Comparative Linguistics Comparative linguistics originally comparative philology is

Comparative Linguistics Comparative linguistics (originally comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in order to establish their historical relatedness.

Historical relatedness. • Languages may be related by convergence through borrowing or by genetic descent. • Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language, and comparative linguistics aims to construct language families, to reconstruct proto-languages and specify the changes that have resulted in the documented languages. • In order to maintain a clear distinction between attested and reconstructed forms, comparative linguists prefix an asterisk * to any form that is not found in surviving texts.

Methods • The fundamental technique of comparative linguistics is to compare phonological systems, morphological systems, syntax and the lexicon of two or more languages using a technique known as the comparative method.

The Beginning of Comparative Investigations In 1786 William Jones, a British judge in India, who had taken a trouble to learn Sanskrit during his residence there, delivered a lecture to the scientific society of Calcutta about the relationship of Sanskrit to Latin and Greek. His speech precipitated the 18 th century research for the links among those languages which together were described as the Indo-European family of languages.

The Indo-European Family of Languages This family includes almost all languages in Europe, except for Basque /bæsk/ and Finno. Ugric group, and many languages in Asia. However, some of the languages which used to belong to this family, have died out leaving few remains, or survive only in an ancient form in some restricted contexts, such as religion (e. g. Sanskrit, Latin).

Satem and Centum Groups of Languages The Indo-European family is divided into 2 major groups which geographically can be thought as Eastern and Western groups. (The line separating the two groups runs roughly from Scandinavia to Greece. ) They are usually known as Satem and Centum groups after the word ‘hundred’ in Avestan/ Zend and Latin.

The Proto-Indo-European language had both palatal /k’/ and velar /k/ which were separate phonemes. In the Eastern group the two phonemes remain distinct and palatal sound developed into /s/. • • Zend satem Russ. сто O. Slav. suto Lith. szimtas_____ Russ. сердце Lith. sirdis Latvian sirds Arm. sirts In the Western group the two phonemes merged under the velar /k/. • • Latin centum Gr. hekaton Eng. hundred Germ. Hundert_____ French cœur/ cor Span. corazón Eng. heart Germ. Herz

Linguists believed that comparative linguistics without Sanskrit is like astronomy without mathematics. • • • Sanskrit sunus son Sanskrit viras man Sanskrit avis sheep Sanskrit dhumas smoke Sanskrit padas sole • • • Lith. sunus Russ. cын Lith. vyras Lith. avis Russ. овца Lith. dumas Russ. дым Lith. padas

Franz Bopp (1791 -1867) In 1833 - 1852 the German linguist Franz Bopp published his major work – the first Indo-European Grammar, “Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavic, Gothic and German”. The merit of his investigation lies in the field of inflections. His works are regarded as the beginning of the comparative grammar.

Rasmus Christian Rask (1787 - 1832) The Danish linguist Rasmus Rask demonstrated the significance of laws of sounds as a proof of linguistic kinship. He was the first to recognize the relationship between the languages now called Germanic. It was he who hit upon two sound shifts in the history of the Germanic languages.

Jacob Grimm (1775 – 1863) The German linguist Jacob Grimm established the principle of the sound shift in the phonetic history of the Germanic group of languages in his book “German Grammar”. He pointed out two sound shifts: the first (before the 4 th century) occurred in the whole Germanic group, the second (in the 8 th century) - only in the High German language. The First Germanic Sound Shift is named after him and is known as Grimm’s Law.

Karl Adolph Verner (1846 – 1896) The Danish linguist Karl Verner is remembered today for Verner's law, which he discovered in 1875. Verner’s important contribution to comparative-historical linguistics appeared in an article “An Exception to the First Sound Shift”. • Verner’s law first demonstrated the significant role that accent (stress) played in linguistic change in the Germanic languages.

August Schleicher (1821 -1868) The German linguist August Schleicher subscribed to naturalist views on language. Influenced by C. Darwin, he regarded language as an organism that must be studied by the methods of the natural sciences. . His great work was ‘A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages’, in which he attempted to reconstruct the Proto. Indo-European language.

August Schleicher’s tree theory August Schleicher created what has become known as a tree theory. In his opinion, Proto - Indo - European can be linked to the trunk of a big tree. At first the tree split into two thick branches which in their turn continued to branch out producing the present variety of Indo - European languages. Proto - Indo - Europeans was so realistic to Schleicher that he wrote even a fable about a horse and a sheep in this first proto - language, which he reconstructed on the basis of the linguistic facts of the living Indo - European language.