened a new page in the history of Ukrainian linguistics. Despite certain shortcomings, for a long time it had been the only thorough manual that contained the basics of Grammar and spelling of the modern Ukrainian language. It was O. P. Pavlovsky’s work that laid the foundations for the formation of Ukrainian Grammar books and contributed to the development of the written Ukrainian literary language.

Историческая фонетика бурятского языка в русскоязычной документации XVII в. (к постановке проблемы). Часть 1

Introduction. It is in the mid-to-late 18th century at latest that the main phonetic characteristics of Buryat that distinguish the latter from other Mongolic languages — reflected in its western and eastern dialects — took shape. The initial period that had witnessed the formation of these specific elements still remains somewhat unclear. The paper analyzes authentic sources and attempts to show a possibility that the areal phonetic features of Buryat emerged within local population groups of Baikalia as far back as the early-to-mid 17th century. Goals. The article analyzes ethnonyms (and other onyms) relating to the Buryat population and recorded in seventeenth-century Russian-language documents to identify spelling (pronunciation) specificities characteristic of Buryat dialects. Materials and methods. Part One of the study deals with discussions over some general chronology of phonetic changes that have resulted in the shaping of Buryat, and distinguish the latter from other Mongolic languages. The paper examines major related works, analyzes methods and approaches employed by the researchers. Results. Our insights into scholarly publications conclude there is no compromise view on the lower chronological limit that would serve as terminus a quo for Buryat phonetic features. According to some researchers, key processes that fundamentally rebuilt the Buryat consonant system had begun in the 17th century and proceeded to completion by the early 18th century, while others insist those had emerged only in the late 17th century to culminate throughout the 18th century. Conclusions. Scholars that have dealt with Buryat phonetics tended to focus on eighteenth-century linguistic materials and rarely turned to other sources, such as Russian loanwords in Buryat, Mongolian loanwords in Evenki and Yakut, chronological attributions of the latter be further explored in historical contexts of phonetic systems of recipient languages, with due account for actual circumstances of interaction with native speakers of Mongolic languages. The absence of original written sources shall definitely leave these questions unanswered. So, historical linguistics can independently serve as a promising tool for such historical reconstructions.

Ethical principles, challenges and opportunities when conducting genetic counselling for schizophrenia.

Ethical challenges of genetic counselling for schizophrenia include effective communication of critical scientific information in an easily understood manner by patients and relatives, and the ability to ensure communication is unencumbered by medical jargon. Levels of literacy in the target population may limit this process, making it difficult for patients to attain the desired levels of informed consent to make crucial decisions during genetic counselling. Multilingualism in target communities may further complicate such communication. This paper outlines the ethical principles, challenges and opportunities facing clinicians when conducting genetic counselling for schizophrenia and how these might be met, drawing on lessons from South African studies. The paper draws on reflections of clinician and researcher experiences gained from clinical practice or research on the genetics of schizophrenia and psychotic disorders in South Africa. The context of genetic studies in schizophrenia is used to illustrate the ethical challenges in genetic counselling for schizophrenia, both in clinical and research settings. Attention is also drawn to multicultural and multilingual populations, particularly where the preferred language lacks a well-developed scientific language of communication for some of the genetic concepts that have to be presented during the genetic counselling process. The authors describe the ethical challenges and how to address these to empower patients and relatives to make well-informed decisions despite these obstacles. Principles applied by clinicians and researchers during the genetic counselling are described. Potential solutions, including the establishment of community advisory boards to address potential ethical challenges inherent to the genetic counselling process, are also shared. Genetic counselling for schizophrenia still faces ethical challenges which require a balance of principles of beneficence, autonomy, informed consent, confidentiality and distributive justice, while striving to present accuracy in the science that guides the process. Evolution in language and cultural competency therefore needs to occur alongside scientific advances in genetic research. Key stakeholders need to partner and build capacity and expertise in genetic counselling through the provision of funding and resources. The goal of partnerships is to empower patients, relatives, clinicians and researchers to share scientific information in a manner guided by empathy while retaining scientific accuracy.

Lexical data for the historical comparison of Rgyalrongic languages.

As one of the most morphologically conservative branches of the Sino-Tibetan language family, most of the Rgyalrongic languages are still understudied and poorly understood, not to mention their vulnerable or endangered status. It is therefore important for available data of these languages to be made accessible. The lexical data sets the authors have assembled provide comparative word lists of 20 modern and medieval Rgyalrongic languages, consisting of word lists from fieldwork carried out by the first author and other colleagues as well as published word lists by other authors. In particular, data of the two Khroskyabs varieties were collected by the first author from 2011 to 2016. Cognate identification is based on the authors' expertise in Rgyalrong historical linguistics through application of the comparative method. We curated the data by conducting phonemic segmentation and partial cognate annotation. The data sets can be used by historical linguists interested in the etymology and the phylogeny of the languages in question, and they can use them to answer questions regarding individual word histories or the subgrouping of languages in this important branch of Sino-Tibetan.

Singin’ in the Night

Abstract Starting from present-day German Nachtigall ‘nightingale’, which shows an uncommon and unexpected i-linker, this article provides a morphological analysis of the word and its cognates. Through the frame of historical linguistics, and in particular the historical phonology and morphology of Proto-Germanic, it can be shown that Nachtigall and its Germanic cognates witness a relic word-formation that can be traced back to a delocatival compound in Proto-Indo-European. Comparative evidence allows for just such an etymology within poetic phraseology as well.

Historische Korpora in sprachhistorisch orientierter germanistischer Hochschullehre

AbstractThis paper argues for incorporating corpus data into the teaching of historical linguistics. While deeply annotated historical corpora are becoming available and corpus data is already widely used to answer various research questions, corpora are as yet rarely used in teaching. We believe they are ideally suited to make the variation in historical data transparent and help students to explore contexts and parameters. In our first study, we show how the KaJuK corpus and its more elaborated version, the GiesKaNe corpus, can be exploited to study adverbial sentences. Using the RIDGES corpus, the second study deals with phrasal and lexical development. Both studies focus on explaining the method and its extension to other corpora and research questions.