MODULE TWO

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION

Historical linguistics is concerned with both the description and explanation of language change. Historical linguistics is the branch of linguistics which studies language change. This is the branch of linguistics which deals with tracing the language history. Historical linguistics is basically the branch of linguistics that deals with how language change, what kinds of changes occur and why do they occur.Historical linguistics (diachronic linguistics) is concerned with the historical development of languages. The study of the changes in the pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary between the Anglo-Saxon times and the present day English can be described as diachronic linguistics. The term diachronic was coined by F. de Saussure (1857-1913) in his cours de linguistique generale

COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS

This is the branch of linguistics which deals with the comparison of languages in order to establish their relationship. This is the branch of linguistics that deals with language change by comparing closely related languages so as to trace their origin. Comparative linguistics is applied in studying African languages since most of these languages are undocumented. Comparative linguistics can be viewed either as the comparison of languages by the comparative method (comparing languages over time) or as the comparison of languages for whatever purpose whether for genetic classification or for typological classification.GOALS OF HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS

i. It is mainly concerned with the study of languages as they develop over time. It provides information about the past history of languages and language groups.

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ii. It studies language groups and compare two or more related languages. At the level of language, historical linguists normally compare dialects from a linguist point of view.

iii. It deals with the evolutionary creation and development of related languages which can be reflected in different ways. It means in the past they were one language and later they were distinguished.

THE MAIN CONCERNS OF HISTORICAL LINGUISTICSi. To describe and account for the observed changes in

particular languagesii. To reconstruct the pre-history of languages and

determine their relatedness and grouping them into language families

iii. To develop general theories about how and why language changes

iv. To describe the history of speech communitiesv. To study the history of words i.e. etymology

GENERAL QUESTIONS IN HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICSi. Why do languages change?ii. How do languages change?iii. What is the nature and direction of language

change?iv. What types of changes can occur in the languages?v. Which languages are genetically related?vi. What is nature and extent of the relationship

between languages of a genetic group?vii. What is the nature, direction and impacts of the

internal linguistic change of individual languages?viii. How do languages influence one another?

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ix. How regular are the changes and how have they affected the internal linguistic system of the language?

LANGUAGE CHANGEAll languages undergo change over time. English has undergone continuous and dramatic change throughout its three major periods.

Old English ( roughly from 450 to 1100) Middle English ( from 1100 to 1500) Modern English ( from 1500 to the present)CAUSES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE

The inevitability of language change is guaranteed by the way in which language is handed down from one generation to the next. Children do not begin with an intact grammar of the language being acquired but rather must construct a grammar on the basis of the available data CAUSES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE

i. ARTICULATORY SIMPLIFICATION: since sound changes typically result in Articulatory simplification, they have traditionally been related to the idea of ease of articulation. Although this notion is difficult to define precisely, we can readily identify cases of Articulatory simplification in our everyday speech such as the deletion of a consonant in a consonant cluster

ii.LANGUAGE CONTACT: This is the situation in which groups of speakers of different languages come into contact. This situation includes cases of bilingualism, contiguous languages and multilingualism. In such kinds of cases, language change occurs through mutual influences of the

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languages. The types of languages influences can be categorized as follows;

Superstratum influence: This refers to an influence from a dominant language to a less prestigious language. The influence of a more politically or culturally dominant language on a less dominant language (.e.g. the influence of the English language on the native speech of former colonial territories like India. A superstrate language is a dominant language which exerts its influence on a less prestigious language.

Substratum influence: the influence of a less politically or culturally language on a more dominant language (e.g. the influence of the speech of the indigenous population in a colonial country on the language of the conquering power. A substrate language is a less prestigious language which exerts its influence on a dominant and more prestigious language.

