Ancient Languages

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:

    “He stood bewildered, not appalled, on that dark shore which separates the ancient and the modern world.... He is power, passion, self-will personified.”
    —William Hazlitt (1778–1830)

    “It is time for dead languages to be quiet.”
    —Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972)