Overview

The relation of language variation to reconstructed languages and to the methodology of reconstruction has long been neglected. The articles in the present volume consider this relationship from a number of different angles, with a number of different focuses. Several of the papers discuss evidence from Germanic, either Proto-Germanic (Joseph, Schwink), or daughter languages such as Dutch (Goss & Howell), Afrikaans (Roberge), Newcastle English (Milroy), and a Wisconsin German dialect (Geiger & Salmons). Other papers look at Italian (Cravens), Spanish (Harris-Northall), and the non-Indo-European languages or families Aramaic (Miller), and Proto-Hmong-Mien (Ratliff), and the Southeast Asian languages Phan Rang Cham and Tsat (Thurgood). In doing so they bring together a number of interconnected issues which are of current concern in comparative and historical linguistics.

Full Product Details

Author:   Thomas D. Cravens (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   268
Weight:   0.570kg
ISBN:  

9789027247827

ISBN 10:   902724782
Pages:   223
Publication Date:   05 April 2006
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

1. Variation and reconstruction (by Niepokuj, Mary K.); 2. Microvariability in time and space: Reconstructing the past from the present (by Cravens, Thomas D.); 3. Reconstructing variation at shallow time depths: The historical phonetics of 19th century German dialects in the U.S. (by Geiger, Steven R.); 4. Social and structural factors in the development of Dutch urban dialects in the Early Modern period (by Goss, Emily L.); 5. Reduction of variation in the standardization of Castilian Spanish around 1500 (by Harris-Northall, Ray); 6. On projecting variation back into a proto-language, with particular attention to Germanic evidence and some thoughts on drift (by Joseph, Brian D.); 7. Variation of direct speech complementizers in Achaemenid Aramaic documents from Fifth Century B.C.E. Egypt (by Miller, Cynthia L.); 8. Language change and the speaker: On the discourse of Historical Linguistics (by Milroy, James); 9. Prefix variation and reconstruction (by Ratliff, Martha); 10. On reconstructing a linguistic continuum in Cape Dutch (1710 1840) (by Roberge, Paul T.); 11. The reconstruction of variability in Proto-Germanic gender (by Schwink, Frederick W.); 12. Variation as a reflection of contact: Notes from Southeast Asia (by Thurgood, Graham); 13. Index

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