Key Terms 2 Flashcards
Mutual Intelligibility
when speakers on average can understand each other
Asymmetric Mutual Intelligibility
when a speaker of one language understands a speaker of another language but not vice versa
Dialect continuum
gradual transition between two non-mutually intelligible varieties
Language Death
when the last native speaker of a language dies
Typological Classification
languages that share similar features
Genetic Classification
Languages that share a common ancestor
Absolute Universal
something that is true for all languages
Universal tendency
something that is usually true but not always true
Implicational universal
when something has to be true if something else to be true
Unmarked
linguistic structures or elements that are basic, easy to learn, and cross-linguistically expected
Marked
linguistic structures or elements that are complex, difficult to learn, and cross-linguistically rare
language family
group of related languages derived from the same ancestor
proto-language
ancestor of a language family
proto-indo-european
ancestor of indo-european language families (germanic –> english)
sound change
phonological change that was once active in the language
assimilation
when nearby segments become more similar
dissimilation
when nearby segments become less similar
lenition
consonant weakening
rhotacism
alveolar sibilants become rhotics
deletion
loss of a segment
epenthesis
insertion of a segment
metathesis
segments changing places
great english vowel shift
occurred at the boundary of Middle english and modern english
chain shift
a series of changes where the input of one change is the output of another
Grimm’s Law
Chain shift: PIE - proto-germanic
-voiceless stops –> voiceless fricatives
-voices stops –> voiceless stop
-breathy voiced stops–>voices stops
cognates
words derived from the same source
lexical
categories that transmit meaning
functional
categories that are requires by the grammar of the language
complementizers
that, if, whether
conjunctions
and, but, nor