Adstratum influence: This refers to a two-kind of influence of two languages that have equal status. Adstrate languages are Languages which have equal status that are influencing one another. The example of Adstratum influence is in Montreal province in Canada where English and French are influencing each other.

iii. IMPERFECTIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING: Children tend to acquire the rules and elements of language and tend to overgeneralize them even to the situations in which they do not apply thereby causing language change. These kinds of changes may spread from the children to the adult speakers of language e.g. children may overgeneralize the rules of forming or deriving agent

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nouns in English such as sing-singer, teach-teacher and bore-borer

iv. THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW MATERIALS IN THE SOCIETY: Normally the introduction of new materials in the society leads to language change. Normally material innovation leads to linguistic innovation, particularly lexical innovation which refers to the invention of a totally new word which was not in the language before. Material innovation is largely attributed by the advancement of science and technology. In Swahili, words like kikokotozi, runinga, kiyoyozi, , kiotomotela, nywila and tovuti are the words which were introduced in the language following the advancement of science and technology.

v. ANALOGY: This is the case of overregularization. In historical linguistics, the term is used in connection with the tendency for irregular forms to become regular. For instance, shape and shove have their past tenses shaped and shoved. In the 14th century, their past tenses were shoop and shofe and their past participles were shaped and shoved , in the 14th c were shopen and shoven respectively. Analogy involves the inference that if two elements are alike in some respects (they are both nouns, say), they should be alike in others as well. The development of the plural ending in English has been heavily influenced by analogy. In Old English, nouns belonged to different classes, each with its own way of expressing the plural. The plural of hand, for example, was handa, the plural of Stan ‘stone’ was ‘stanas’ while the plural of gear ‘year’ was identical to the singular. Eventually, the the suffix ‘es’ became dominant. At this point, analogy took over and speakers of English began to associate the suffix ‘es’ with the plural in all but a small class of cases ( such as oxen, men and so on). This led to

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the use of hands as the plural of hand and years as the plural of year.

vi. COINING NEW WORDS FOR THE EXISTING CONCEPTS: This is particularly the case for slangs. Slangs is a variety of language which is characterized by newly formed words and rapidly changing vocabulary. Slangs normally start from a small group but may spread to the other members of the society. These words may face acceptance or rejection in the society. If they will be accepted, they will become added lexical items of that language hence contributing to language change. Swahili slangs include words like buku, jero, mizinguo, magumashi,demu, mshiko, mishemishe, mchongo, sepa, mavumba, shori and shosti

vii. INTERNAL BORROWING: This is the tendency of taking words in the same language and assigning new meanings to them. For example, the word, Kinyonga to mean someone who do not have a firm stand.

viii. SPELLING PRONUNCIATION: A minor but nevertheless important source of change in English and other languages is spelling pronunciation. Spelling pronunciation is a source of change whereby a new pronunciation arises that reflects more closely the spelling of a word. For instance, the word often pronounced as [ɒftən] rather than [ɒfən]. Since the letter was retained in the spelling, [t] has been reintroduced into many speakers’ pronunciation of this word often.

ix. REANALYSIS: This is particularly common in morphological change. Morphological reanalysis often involves an attempt to attribute a compound or root + affix structure to a word that formerly was not broken down into component morphemes. A classic example in English is the word hamburger which originally referred to a type of meat patty deriving its name from the city of

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Hamburg in Germany. This word has been reanalyzed as consisting of two components, ham+ burger. The latter morpheme has since appeared in many new forms including fishburger, chickenburger, and veggieburger and as a free morpheme burger.

x. FOLK ETYMOLOGY: Sometimes change originates in the misanalysis of a word by speakers of a language. Typically, this misanalysis reflects the confusion of forms that are phonetically and/or semantically similar. The word shamefaced, for instance, was originally ‘shamefast’ (from old English sceamfæst ‘bound by shame’ ). As the use of the morpheme fast to mean bound became less frequent, the second syllable was reinterpreted as the phonetically similar faced to retain its meaningfulness in this compound. Such misinterpretation is known as FOLK ETYMOLOGY.FOLK ETYMOLOGY

belfry From (middle English) berfrey ‘tower’

bell

bridegroom

From (middle English) bride gome from Old English bryd ‘bride’ and guma ‘ man’

(Unrelated to groom)

muskrat From Algonguian Musquash (unrelated to either musk or rat

SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS FOR LANGUAGE CHANGE/SOCIAL FACTORS FOR LANGUAGE CHANGEThere are also factors triggering language change, for example, the existence of taboo words and euphemisms. Taboo words refer to things which we do not mention in public and euphemisms are more pleasant expressions used instead of taboo words. Taboo words refer to words which have been prohited by the members of a particular

