Historical Linguistics TowardaTwenty-FirstCenturyReintegration Bringingtheadvancesoftheoreticallinguisticstothestudyoflanguage change in a systematic way, this innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics. Numerous case studies throughout the book show both that theoretical linguisticscanbeusedtosolveproblemswheretraditionalapproachesto historicallinguisticshavefailedtoproducesatisfyingresults,andthatthe resultsofhistoricalresearchcanhaveanimpactontheory.Thebookfirst explainsthenatureofhumanlanguageandthesourcesoflanguagechange inbroadterms.Itthenfocusesondifferenttypesoflanguagechangefrom contemporaryviewpoints,beforeexploringcomparativereconstruction– themostspectacularsuccessoftraditionalhistoricallinguistics–andthe problemsinherentintryingtodevisenewmethodsforlinguisticcompar- ison.Positionedatthecuttingedgeofthefield,thebookarguesthatthis approachcanandshouldleadtothereintegrationofhistoricallinguistics asoneofthecoreareasinthestudyoflanguage. don ringe isKahnTermProfessorinLinguisticsintheDepartmentof LinguisticsattheUniversityofPennsylvania. joseph f. eskaisProfessorofLinguisticsintheDepartmentofEnglish atVirginiaPolytechnicInstitute&StateUniversity. Historical Linguistics Toward a Twenty-First Century Reintegration DON RINGE AND JOSEPH F. ESKA cambridge university press Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown, Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity CambridgeUniversityPress TheEdinburghBuilding,CambridgeCB28RU,UK PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521587112 (cid:2)C DonRingeandJosephF.Eska2013 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2013 PrintedandBoundintheUnitedKingdombytheMPGBooksGroup AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Ringe,DonaldA.,1954– Historicallinguistics:towardatwenty-firstcenturyreintegration/DonRinge andJosephF.Eska. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-521-58332-9(hardback) 1.Historicallinguistics. 2.Linguisticchange. 3.Languageandlanguages–Variation. I.Eska,JosephF. II.Title. P142.R56 2012 417(cid:3).7–dc23 2012023182 ISBN978-0-521-58332-9Hardback ISBN978-0-521-58711-2Paperback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate. inmemoryofHenryHoenigswald Contents Listoffigures pageviii Listoftables ix Preface xii Acknowledgments xiv Introduction 1 1 Thenatureofhumanlanguageandlanguagevariation 7 2 Languagereplicationandlanguagechange 28 3 Languagechangeinthespeechcommunity 45 4 Languagecontactasasourceofchange 59 5 Soundchange 78 6 Theevolutionofphonologicalrules 105 7 Morphology 152 8 Morphologicalchange 167 9 Syntacticchange 212 10 Reconstruction 228 11 Beyondcomparativereconstruction:subgroupingand “long-distance”relationships 256 Appendix:Recoveringthepronunciationofdeadlanguages: typesofevidence 281 References 291 Generalindex 309 Indexoflanguagesandfamilies 312 vii Figures 5.1 Typicallenitionpathsoflong/t:/ page84 5.2 Gesturalscoreofthesyllable[ta] 86 5.3 Gesturalscoreofthesyllable[tha] 86 6.1 FirstassimilationofOldEnglishgædeling 106 6.2 SecondassimilationofOldEnglishgædeling 106 6.3 SecondcompensatorylengtheninginAncientGreek 109 6.4 EarlysouthernMiddleEnglishvowels 120 7.1 Syntacticstructureofthewordarrivals 159 8.1 Ionicdialect‘say’beforereanalysis 169 8.2 Ionicdialect‘say’afterreanalysis 169 8.3 Morphologicalstructureofmennessinthedialectofthe Orrmulum 176 viii