Week 2: Linguistic Genetic Relationships

Question 1

Protolanguage

Answer 1

A hypothetical lost parent language from which actual languages derived.

Question 2

What is an example of a protolanguage?

Answer 2

Latin, which was split up into multiple daughter languages.

Question 3

How does a language split occur?

Answer 3

1. A language (e.g. Latin) was spoken in a very large area (local dialectal differences).
2. Differences between dialects grow and because of this they were no longer mutually intelligible.
3. These dialects became different languages, thus language split.

Question 4

Substrate influence

Answer 4

The first language of speakers influenced their second language (Latin).

Question 5

An example of substrate influence

Answer 5

In France there was a Celtic substrate influence. The superstrate was Celtic and the substrate was Latin.

Question 6

How can a substrate influence be realised?

Answer 6

It can be realised in the vocabulary and sound shifts.

Question 7

Sound changes are…

Answer 7

Regular, thus sound laws can be made for these changes. It can disrupt the regularity of paradigm.

Question 8

Characteristics of a sound law

Answer 8

1. Geographically bound
2. Is productive throughout a certain timespan
3. Applies to a certain phonetic environment

Question 9

Notation of a sound law

Answer 9

A > B/C (sound A becomes sound B in environment C)

Question 10

Analogy

Answer 10

Creation of a word based on a model from elsewhere in the language.

1. It occurs unpredictably but restores the regularity of paradigms.
2. To apply a pattern on words where the pattern isn’t there yet.
3. Sometimes analogy cancels sound laws.
4. Frequently used words are less open to to analogy (e.g. the verb ‘to be’).

Question 11

Levelling

Answer 11

A form of analogy that finds its model within the same paradigm.

Dialect levelling is an overall reduction in the variation or diversity of features, accompanied by an increase in the similarities, between two or more dialects in contact with each other.

Question 12

How did Latin influence local dialects?

Answer 12

Latin was spoken in a large area, leading to the development of local dialects, which grew increasingly different until they became distinct languages.

Question 13

What happens when dialects of a language become mutually unintelligible?

Answer 13

When dialects become mutually unintelligible, a language split occurs.

Question 14

Give an example of a word that is similar in languages of PIE

Answer 14

Italian: lingua
Spanish: lengua
Portuguese: língua
French: langue
Romanian: limba