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community to be mentioned in public. Taboo words are associated with certain dirtiness, offensiveness and obscenity. The language does not eliminate or delete the taboo words but because people are afraid of using them, euphemisms have to replace them. Taboo words refer to death, toilet, bodily processes such as the excretory processes, parts of the body, sexual intercourse. The euphemisms for toilet are washroom, dressing room, restroom, bathroom, lavatory, W.C, latrine. After a while, even these euphemisms become tabooed expressions. In Swahili, the word, choo has the following euphemisms msalani, maliwatoni, uani. The taboo words may disappear following their disuse or limited use hence causing language change.RELATIONSHIP: language change can be triggered by the change of the social relationship of the people. This includes issues of gender equality, age, and kinship. For instance, in the past, the English pronoun he was used to refer to everybody no matter whether one was male or female but nowadays there is he/she and she is used to refer to people belonging to the feminine gender and he is used to refer to people of the masculine gender. In Swahili, there are also expressions which are used to refer to people of different ages such as baba, baba mdogo, baba mkubwa. This is also an instance of language change.IDENTITY: Speakers may consciously or unconsciously alter the way they speak to approximate what they perceive to be a more prestigious or socially acceptable variety of speech. There can be cultural identity and social identity. Social identity has something to do with whom do you want to identify with. A small group of speakers joining a large group may seek to identify themselves with the speakers of a dominant group. These people may start

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to cope with some linguistic elements of a more prestigious language while abandoning some elements of their language. This tendency is an instance of language change. This kind of an attempt of the speakers of a minority language to seek identification with the members of the dominant group may lead the speakers of a minority language abandoning their language completely and adopting the language of a more prestigious group. This phenomenon is known as language shift.What is language shift?This is the transfer by a group of speakers to another language and their abandonment of their native language.HOMONYMIC CLASH.( HAYA: Manna and manu). Lexical items having the same shape or form or name or pronunciation and spelling. If one word is a taboo word then all other words will be taboo words and will be completely abandoned. Thus the word manna is a taboo word in Haya language.

TYPES OF LANGUAGE CHANGEPHONOLOGICAL CHANGEThis is the change of the phonemes. This is the commonest type of linguistic changeTYPES OF PHONOLOGICAL CHANGESConditioned sound changesUnconditioned sound changesConditioned sound changes

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A conditioned sound change is a type of sound change that occurs under the influence of nearby sounds or adjacent sounds. This is a type of sound change which is triggered by a certain phonological reason.EXAMPLESi. ASSIMILATION: Refers to a type of sound change in

which one sound is made to be like another sound. Old English, voiceless fricatives became voiced when they occurred between voiced sounds. Example: wulfas> wulvas wolves.

LEVELS OF ASSIMILATIONPartial assimilation e.g. in RuhayaTotal assimilation e.g. Ganda law or meinhof’s lawLatin ItalianOcto otto eightSeptem sette seven

TYPES OF ASSIMILATIONa. PROGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION: This is a type of

assimilation in which a sound is influenced in its articulation by the preceding sound.

b. REGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION: This is a type of assimilation in which a sound is influenced in its articulation by the following sound. This type of sound change is also known as anticipatory assimilation.

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c. COALESCENT ASSIMILATION: This is a type of assimilation which is a two-way influence in the sense that two sounds influence one another.

ii. DISSIMILATION: This is a type of sound change in which a sound is made to be less like another sound. The English word fifth which ends with two consecutive voiceless fricatives [f] and[ɵ] has undergone dissimilation in some varieties whereby the second fricative has been replaced by a voiceless stop [t] giving rise to the pronunciation [fift]’

iii.DELETION: This is the process by which a sound segment of some underlying structure is omitted from the surface structure. Culumbus from[kəlʌmbəs] >[klʌmbəs]

iv. INSERTION: This refers to a phonological process by which a sound segment not present in the phonemic form (underlying form) is added in the phonetic form.the insertion of a vowel into a consonant cluster in the word athlete [æɵlit] >[æɵəlit]

UNCONDITIONED SOUND CHANGES: These are a kind of sound changes which are not triggered by any phonological reasons for their occurrences. These are the sound changes which occur without any influences from the adjacent sounds or neighbouring sounds.

