Contents
List of Tables xxi List of Figures xxiii List of Maps xxv How to Use This Book xxvii 1 Introduction 3 1.1 The Nature of Linguistic Relationships 3 1.2 How and Why Do Languages Change? 11 1.2.1 Anatomy and Ethnic Character 12 1.2.2 Climate and Geography 13 1.2.3 Substratum 13 1.2.4 Local Identification 14 1.2.5 Functional Need 15 1.2.6 Simplification 16 1.2.7 Structural Pressure 17 1.3 Attitudes to Language Change 18 2 Types of Sound Change 23 2.1 Lenition and Fortition 24 2.2 Sound Loss 26 2.2.1 Apheresis 27 2.2.2 Apocope 27 CONTENTS
2.2.3 Syncope 28 2.2.4 Cluster Reduction 28 2.2.5 Haplology 29 2.3 Sound Addition 29 2.3.1 Excrescence 30 2.3.2 Epenthesis or Anaptyxis 31 2.3.3 Prothesis 32 2.4 Metathesis 32 2.5 Fusion, Fission, and Breaking 33 2.5.1 Fusion 33 2.5.2 Unpacking or Fission 35 2.5.3 Vowel Breaking 36 2.6 Assimilation 36 2.7 Dissimilation 43 2.8 Tone Changes 45 2.9 Unusual Sound Changes 46
3 Expressing Sound Changes 55 3.1 Writing Rules 55 3.2 Ordering of Changes 58
4 Phonetic and Phonemic Change 65 4.1 Phonetic Change without Phonemic Change 66 4.2 Phonetic Change with Phonemic Change 67 4.2.1 Phonemic Loss 67 4.2.2 Phonemic Addition 68 4.2.3 Rephonemicization 69 4.3 Phonemic Change without Phonetic Change 73
5 The Comparative Method (1): Procedures 78 5.1 Sound Correspondences and Reconstruction 78 5.2 An Example of Reconstruction: Proto-Polynesian 79 5.2.1 Setting Out the Data 79 5.2.2 Finding the Cognates 81 5.2.3 Sound Correspondences 82 5.2.4 Reconstruction Principles 85 5.2.5 Residual Issues 93 5.3 Reconstruction of Conditioned Sound Changes 94 5.4 The Reality of Protolanguages 102
6 Determining Relatedness 108 6.1 Finding Families 108 6.2 Subgrouping 110 6.3 Shared Innovation and Shared Retention 111 6.4 Long-Distance Relationships 115 CONTENTS XVÜ
7 Internal Reconstruction 121 7.1 Using Synchronie Alternations 122 7.2 Internal Reconstruction and Indo-European Laryngeals 125 7.3 Limitations of Internal Reconstruction 127 7.4 Summary: Procedures for Internal Reconstruction 130 8 Computational and Statistical Methods 136 8.1 Distance-Based versus Innovation-Based Methods 136 8.2 Lexicostatistics 137 8.2.1 Basic Vocabulary 137 8.2.2 Subgrouping Levels 139 8.2.3 Applying the Method 139 8.3 Criticisms of Lexicostatistics and Glottochronology 149 8.4 Subgrouping Computational Methods from Biology 151 8.4.1 Inferring Correspondence Sets 151 8.4.2 Inferring Subgrouping 152 8.4.3 Some Definitions 153 8.4.4 Selecting Data and Coding Characters 155 8.4.5 Methods for Inferring Phylogenies 157 9 The Comparative Method (2): History and Challenges 162 9.1 Background: The Neogrammarians 163 9.2 Convergent Lexical Development 170 9.3 Nonphonetic Conditioning 171 9.4 The Wave Model and Lexical Diffusion 173 9.5 Dialect Chains and Nondiscrete Subgroups 179 10 Morphological Change 184 10.1 Changes in Morphological Structure 185 10.1.1 Allomorphic Change 185 10.1.2 Changes in Conditioning 186 10.1.3 Boundary Shifts 186 10.1.4 Doubling and Reinforcement 187 10.1.5 Change in Order of Morphemes 188 10.2 Analogy 189 10.2.1 Analogical Change by Meaning 190 10.2.2 Analogical Change by Form 191 10.2.3 Analogical Extension and Leveling 192 10.3 Doing Morphological Reconstruction 193 11 Semantic and Lexical Change 199 11.1 Basic Meaning Changes 200 11.1.1 Amelioration and Pejoration 200 11.1.2 Broadening 200 CONTENTS
