Echoes from the Past: Terms Every Historical Linguist Should Know
Tracing the Roots of Language:
Historical Linguistics: Key Concepts, Methods, and Important Terms
1. Comparative Method
A technique used to reconstruct proto-languages by comparing systematic sound correspondences across related languages.
*E.g., Latin “pater,” Sanskrit “pitṛ,” English “father” → Proto-Indo-European pəter
2. Sound Correspondence
A regular phonological relationship between cognates in different languages.
E.g., Latin /f/ often corresponds to Greek /ph/ and Sanskrit /bh/
3. Grimm’s Law
A set of systematic consonant shifts explaining sound change from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.
E.g., /p/ → /f/, /t/ → /θ/, /k/ → /h/
4. Verner’s Law
A refinement of Grimm’s Law accounting for accent-conditioned exceptions in consonant shifts.
Explains why “father” and “pater” differ despite common ancestry.
5. Lexical Diffusion
Sound changes do not affect all words at once, but spread gradually through the lexicon.
A counter to the assumption of instantaneous change.
6. Analogy
A morphological leveling process where irregular forms become regular due to pressure from dominant patterns.
E.g., “helped” vs. “holp” → analogy favored “helped.”
7. Language Family
A group of languages descended from a common ancestral language.
E.g., Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan
8. Cognates
Words in different languages that have a common etymological origin.
E.g., “mother” (English), “mutter” (German), “mātar” (Sanskrit)
9. Reconstruction
The process of inferring the features of a proto-language that has left no written record.
Involves phonology, morphology, and sometimes syntax.
10. Proto-Language
A hypothetical ancestor of a language family, reconstructed through comparative analysis.
E.g., Proto-Indo-European (PIE)
11. Loanwords vs. Cognates
Loanwords are borrowed, while cognates are inherited.
“Cuisine” in English is a loan from French, not a cognate.
12. Isogloss
A geographical boundary marking the limits of a linguistic feature.
E.g., the Benrath Line separates High German from Low German dialects.
13. Linguistic Paleontology
Using linguistic evidence to reconstruct aspects of prehistoric culture (e.g., flora, fauna, technology).
E.g., PIE word for “snow” implies a cold homeland.
14. Chain Shift
A systematic change in a group of sounds, where the movement of one sound causes another to shift.
E.g., the Great Vowel Shift in English
15. Back-Formation
Creating a new word by removing an affix that was never actually there.
E.g., “editor” → “edit”
16. Internal Reconstruction
Reconstructing earlier stages of a single language based on irregular patterns within the language itself.
Useful when comparative data is lacking.
17. False Cognates
Words that look or sound alike across languages but have no historical connection.
E.g., English “much” and Spanish “mucho”
18. Glottochronology
An attempt to date language divergence based on the percentage of retained core vocabulary.
Now controversial due to assumptions of constant change rate.
19. Substratum Influence
The impact of a replaced or subordinate language on the dominant one.
E.g., influence of Celtic on English syntax.
20. Sprachbund (Linguistic Area)
A group of languages that share features due to long-term contact, not genetic relation.
E.g., the Balkan Sprachbund
