Table Of ContentTrask’s Historical Linguistics
Trask’s Historical Linguistics, Third Edition, is an accessible introduction to historical
linguistics – the study of language change over time. This engaging book is illustrated with
language examples from all six continents, and covers the fundamental concepts of language
change, methods for historical linguistics, linguistic reconstruction, sociolinguistic aspects
of language change, language contact, the birth and death of languages, language and
prehistory and the issue of very remote relations.
This third edition of the renowned Trask’s Historical Linguistics is fully revised and
updated and covers the most recent developments in historical linguistics, including:
(cid:1) more detail on morphological change including cutting-edge discussions of iconization
(cid:1) coverage of recent developments in sociolinguistic explanations of variation and change
(cid:1) new case studies focusing on Germanic languages and American and New Zealand
English, and updated exercises covering each of the topics within the book
(cid:1) a brand new companion website featuring material for both professors and students,
including discussion questions and exercises as well as discussions of the exercises
within the book.
Trask’s Historical Linguistics is essential reading for all students of language, linguistics
and related disciplines.
The accompanying website can be found at www.routledge.com/cw/trask
Robert McColl Millar is Professor in Linguistics and Scottish Language at the University
of Aberdeen. His most recent books include English Historical Sociolinguistics (2012)
and (with William Barras and Lisa Marie Bonnici) Lexical Variation and Attrition in the
Scottish Fishing Communities (2014).
Larry Trask was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex and an authority on
Basque language and historical linguistics.
‘Trask’s Historical Linguistics is a jewel among textbooks of Historical Linguistics: it brings
to life the intriguing paths on which human languages have wandered in their development,
and sparks the enthusiasm of the reader to explore and study them, providing the necessary
toolkit and background knowledge.’
Robert Mailhammer, University of Western Sydney, Australia
‘Larry Trask’s Historical Linguistics is an exemplary introduction to the fi eld, and McColl
Millar’s third edition is a much needed update: the new case studies and exercises are
superb, and the revised reading suggestions extremely helpful.’
Adrian Pablé, University of Hong Kong
‘This new edition of Trask’s Historical Linguistics by Robert McColl Millar provides a
thorough introduction to the fi eld in the broadest sense while remaining accessible to stu-
dents and specialists alike. Truly a useful book.’
Garry Davis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
‘This revised and expanded edition of Trask’s seminal work will make welcome reading
for scholars and students alike.’
Raymond Hickey, University of Duisburg and Essen, Germany
‘Accessible but not simplifi ed, entertaining but not simplistic, this book provides thorough
coverage of the fi eld with a richness of explanation and examples that offers at the same
time a synthetic overview and a wealth of data and detail. The new companion website
promises to enhance its value as a textbook for the classroom and the independent learner.’
Mark Richard Lauersdorf, University of Kentucky, USA
Trask’s Historical Linguistics
3rd Edition
Edited by
Robert McColl Millar
Third edition published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Robert McColl Millar and Larry Trask
The right of Robert McColl Millar and the late Larry Trask to be identifi ed as authors of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published as Historical Linguistics by Arnold 1996
Second edition published by Hodder Education 2007
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Trask’s historical linguistics. – Third Edition. / edited by Robert McColl Millar.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Trask’s Historical linguistics / R.L. Trask. London : Arnold, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Historical linguistics. 2. Comparative linguistics. I. Millar, Robert McColl, 1966- II. Trask, R. L.
(Robert Lawrence), 1944–2004. Historical linguistics. III. Title.