i. MONOPHTHONGIZATION: This refers to a change from a diphthong (a complex vowel sound) consisting of a vowel and a glide to a simple vowel sound. There was monophthongization at the beginning of the modern English period in which case the diphthong [iw]

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changed to a monophthong [u] in words like new [nju:], due [dju:] and rule [rul]

ii. DIPHTHONGIZATION: This refers to a change from a simple vowel sound to a complex one( consisting of a vowel followed by a glide). In the middle English period, the long high front vowel [i] became a diphthong [ay] as in ice [ays] from ice [is]. Furthermore, the high back vowel [u] changed to [aw] hence a house [hus] of Old English changed to house [haws] in modern English.

iii. METATHESIS: Refers to a transposition of neighbouring sounds. It involves the change in the order of adjacent sounds. Metathesis in Old English: wæps >wæsp wasp Pridda >pirdda third Tasfida >tafsida Ask > æks

LENITION: This is a sound change which results into a sound becoming less strong. The following are the sound changes under lenition. Lenition is a kind of sound change in which the resulting sound after the change is conceived of as somehow weaker in articulation than the original sound.

i. FRICATIVIZATION/ FRICATION: This refers to a change from a stop to a fricative. Fricativization can be represented as follows;b >vp >f It is basically a change of a sound into a fricative. Examples *budi >mbuzi, * kadi woman > haya mukazi, ruri mugasi, and * kupa bone> igufa(zinza), igufa( hangaza), ighua( gweno), riguha ( ikizu)

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ii.DEGEMINATION: This is the process of removing geminate consonants. Gemination is the formation of double consonants. E.g. there is degemination as in the following examples kuggula> kugula

iii. GLIDING: this is the process of forming glides from other sounds. There can be some intermediate stages. Examples. b>w, v >w, h >j

iv. VOICING: This is a change of a sound from a voiceless sound to a voiced sound. You need more energy to produce a voiceless sound and you need or use less energy when you produce a voiced sound. Thus we normally make a distinction between the lenis consonants or weak consonants which are made with less muscular energy and less breathforce than their voiceless counterparts. In English, examples of the lenis consonants are the voiced plosives and fricatives. /b/, /d/, /D/. Fortis consonants are the consonants which involves a greater muscular energy and breathforce than their voiced counterparts during their production. Examples of fortis consonants are /p/, /t/, /T/. Voicing has the following typical examples: latin ( scopa > escoba ( Spanish) broom, natare > nadir to swim and amika(Latin) > amiga female friend.

v. DELETION: This is an extreme case of weakening in which you weaken until you remain with nothing. h>o kupa > ighua

GENERAL KINDS OF SOUND CHANGESi. APHAERESIS: This refers to the deletion of the initial

sound. This is the process of dropping initial sound segments. Aphaeresis can be exemplified by the following examples of words.

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Cneo> knee >/ni:/ and knife / cnæf / > /nʌif/ There are examples like those of unpronounced initial consonants in modern English in words like gnat, knight, psyche and knee.

ii. SYNCOPE: This refers to a deletion of sound at the middle of a word. There is an example of fabulare > habler ‘to speak’. In this there is also a change of[f] > [h]. This is basically the loss of word medial vowels. Such cases of deleting a vowel normally lead to consonant cluster hence complicating things rather than simplifying them. In the above example, the vowel [u] is deleted and not a consonant. Syncope (Syncopation) is basically the process of shortening a word by dropping interior sounds particularly vowels, usually so that a syllable is lost. The loss of the medial syllable in Gloucester /glostə/ Salisbury /so:lzbəri/.

iii. APOCOPE: This is the process of sound change in which the final sound mainly the vowel is deleted or lost. This is the loss of the word-final vowel. In middle English, name/na:mə/ changed into /neym/ in modern English. In Spanish language, normally the schwa vowel is deleted and also the short vowel . There were changes like pane> pan ‘breed’, sole > sol ‘sun’. There are also changes from Old English to modern English as follows; sticca > stick, sunu > son, mona > moon. Apocope refers to the omission of a sound at the end of a word. In English, this happened historically in words such as lamb and damn. It currently occurs in words in rapid or colloquial speed. The examples for this tendency are such as you and me, cup of tea fish and chips.

iv. HAPLOLOGY: This refers to the reduction of the sequence of sounds. This happens in a case where

