Flashcards

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1.	language contact	e.g. bilingual, learn less well, cause shifts. Borrow words and sound constructions from other languages.
2.	glottochronology	Rate of change in language similar to radioactive decay. Vocabulary decays ~ 14% each millennium. If related languages 70% similar, then protolanguage existed 12 centuries before... Higher percentage of cognates, then more recently the two split. Flaws: assume that decays at constant rate; word lists not comprehensive. Change arises from EVENTS, not regular.
3.	why language changes (4)	1. language learning 2. cultures meet (language contact) 3. social differentiation 4. changes due to natural use
4.	conditioned sound change	Sound changes only in specific situations, such as before certain consonants.
5.	comparative method	Difficult, requires advanced knowledge of grammar of each language. Try to reconstruct mother language through examining patterns that happen across the board to cognates.
6.	social differentiation	Higher class picks way to distinguish themselves (g-dropping). Vocabulary, pronunciation, ways of phrasing things...
7.	metathesis	spaghetti - pasghetti
8.	cognates	Words derived from the same mother word. flora/fleur
9.	source: internal change	comes from within a single linguistic community.
10.	prothesis	introduction of new sounds at the beginning. (scola, escola in Portugeuse)
11.	syncope	Loss of middle sounds. (Usually conditional). (Jessica, Tamara)
12.	source: external change	Contact between outside linguistic communities.
13.	natural usage	Easier to drop middle sounds (probably to probly) - some constructions stick and stay.
14.	epenthesis	Add sounds to the middle. (athlete, realtor)
15.	language learning	Learning as children, pick up differently.
16.	lexicostatistics	By Swadesh. Get lists of words, find cognate pairs, and match percentage to determine how related two languages are. Flaws? - Borrowing from other languages. - Low cognate percentages might be from chance, or brief interaction, and not descendance.
17.	apocope	Loss of ending sounds. (Usually conditional)
18.	language change like evolution	1. Certain grammar/constructions might be "easier" to learn, so it is the "fittest" to survive. Genetics mostly a tree form. Linguistics not really; languages can rejoin and come together again.
19.	unconditioned sound change	Occurs across the board. Hawaiian: changed all "t" to "k" (but there are still "t"s in related Islandic languages like Tahitian)
20.	other sound changes (6)	assimilation dissimilation haplology loss merger split
21.	Great Vowel Shift	Vowel sounds rotated in a big circle. e.g. he (pronounced not with "e" but with "i" sound - hee not heh). Chart. Middle English to Modern English.