This course covers the principles of language change and the methods of historical linguistics on an elementary level. The systematic regularity of change, the reasons for that regularity, and the exploitation of regularity in linguistic re-construction are especially emphasized. Examples are drawn from a wide variety of languages, both familiar and unfamiliar. Since there are no prerequisites, the course includes mini-introductions to articulatory phonetics, basic phonology (especially the principle of contrast), and basic morphology (especially inflection), all of which must be understood in order to understand the ways in which they change.
Tuesdays and Thursdays 15:00-16:30
Mcneil Building 286-7
| Instructor | Bill Poser | wjposer@babel.ling.upenn.edu |
| TA | Aaron Dinkin | dinkin@babel.ling.upenn.edu |
Reading for the course consists of a textbook, available at the bookstore, and a course pack that will be available the morning of January 20th at the Campus Copy on Walnut Street between 39th and 40th.
The textbook is:
Here is a table of contents of the course pack:
| Language Change: Some Basics [notes] | 1 |
| Some basic lexical items in mediaeval languages spoken in Britain [data] | 7 |
| Parallel paradigm "good, better, best" in some mediaeval languages of Western Europe [data] | 8 |
| Irregular comparison in some mediaeval Germanic languages [data] | 8 |
| The conventional division of the history of English into periods [notes] | 9 |
| How "mixed" is English, really? [paper] | 10 |
| The consonants of English [chapter] | 19 |
| The vowels of English [chapter] | 27 |
| Phonetic chart of English consonants [chart] | 34 |
| Phonetic of English vocalics [chart] | 35 |
| Consonant symbols [chart] | 37 |
| Vowel symbols [chart] | 39 |
| The International Phonetic Alphabet [chart] | 40 |
| Phonemicizing Data: A Demonstration Using Mari [problem] | 41 |
| Phonemic Analysis [chapter] | 43 |
| Short Phonemicization problems [problems] | 51 |
| Phonemicization problem: Zoque | 54 |
| Phonemicization problem: Nahuatl | 55 |
| Phonemicization problem: Hidatsa | 57 |
| Phonetic Change: Exercise 1 | 58 |
| Phonetic Change: Exercise 2 | 59 |
| Phonetic Change: Exercise 3 | 61 |
| Phonemic Change Exercise 1: Italian and Sardinian | 63 |
| Phonemic Change Exercise 2: Gothic | 65 |
| Extended Exercise in Sound Change | 67 |
| A Demonstration of the Comparative Method [notes] | 69 |
| Comparative Reconstruction Problem 1: Proto-Polynesian | 75 |
| Comparative Reconstruction Problem 2: | 79 |
| Comparative Reconstruction Problem 3: | 82 |
| Comparative Reconstruction Problem 4: Proto-Tocharian | 85 |
| The Social Motivation of a Sound Change [paper] | 88 |
| A Classification of the World's Major Languages [notes] | 107 |
People sometimes request additional reading. Here are some recommendations. Hock (1988) is a more advanced book, intended for graduate courses, emphasizing the formal aspect of language change. Thomason (2001) is a general introduction to language contact. For basic linguistic background, Sapir (1921) is a classic that is still arguably the best short introduction to linguistics.
Verner (1875) is the classic paper on the exceptionlessness of sound change. Hübschmann (1875) corrected the misclassification of Armenian as an Iranian language by identifying three sets of sound correspondances, two of which reflected loans from Iranian.
[Most of the exercises are in the course pack.]
| Problems | 20% |
| Midterm exam | 40% |
| Final exam | 40% |
Last modified: 2005/03/07.