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there is a sequence of closely related or similar syllables or two identical syllables or those syllables with some kind of a close similarity in which case one has to be deleted or dropped. Library/laibri/, probably/probli/

v. ANAPTYXIS: This refers to the insertion of a sound normally a vowel between two consonants to break up a consonant cluster. There are changes of this nature in Japanese and such changes are such as club> kurabu, strike> suturaiku, necktie > nekutai

vi. PROTHESIS: This is a word initial epenthesis. This refers to the insertion of asound normally a vowel at the beginning of a word. This is the kind of epenthesis in which a sound is inserted at the beginning of a word.LATIN skola ‘school’

Spanish: escuela Portuguese: escola

LATIN: skutu ‘shield’Spanish: escudo

vii. EXCRESCENCE: This refers to the insertion of a sound normally a consonant between two consonants.OE: Old English: Ty: mel > ME thimble /Timbl/OE:æmtig > empty

viii. METATHESIS: This is a change in the order of adjacent sounds. This is a change in which sounds exchange positions with one another within a word. This is the transposition of adjacent sounds. It is a process in which sounds exchange positions to one another.

ix. IMBRICATION: This is a type of sound change in which several sounds fuse together in a word hence ending up with new sounds.French:

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LEXICAL CHANGE. This refers to the changes in the lexicon, including the addition of new words and the loss of words. There are different words in which words can enter the language such as compounding, coinage,blending,backformations, acronymy, clipping, borrowing and derivation.i. COMPOUNDING: compound lexemes are derived from

two or more simple words such as black bird. Lazybones, green house, and infinity pool. Compounds behave syntactically like single words and are typically stressed differently from phrases, having stress on the first element rather than the second. Compounding is basically a process in which two or more different words are joined together to form a new word. Examples of compound words in English include waterfall, windmill, fingerprint, hard disk, hard drive, public house, moneylender, money supply, faith school, family tree.

ii. ACRONYMY: This is the process of forming new words by taking initial letters from the existing words. An acronym is a word which is formed through abbreviation. Acronyms seem to be more common with organizations like NATO, UNICEF,, CD, DVD,VCR,IBM,FBI,AIDS,HIV, CCTV( closed-circuit TV) CID(Criminal investigation department). There are other words like SMS ( Short message service), UNESCO and RADAR.

iii.CONVERSION: This is the process of assigning a word into more than one word class without attaching a derivational affix to it., For example, I want to swim or I want to go for a swim. In the first sentence swim

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has been used as a verb and in the second sentence swim has been used as a noun.

iv. COINAGE: This is the process of inventing or introducing totally new words into the language, It involves the introduction of new words which never existed in the language before. There are coined words in English such as asprin, Dacron, Xerox and thermos. Sometimes the products that the companies want to sell simply take over the name of the creator or inventor. In such kind of a situation, a new word is called an eponym. Some well- known eponyms include sandwich, hoover, and those words which name the units of measurement like Celsius, hertz, volt and so forth.

v. CLIPPING: This is the process of forming new words by shortening existing words. Clipping is characterized by shortening but in this process the element which is removed is not an affix, but part of the lexical item itself. Examples of words formed through clipping are porn from pornography, info from information, advert or ad from advertisement, flu from influenza,

vi. BLENDING: This is the process of forming new words by taking the parts of the existing words and merging them.. Blending is very similar to compounding, but it is characterized by taking only parts of words and joining them. Blends are words like camcorder, televangelist, edutainment, infomercial, alcopop, stagflation, brunch, spanglish, guesstimate, motel, telethon and smog.

vii. BORROWING: is the process of taking a word from one language and incorporating it into another language. English has been very absorbent and took over words from all over the world. Some of these loanwords include biology, boxer, ozone,-from

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German, jackal, kiosk, yogurt-from Turkish, pistol, robot-Czech, pork, beef, croissant and feast from French.

viii. BACKFORMATION: This is the process of forming new words through the removal of affixes from the existing words. The words which have been formed through backformation are like edit, typewrite from typewriter, peddle, hawk, donate, rejuvenate, resuscitate and resurrect.

ix. DERIVATION: This is the process of forming new words by attaching the derivational affixes to the existing words. Normally the derived words belong to a different word class from the baseAct-actorGenerate-generationArrive-arrivalSurvive-survivalPropose-proposalFinal-finalizeUgly-uglificationSome linguistic change first manifests itself in a few words and then gradually spreads through the vocabulary of the language. This type of change is called lexical diffusion.

MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGEAddition of affixesBorrowing has been a very important source of new affixes in English. For example, during the Middle English period, many French words containing the suffix –ment as in accomplishment, commencement made their way into the language. Eventually –ment established itself as as a productive suffix in English and was used with bases that were not of French

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origin (for example, acknowledgement, merriment). The ending –able which converts a verb into an adjective (for example, readable, recoverable, lovable) followed a similar pattern. Although words with this ending (for example, favorable, conceivable) were initially borrowed into English as whole units, eventually the suffix became productive and was used with new bases.Not all new affixes are the result of borrowing. Lexical forms can become grammatical forms over time through a process called Grammaticalization or grammaticization. In the case where two words are frequently adjacent, over time they can become fused together to form a single unit consisting of a base and an affix. Fusion refers to this specific type of Grammaticalization where words develop into affixes (either prefixes or suffixes).FUSIONWORD WORD BASE + AFFIX ( SUFFIXATION)WORD WORD AFFIX + BASE (PREFIXATION)

ENGLISH SUFFIXES RESULTING FROM FUSION

LOSS OF AFFIXESJust as affixes can be added to the grammar, they can also be lost. Sometimes affixes simply fall into disuse for no apparent reason. For example, a

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SUFFIX OLD ENGLISH WORD

MEANING

Hood(childhood)

had State, condition, rank

Dom (freedom)

dom Condition, power

number of Old English derivational affixes including –bære and –bora are no longer used.

AFFIXES NO LONGER USED IN ENGLISH

N+ bære A lust bære Pleasant, agreeableN+bora N mundabora protector

SYNTACTIC CHANGEAt the level of syntax, the amount of change that languages undergo over a given stretch of time varies tremendously, both from language to language and within the history of a single language. For example, when compared the syntax of English to that of Japanese, English has changed enormously while Japanese has hardly changed at all. In Old English and Middle English, the inversion transformation involved in the transformation of yes-no questions could apply to all verbs, not just auxiliary verbs. This tendency could yield forms that would be unacceptable in modern English. The common word orders in Old English were like the following;SVOhe geseah pone mannhe saw the mannThis was the most common word order in unembedded clauses However when the clause began with an element such as pa, ‘then’, or ne ‘not’ the verb occurred in second position and preceded the subject.

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V S OPa sende se cyning pone discThen sent the king the dishAlthough this word order is still found in modern English, its use is very limited and subject to special restrictions, unlike the situation in Old English.In Old English, word order was freer because the case endings alone disclosed the thematic or meaning relations in a sentence. The syntactic rules of modern English permits less variation in word order. Additionally, MoE is an SVO language. OE was more of an SOV language, thus, the phrase structure rules that determine the word order of the basic sentences of the language changed in the history of English.The syntactic rules relating to the English negative construction also underwent a number of changes from OE to the present. In MoE, negation is expressed by adding not or do not, never or no.

Iam going I am goingI went I did not goI go to school I never go to schoolI want food I don’t want any food/I want no food.

In OE, the main negation element was ne. It usually occurred before the auxiliary verb or the verb. Also double negation was .possible and grammatical in OE.Another syntactic change in English affected the rule of comparative and superlative constructions. Today we form the comparative by adding the –er to the

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adjective or by inserting more before it; the superlative is formed by adding –est or by inserting most. In OE double comparative and superlative occurred which is ungrammatical today.*More cleverer, * more lower, *most shamefullest,* most cleverest

SEMANTIC CHANGEi. AMELIORATION: In amelioration, the meaning of

a word becomes more positive or favourable.word Old meaning New meaningknight boy A man of

honourable military rank

pretty Tricky, sly, cunning attractivegereza Prison, jail Chuo cha

mafunzoshangingi A prostitute A luxurious carkisiki A stack A strong man

ii. PEJORATION: In pejoration, the meaning of a word becomes less positive or it becomes negative or unfavourable.Silly happy/prosperous foolishWench girl wanton woman or prostituteMsanii an artist a cunning manMvua rainfall life imprisonmentNgoma drum HIV/AIDS

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Mkorogo a mixture of liquids cosmetics

iii. SEMANTIC BROADENING: In this type of semantic change, the meaning of a word becomes more inclusive than its earlier meaning. The meaning of a word becomes more general. This type of semantic change is also known as semantic widening or generalization..

