Ancient Languages
Historical linguistics (also called diachronic linguistics) is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:
- to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages
- to reconstruct the pre-history of languages and determine their relatedness, grouping them into language families (comparative linguistics)
- to develop general theories about how and why language changes
- to describe the history of speech communities
- to study the history of words, i.e. etymology.
Read more about Ancient Languages: History and Development, Evolution Into Other Fields, Conservative, Innovative, Archaic
Famous quotes containing the words ancient and/or languages:
“Only the sound remains,
the distant thump of the good elephants,
the voice of the ancient lions
and how the bells
trembled for the flying man.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“It is time for dead languages to be quiet.”
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972)
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