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:

    “Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
    The worlds revolve like ancient women
    Gathering fuel in vacant lots.”
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    “The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
    —Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)