第七章 语言变化 Chapter 7 Language change.ppt

Chapter 7 Language change 1. language change is the field of study of historical / diachronic linguistics 2. purpose of study: look into the nature of language change and the causes that lead to language reconstruct linguistic history and establish the relationship between languages that belong to the same language family. ( e.g. 30 language families have been established. Four most important language families are Indo-European family, Sino-Tibetan family, Niger-Congo languages ,Afro-asiatic family（ 非亚语系）. English, French and German all belong to Indo-European language family) 3. topics to discuss: the nature of language, the historical development of english, the causes of language change 语言的谱系分类法 1. Indo-European languages 46%(Europe, Southwest to south Asian, America, Oceania) 2. Sino-Tibetan languages 21% (East Asia) 3. Niger-Congo languages 6.4% (Sub-Saharan Africa) 4. Afro-Asiatic languages 6.0% (North Africa to Horn of Africa, Southwest Asia) 5. Austronesian languages 5.9% (Oceania, Madagascar, maritime Southeast Asia) 6. Dravidian languages 3.7% (South Asia) 7. Altaic languages 2.3% (Central Asia, Northern Asia, Anatolia, Siberia) 8. Japonic languages 2.1% (Japan) 9. Austro-Asiatic languages 1.7% (mainland Southeast Asia) 10. Tai-Kadai languages 1.3% (Southeast Asia) Nature of language change Universal Continuous, constant, gradual Regular and systematic Historical development of English major periods in the history of English: 1) old English: dated back to the mid-fifth century when Anglo-Saxons invaded the british Isles from northern Europe. Many of the basic terms in the English language originate from old English. E.g mannman, wifwoman, cildchild, etameat 2） middle English: began with the arrival of the Norman French invaders in England under William the Conqueror in 1066. after Norman Conquest, French remained as the language of the ruling classes while English remained as the language of the poor classes, middle English was deeply