11.1.3 Narrowing 200 11.1.4 Bifurcation 201 11.1.5 Shift 201 ' 11.2 Influences in Direction of Change 201 11.2.1 Metaphor 202 11.2.2 Euphemism 202 11.2.3 Hyperbole 202 11.2.4 Interference 203 11.2.5 Folk Etymology 203 11.2.6 Hypercorrection 204 11.3 Lexical1 Change 205 11.3.1 Borrowing 205 11.3.2 Internal Lexical Innovation 210 11.3.3 Shortening Words 210 11.4 Consequences of Borrowing and Irregular Lexical Change 212 11.4.1 Semantic Change 212 11.4.2 Borrowing and Copying 213
12 Syntactic Change 217 12.1 Studying Syntactic Change 217 12.2 Typology and Grammatical Change 218 12.2.1 Morphological Type 219 12.2.2 Accusative and Ergative Languages 226 12.2.3 Basic Constituent Order 229 12.2.4 Verb Chains and Serialization 232 12.3 Grammaticalization 233 12.3.1 Direction of Grammaticalization 237 12.3.2 Grammaticalization and Reconstruction 238 12.4 Mechanisms of Grammatical Change 239 12.4.1 Reanalysis 239 12.4.2 Analogy and Extension 240 12.4.3 Diffusion or Borrowing 241
13 Observing Language Change 246 13.1 Early Views 246 13.2 Indeterminacy 248 13.3 Variability 252 13.3.1 Class-Based Variation 254 13.3.2 Variation in Small Communities 257 13.4 The Spread of Change and Lexical Diffusion 258
14 Language Contact 264 14.1 Convergence 265 CONTENTS X¡>
14.2 Language Genesis: Pidgins and Creoles 273 14.2.1 Some Definitions 273 14.2.2 Case Study 1 : Tok Pisin 274 14.2.3 Case Study 2 : Motu 277 14.2.4 Research on Pidgins and Creoles 279 14.3 Mixed Languages 285 14.4 Esoterogeny and Exoterogeny 287 14.5 Language Death and Language Shift 288 14.5.1 Causes of Language Death 289 14.5.2 Young People's Varieties: Structure Change during Language Shift 290 14.5.3 Speed of Language Death 293
15 Cultural Reconstruction 299 15.1 Archaeology 299 15.2 Oral History 300 15.3 Comparative Culture 303 15.4 Historical Linguistics 305 15.4.1 Relative Sequence of Population Splits 306 15.4.2 The Nature of Cultural Contact 307 15.4.3 Sequences of Cultural Contact with Respect to Population Splits 309 15.4.4 The Content of a Culture 310 15.4.5 The Homeland of a People 312 15.5 Paleolinguistics and Language Origins 316 15.6 The Reliability of Cultural Reconstruction 321
Dataseis 327 1 Palauan (Micronesia) 327 2 Nganyaywana (New South Wales, Australia) 328 3 Mbabaram (North Queensland, Australia) 328 4 Yimas and Karawari (East Sepik, Papua New Guinea) 329 5 Lakalai (West New Britain, Papua New Guinea) 329 6 Suena and Zia (Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea) 330 7 Korafe, Notu, and Binandere (Oro Province, Papua New Guinea) 331 8 Paamese (Vanuatu) 331 9 Motu (Central Province, Papua New Guinea) 332 10 Sepa, Manam, Kairiru, and Sera (Coastal Sepik, Papua New Guinea) 333 11 Burduna (Western Australia) 334 12 Quebec French (Canada) 335 13 Tiene (Democratic Republic of Congo) 336 CONTENTS
14 Cypriot Arabic 337 15 Nyulnyulan (Western Australia) 339 16 Aroma, Hula, and Sinaugoro (Central Province, Papua New Guinea) 340 17 Proto-Gazelle Peninsula and Daughter Languages (New Britain, Papua New Guinea) 342
Notes 345 Language References 355 References 359 Index 369