Word Former meaning New meaningbird Small fowl Any feathered

vertebrate with a beakpicture Painted

representation A photo taken as a picture by using a camera

aunt Father’s sister Father’s or mother’s sister

barn A place to store barley

Any agricultural building

mboga Green vegetables Meat, fish, green vegetables

mama A female parent Any woman or wifendege A flying bird aeroplanemsomi elite Anyone who is studying

or who is in schoolmaji water Any alcoholic drinkmpendwa A beloved one A born again christiandog A hunting breed Any canineliquor fluid Alcoholic drinkvirtue manliness Goodness of character

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iv. SEMANTIC NARROWING: This is the process in which the meaning of a word becomes less general or less inclusive than its historically earlier meaning.

word Old meaning New meaninghound Any dog A hunting breedMete ( meat) Any type of food Flesh of an animaldisease Any unfavourable

stateAn illness

starve die Die of hungermwathirika Any person who

has been affected by a problem

An HIV/AIDS victim

bwia Put something in the mouth

Take in drugs

toboa To put a hole into something

Reveal a secret

fowl Any bird A domesticated bird

v. SEMANTIC WEAKENING: Given the propensity of human beings to exaggerate, it is not surprising that the weakening of meaning frequently occurs. For example, our word soon used to mean immediately but now simply means in the near future.

Word Old meaning New meaningcrucify Kill by nailing to a cross To cause painquell Kill, murder To put down, pacifywreak Avenge, punish To cause, inflict

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vi. SEMANTIC SHIFT: This is a process in which a word loses some aspects of its former meaning, taking on a partially new, but related meaning.

Word Old meaning New meaningimmoral Not customary unethicalbead prayer Prayer bead, beadkeketa Cut something with a

blunt knifeFemale genital mutilation

ndugu A blood related person

Any relative

mpenzi A beloved person A sexual intimate friend or a sexual partner

dada A female relative A woman of middle ages

kingunge

A name of a political leader

VIPs or political leader

demu Originally was a word referring to an old piece of cloth worn around the loins

Unmarried girl or a woman of middle ages

vii. BIFURCATION/SEMANTIC SPLITThese terms describes the change by which a word acquires another meaning that relates in some way to the original meaning. For instance, if you take the phrase pitch black in English, you will find that some people do not

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realize that the word pitch comes from the name of the very black substance like tar. These speakers of English might simply regard pitch in this example as meaning very or completely. If you were ever to hear anybody saying pitch yellow, pitch blue, then you would know that for those people, the original meaning of pitch has split into two quite different meanings.

LANGUAGE RECONSTRUCTIONSteps involved in reconstructing elements in a language.i. You should compare lexical items from the

languages which are assumed to be related,

ii. You should collect all relevant lexical items from all the languages that are assumed to be related.

iii. Identify any phonological or morphological principles involved in each language (e.g. prefixes, voicing, fricativization).

iv. Find the basic vocabulary and compare them. These core vocabulary include the parts of the human body.

v. Identify true cognates across the languages.

vi. Identify related sounds for all the cognates ( sound correspondence).

vii. Establish the nature and direction of sound change.

viii. Reconstruct the relevant sounds

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ix. Reconstruct the relevant proto-roots/proto-stems/proto-words/proto-forms.

DETERMINING SOUND CORRESPONDENCEDetermine the sound correspondence that exist between sounds in the same positions in the words in each cognate set.A B C[s] [s ] [s]

[i] [e] [i]

[z] [s] [z]

[a] [a] [a]

COMMON TYPES OF SOUND CHANGES Voiceless sounds become voiced between vowels

and before voiced consonants Stops become fricatives between vowels Consonants become palatalized before front

vowels. Consonants become voiceless at the ends of

words. Difficult consonant clusters are simplified. Difficult consonants are made easier. Oral vowels become nasalized before nasals. [h] deletes between vowels.

