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History, archaeology, and human evolutionary genetics provide us with an increasingly detailed view of the origins and development of the peoples that live in Northwestern Europe. This book aims to restore the key position of historical linguistics in this debate by treating the history of the Germanic languages as a history of its speakers. It focuses on the role that language contact has played in creating the Germanic languages, between the first millennium BC and the crucially important early medieval period. Chapters on the origins of English, German, Dutch, and the Germanic language family as a whole illustrate how the history of the sounds of these languages provide a key that unlocks the secret of their genesis: speakers of Latin, Celtic and Balto-Finnic switched to speaking Germanic and in the process introduced a 'foreign accent' that caught on and spread at the expense of types of Germanic that were not affected by foreign influence. The book is aimed at linguists, historians, archaeologists and anyone who is interested in what languages can tell us about the origins of their speakers.
Open publicationThe Languages and Linguistics of Europe: A Comprehensive Guide is part of the multi-volume reference work on the languages and linguistics of the continents of the world. The book supplies profiles of the language families of Europe, including the sign languages. It also discusses the areal typology, paying attention to the Standard Average European, Balkan, Baltic and Mediterranean convergence areas. Separate chapters deal with the old and new minority languages and with non-standard varieties. A major focus is language politics and policies, including discussions of the special status of English, the relation between language and the church, language and the school, and standardization. The history of European linguistics is another focus as is the history of multilingual European 'empires' and their dissolution. The volume is especially geared towards a graduate and advanced undergraduate readership. It has been designed such that it can be used, as a whole or in parts, as a textbook, the first of its kind, for graduate programmes with a focus on the linguistic (and linguistics) landscape of Europe.
The languages belonging to the British subgroup of Celtic, i.e. Welsh, Cornish and Breton, have been the subject of thorough research for over a century now. Yet the phonological history of the prehistoric stages of these languages and the details of their connection with the other Celtic and Indo-European languages still present numerous unsolved issues. This volume aims to tackle the most acute problems of the historical phonology of British Celtic. Also it provides an up-to-date reference guide to British historical phonology in general, as well as a study of a large body of etymologies relevant to the correct evaluation of the historical phonology. This volume is of interest for the Celtologist, the Indo-Europeanist and the general historical linguist.
The integration of traditional and modern linguistics as well as diachrony and synchrony is the hallmark of an influential trend in contemporary research on language. It is documented in the present collection of 21 new papers on the history and structure of the sounds and other (sub-) systems of human languages, sharing the common reference point of Theo Vennemann, a leading figure in the above-mentioned trend, whom the authors want to honor with this Festschrift.
David Stifter’s Sengoídelc (SHAN-goy-thelg) provides a comprehensive introduction to Old Irish grammar and metrics. As an introductory text to the Irish language spoken around the eighth century C.E., this essential volume, covering all aspects of the grammar in a clear and intuitive format, is ideally suited for use as a course book or as a guide for the independent learner. This handbook also will be an essential reference work for students of Indo-European philology and historical linguistics. Stifter leads the novice through the idiosyncrasies of the language, such as initial mutations and the double inflection of verbs. Filled with translation exercises based on selections from Old I...
This contribution in this volume discuss a large variety of issues from the realm of Indo-European phonology in its broadest definition, stretching from minute phonetic to more abstract levels of phonemics and morphophonemics and centering upon all varieties of Indo-European, including the protolanguage and its recent pre-stages and, in effect, all of its post-stages till this day.
This book provides the first comprehensive account of the history and extent of Celtic influences in English. Drawing on both original research and existing work, it covers both the earliest medieval contacts and their linguistic effects and the reflexes of later, early modern and modern contacts, especially various regional varieties of English.
The collected papers in this book address an array of important issues in the field of Historical Linguistics and, specifically, Indo-European Linguistics, including different theoretical approaches and innovative methodologies for studying language organization and change, building on the strict relationship between Linguistics and Philology. The papers provide significant contributions to the understanding of aspects of variation, contact and reconstruction, reflect a wide range of perspectives, and focus on issues and data from a large variety of languages. The themes that emerge from the papers center around two main research lines: 1. the relationship between language facts and historical accidents; 2. the relationship between grammatical categories and conceptual representations. The book is of interest for any reader seeking to gain insight into the nature of language organization and change.
Examines Cicero's numerous citations of Latin poets within the cultural and intellectual trends of the late Roman Republic.