[Written1781-82].ppt

Historical Linguistics Language history drift: change by internal development contact: change by external borrowing Possible relations among languages family tree: similarity due to separate development from common ancestor diffusion of traits similarity due to borrowing in period of contact or, no provable relationship Tasks of historical linguistics inference of historical connections reconstruction of “proto” languages Colonial Philology Thomas Jefferson corresponded with many sources to obtain word lists in Indian languages Examined and compared the results of Peter the Great’s Siberian