Trask's Historical Linguistics

Robert McColl Millar is Professor of Linguistics and Scottish Language at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has published widely on, amongst other things, linguistic contact and rapid language change, the sociology of language, and dialectology. His most recent publications include Contact: The Interaction of Closely Related Linguistic Varieties and the History of English (2016) and A Sociolinguistic History of Scotland (2020). He has recently completed A History of the Scots Language, which will be published in 2023.R L Trask was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex, UK, and a leading authority on Basque language and historical linguistics. His book The History of Basque (1997) is an essential reference on diachronic Basque linguistics, and probably the best-known introduction to Basque linguistics. He also wrote about the problem of the origin of language and, amongst his other publications, the very successful foundational text, Language: The Basics (1995).

Since its first publication in 1996, Trask’s Historical Linguistics has been the resource for teaching historical linguistics. It’s great to have a new edition, carefully updated and revised by language change expert McColl Millar, so that future generations can also work with this gem of a textbook!Professor Alexander Bergs, Osnabrück University, GermanyTrask's Historical Linguistics is that rare thing: a wide-ranging textbook for both undergraduates and postgraduates that is not only as an authoritative introduction to the topic but also offers new insights into major research problems. Robert McColl Millar's latest revision is a tour-de-force of clear, up-to-date and indeed inspirational exposition. It can be heartily recommended.Jeremy J. Smith, University of Glasgow, Scotland

• List of illustrationsTo the readerTo the teacherAcknowledgementsAbbreviations1. The fact of language change1.1 Irregardless1.2 English then and now1.3 Attitudes to language change1.4 The inevitability of changeCase-study: kind regardsFurther reading Exercises2. Lexical and semantic change2.1 Borrowing2.2 Phonological treatment of loans2.3 Morphological treatment of loans2.4 Formation of new words2.5 Change in word-meaningCase study: nice Further readingExercises3. Phonological change 1: Change in pronunciation3.1 The phonetic basis of phonological change3.2 Assimilation and dissimilation3.3 Lenition and fortition3.4 Addition and removal of phonetic features3.5 Vowels and syllable structure3.6 Whole-segment processes3.7 The regularity issue: a first lookCase study: Germanic */xw/ in the present-day dialects 3.8 SummaryFurther readingExercises4. Phonological change II: Change in phonological systems4.1 Conditioning and rephonologization4.2 Phonological space4.3 Chain shiftsCase study: large scale change in the Germanic consonant system - Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law4.4 SummaryFurther readingExercises 5. Morphological change5.1 Reanalysis5.2 Analogy and levelling5.3 Universal principles of analogy5.4 Morphologization5.5 Morphologization of phonological rules5.6 Change in morphological typeCase study: The evolution of the definite article from the demonstrative paradigm in English Further readingExercises 6. Syntactic change 6.1 Reanalysis of surface structure6.2 Shift of markedness6.3 Grammaticalization6.4 Typological harmony6.5 Syntactic change as restructuring of grammarsCase study: the rise of ergativityFurther readingExercises7. Relatedness between languages7.1 The origin of dialects7.2 Dialect geography7.4 Tree model and wave model7.5 The language families of the worldCase study: A Martian’s view on the Germanic language familyFurther readingExercises8. The comparative method8.1 Systematic correspondences8.2 Comparative reconstruction8.3 Pitfalls and limitations8.4 The Neogrammarian Hypothesis8.5 Semantic reconstruction8.6 The use of typology and universals8.7 Reconstructing grammar8.8 The reality of proto-languagesCase study: A reconstruction too far? Further readingExercises9. Internal Reconstruction9.1 A first look at the internal method9.2 Alternations and internal reconstruction9.3 Internal reconstruction of grammar and lexiconCase study: The laryngeal theory of PIE Further readingExercises10. The origin and propagation of change10.1 The Saussurean paradox10.2 Variation and social stratification10.3 Variation as the vehicle of change10.4 Lexical diffusion10.5 Near-mergersCase study: historical sociolinguisticsFurther readingExercises11. Social and historical pressures upon language11.1 Linguistic contact11.2 Linguistic areas11.3 Language birth: pidgins and creoles11.4 Language planning11.5 Language death Case study: the genesis and development of American and New Zealand EnglishFurther readingExercises12. Language and pre-history12.1 Introduction12.2 Linguistic palaeontology12.3 Links with archaeology12.4 Statistical methodsCase study: Greenberg’s mass comparisonFurther readingExercisesAppendix: The Swadesh 200-word listReferencesIndex