P140.T74 2015
417’.7–dc23
2014031176
ISBN: 978-0-415-70657-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-70658-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-72805-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
Additional materials are available on the companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/trask
Contents
List of illustrations ix
To the reader xii
To the teacher xiv
Acknowledgements xvi
Abbreviations xviii
1 The fact of language change 1
1.1 Chilled 1
1.2 English then and now 2
1.3 Attitudes to language change 6
1.4 The inevitability of change 10
Case study: bonk! 11
Further reading 13
Exercises 14
2 Lexical and semantic change 16
2.1 Borrowing 16
2.2 Phonological treatment of loans 21
2.3 Morphological treatment of loans 24
2.4 Formation of new words 26
2.5 Change in word-meaning 32
Case study: nice 41
Further reading 44
Exercises 44
3 Phonological change I: change in pronunciation 48
3.1 The phonetic basis of phonological change 48
3.2 Assimilation and dissimilation 49
3.3 Lenition and fortition 51
3.4 Addition and removal of phonetic features 55
vi Contents
3.5 Vowels and syllable structure 57
3.6 Whole-segment processes 60
3.7 The regularity issue: a fi rst look 62
Case study: Germanic */xw/ in the present-day dialects 63
3.8 Summary 66
Further reading 66
Exercises 67
4 Phonological change II: change in phonological systems 71
4.1 Conditioning and rephonologization 71
4.2 Phonological space 75
4.3 Chain shifts 78
4.4 Phonological change as rule change 83
Case study: the Germanic consonant system: ‘Grimm’s Law’ and
‘Verner’s Law’ 87
4.5 Summary 90
Further reading 91
Exercises 91
5 Morphological change 96
5.1 Reanalysis 96
5.2 Analogy and levelling 99
5.3 Universal principles of analogy 104
5.4 Morphologization 107
5.5 Morphologization of phonological rules 109
5.6 Change in morphological type 115
Case study: the development of the defi nite article from the
demonstrative paradigm in English 118
Further reading 122
Exercises 122
6 Syntactic change 126
6.1 Reanalysis of surface structure 126
6.2 Shift of markedness 131
6.3 Grammaticalization 134
6.4 Typological harmony 137
6.5 Syntactic change as restructuring of grammars 140
Case study: the rise of ergativity 143
Further reading 148
Exercises 149
Contents vii
7 Relatedness between languages 154
7.1 The origin of dialects 154
7.2 Dialect geography 158
7.3 Genetic relationships 164
7.4 Tree model and wave model 169
7.5 The language families of the world 174
Case study: a Martian’s eye view on the Germanic language family 180
Further reading 184
Exercises 185
8 The comparative method 191
8.1 Systematic correspondences 191
8.2 Comparative reconstruction 195
8.3 Pitfalls and limitations 203
8.4 The Neogrammarian Hypothesis 209
8.5 Semantic reconstruction 210
8.6 The use of typology and universals 213
8.7 Reconstructing grammar 217
8.8 The reality of proto-languages 219
Case study: a reconstruction too far? 220
Further reading 227
Exercises 228
9 Internal reconstruction 234
9.1 A fi rst look at the internal method 234
9.2 Alternations and internal reconstruction 238
9.3 Internal reconstruction of grammar and lexicon 240
Case study: the laryngeal theory of PIE 243
Further reading 246
Exercises 247
10 The origin and propagation of change 250
10.1 The Saussurean paradox 250
10.2 Variation and social stratifi cation 251
10.3 Variation as the vehicle of change 257
10.4 Lexical diffusion 271
10.5 Near-mergers 275
Case study: historical sociolinguistics 278
10.6 A closing note 282
Further reading 284
Exercises 285
viii Contents
11 Social and historical pressures upon language 291
11.1 Linguistic contact 291
11.2 Linguistic areas 303
11.3 Language birth: pidgins and creoles 304
11.4 Language planning 311
11.5 Language death 319
Case study: the genesis and development of American and
New Zealand English 326
Further reading 335
Exercises 336
12 Language and prehistory 343
12.1 Introduction 343
12.2 Linguistic palaeontology 343
12.3 Links with archaeology 345
12.4 Statistical methods 350
Case study: Greenberg’s mass comparison 359
Further reading 365
Exercises 365
Appendix: the Swadesh 200-word list 370
Bibliography 372
Index 386
Illustrations
Figures
4.1 Primary split 73
4.2 The phoneme system of Modern Greek 76
4.3 The English Great Vowel Shift 79
4.4 The history of the Greek vowel system 81
6.1 A Mojave copular sentence 129
7.1 The past tense of dive in the eastern USA (Atwood 1953: Figure 6) 160
7.2 The past tense of see in England (Upton et al. 1987: map 139) 161
7.3 An isogloss bundle in France (Chambers and Trudgill 1980: map 7.6) 162
7.4 The major dialect areas of England (Trudgill 1999: map 9) 163
7.5 The dialect areas of the eastern USA (Kurath and McDavid 1961: map 2) 164
7.6 The Germanic family tree 170
7.7 The Indo-European family tree 171
7.8 A wave diagram of the Germanic family (developed from Robinson 1992) 173
7.9 A Martian Germanic family tree 183
7.10 The local words for ‘young dog’ in England (Upton et al. 1987) 187
7.11 Part of the us/uns isogloss boundary 188
7.12 French words for ‘mare’ (Dauzat 1922) 189
7.13 Uvular /r/ in Western Europe 190
10.1 The variable (ng) in Norwich (adapted from Trudgill 1974) 259
10.2 The variable (r) in New York City (adapted from Labov 1972) 259
10.3 (th) in Belfast (adapted from Milroy 1987) 266
10.4 Multiple negation in early Modern English 1 (adapted from Nevalainen
and Raumolin-Brunberg 2003: 72) 281
10.5 The S-curve 281
10.6 Multiple negation in Early Modern English (adapted from Nevalainen
and Raumolin-Brunberg 2003: 146) 282
10.7 Four New York vowel systems (Labov 1994: 203) 287
10.8 Spanish ch in Panama City (adapted from Cedergren 1973, 1984 and
Labov 1994) 288
11.1 Sasse’s model of language shift (Sasse 1992: 19) 322
12.1 Proposals for the Indo-European homeland 346
12.2 A nomograph of the Lees equation 354
12.3 A revised tree for Indo-European 357