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LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATIONLanguage classification refers to the process of putting languages into groups. Language classification sometimes referred to as genetic or phylogenic classification involves putting together related languages into language families or language groups that can be presumed to have been derived historically from a common ancestor. For examples, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are closely related languages that have been grouped together into the Romance language group. Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic have been classified in a Semitic group.

REASONS FOR LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION/GOALS OF LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION

i. To know which languages share certain features.

ii. To group languages according to their relationships. In so doing, we get more related languages and the less related languages

iii. To trace the linguistic influences among languages. This is done in order to determine which languages have been influenced by other languages and which languages have influenced other languages.

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iv. To create a point of reference/referential point or utility point. This is an idea or fact or event that you already know which helps you to understand or make judgement about another situation. This is synonymous to a frame of reference or reference point.

TYPES OF LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION

i. GENEALOGICAL CLASSIFICATION: This is a genetic classification of languages which is based on language origin. It refers to the categorization of languages according to the ancestor from which they developed.

AIM: This is done so as to identify and describe the origin or genealogical development of a given set of related languages. Languages which are closely related will typically share a larger number of similarities.TECHNIQUES: This type of language classification uses the historical techniques. Basically, genetic classification categorizes languages according to their descent. Languages that developed historically from the same ancestor language are grouped together and are said to be genetically related. This ancestor language may be attested that is texts written in

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this language have been discovered or preserved as in the case of Latin or it may be a reconstructed, hypothetical proto-language for which no original texts exist.

ii. TYPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATIONThis is a type of language classification based on shared or common structural features that are not genetic features.AIM: To describe the structural similarities and dissimilarities existing between the languages.TECHNIQUES: It employs empirical approach. It means it involves field work, collection of data, analyzing the data and coming up with the findings or results. Basically, typological research groups together languages on the basis of similarities in their word order patterns, morphological structures or phonological systems. An important area of research within the study of linguistic typology involves the search for linguistic universals (structural features that occur in all or most human languages). Patterns that occur in all languages are called absolute universals whereas those traits that occur in most languages are known as universal tendencies.

GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGESa. GERMANIC LANGUAGES. These languages

include Swedish, English, German, Norwegian, Danish, Yiddish, Afrikaans, Frisian, dutch, and gothic

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b. ROMANCE LANGUAGES: This language family include Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romansch, Occitan, Catalan and Rumania.

c. SLAVIC LANGUAGES: This includes languages such as Lusatian, Macedonian, Serbo-croatian, Slovene, Bulgarian, Byelorussian, Russian, Polish, Czech and Ukrainian

d. CELTIC LANGUAGES: Irish, welsh, Bretone. HELLENIC LANGUAGES: Sanskrit, Greek,

Latin. The Hellenic branch of indo-European languages has only one living member which is Greek. All the Modern Greek dialects descended from the classical dialect known as Attic Greek.

f. INDO-IRANIAN LANGUAGES: Persian, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi Kurdish and Gujerati

g. BALTIC BRANCH: the Baltic branch contains only four surviving languages namely Latvian, Lithuanian, Albanian, and Armenian.

GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGESThe work of Joseph Greenberg

NIGER CONGO e.g. Gogo, zigula and zaramo

AFRO-ASIATIC e.g. golwa, mbugu, and iraqw

NILO-SAHARAN e.g. maasai, berbeig, datooga, luo

KHOISAN e.g. sandawe, hadzabe

NIGER CONGO LANGUAGESMost of the languages spoken in sub- Saharan Africa belong to the Niger-Congo

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family of languages. In all, this family contains over 900 languages with a total of approximately a hundred and eighty million speakers.NINE MAJOR SUB-FAMILIES OF THE NIGER-CONGO LANGUAGE FAMILY

Kordofanian: koalib, katla Atlantic: Fula, Wolof, Temne, Drola,

Manjanku, Dogon Ijoid: Ijo, Defaka Mande: Bambara, mende and

Maninka Gur: moore, Dagaari Kwa: twi, Fante, Ewe Adamawa-Ubangi: Banda, Ngbandi,

Ngbaka and Zande Benue-Congo: Yoruba, Igbo, Efik,

Bemba, Kongo, Ganda, Swahili, Shona, Xhosa, Zulu

Kru: Grebo, Guere, Bassa Klao

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