Example Historical Linguistics Problems

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Example Historical Linguistics Problems

• comparative reconstruction

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instructions

• establish sound correspondences for the sets of
  cognates.
• reconstruct the proto-form for each word.
• list the changes that occurred for each language.
• discuss the changes you propose, why is your
  hypothesis better than other possible ones?

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key sound correspondences

• 1, 4 yy
• 2, 3 ?y
• Hypothesis A the proto-language had only /y/,
  which changed to / ?/ in castilian in some
  circumstances.
• Hypothesis B the proto-language had both / ?/
  and /y/. The sound / ?/ changed to /y/ in all
  contexts in Andalusian.

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Discussion.

• If we adopt hypothesis A, we have to explain
  where, or in which contexts the change occurred.
  In particular, we have to explain why /y/ would
  have changed to /?/ in /po?o/, but not in /poyo//
• If we adopt hypothesis B, we can explain all of
  the data without saying anything else. As a
  result, this is the preferable hypothesis.

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• 5, 9, 8 ss
• 6, 7, 10, 11 ?s

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• Reconstructed forms
• mayo
• ka?e
• po?o
• poyo
• dos
• die?
• ?i?ko
• si
• kasa
• ka?a
• ?ißili?a?ion

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Changes from proto-language

• All changes occurred to Andalusian
• ? ? y
• ? ? s

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Archaic Romance
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• Reconstructed forms
• 1. filu (see discussion)
• 2. bita
• 3. binu
• 4. ripa or riba (see discussion)
• 5. riu
• 6. rizu (see discussion)
• 7. muta

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• Discussion of Problematic Examples
• Examples 1, 4, 5, 6 l or r ?
• Hypothesis A
• proto-form r gt l in Spanish, Sardinian, no
  change in Rumanian.
• problem rio, riu, riu Hypothesis A predicts
  these forms should contain l , or, there was
  some other change, for which we have no data.
• Hypothesis B
• proto-form l gt r in Rumanian, no change in
  Spanish, Sardinian
• we can reconstruct r as the proto-form for rio,
  riu, riu and exx 5, 6.
• Conclusion Hypothesis B is better.

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• Examples 2 3, 4. b, v, or p?
• First consider exx 2 3
• bino binu vin
• biða bita vita
• Hypothesis C
• proto-form b gt v in Rumanian, no change
  elsewhere.
• Hypothesis D
• proto-form v gt b in Spanish, Sardinian.
• problem why did Spanish and Sardinian undergo
  the same change?
• Can example 4 help us decide this question?

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• riva riba ripa
• if we adopt hypothesis C, then
• proto-form for this example can not be b, or we
  predict Span riba, Rum. riva.
• proto-form can be p. p gt b in Sard., p gt v
  in Spanish.
• proto-form can be v. v gt b in Sard., v gt p
  in Rumanian.
• problem p is voiceless stop, v is voiced
  fricative, seems like two changes have to occur
  to get from p to v (or vice versa).

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• if we adopt hypothesis D, then
• proto-from can not be v, this predicts Spanish
  riba.
• proto-form can be b,
• b gt v in Spanish, b gt p in Rumanian. This
  would be a nice solution, since one change in
  each langauge is sufficient. But, this leaves
  the original problem, how did the same change
  happen in two langauges?
• proto-from can be p, p gt b, p gt v (this
  leaves the two-step problem).

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• Solution?
• Adopt hypothesis C
• b gt v in Rumanian, no change elsewhere.
• other changes
• p gt b in Sard., p gt v in Spanish.
• problem two steps from p to v.
• Adopt hypothesis D
• v gt b in Spanish, Sardinian.
• b gt v in Spanish, b gt p in Rumanian.
• problem same change happened in Spanish and
  Sardinian