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Variation and Reconstruction
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.
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 268] 2006. viii, 223 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 8 April 2011
Published online on 8 April 2011
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
- Variation and reconstructionMary K. Niepokuj | p. 1
- Microvariability in time and space: Reconstructing the past from the presentThomas D. Cravens | p. 16
- Reconstructing variation at shallow time depths: The historical phonetics of 19th century German dialects in the U.S.Steven R. Geiger and Joseph C. Salmons | p. 37
- Social and structural factors in the development of Dutch urban dialects in the Early Modern periodEmily L. Goss and Robert B. Howell | p. 59
- Reduction of variation in the standardization of Castilian Spanish around 1500Ray Harris-Northall | p. 91
- On projecting variation back into a proto-language, with particular attention to Germanic evidence and some thoughts on “drift”Brian D. Joseph | p. 103
- Variation of direct speech complementizers in Achaemenid Aramaic documents from Fifth Century B.C.E. EgyptCynthia L. Miller-Naudé | p. 119
- Language change and the speaker: On the discourse of Historical LinguisticsJames Milroy | p. 147
- Prefix variation and reconstructionMartha Ratliff | p. 165
- On reconstructing a linguistic continuum in Cape Dutch (1710 1840)Paul T. Roberge | p. 179
- The reconstruction of variability in Proto-Germanic genderFrederick W. Schwink | p. 203
- Variation as a reflection of contact: Notes from Southeast AsiaGraham Thurgood | p. 215
- Index | pp. 221–223
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
van Eyndhoven, Sarah
D'Alessandro, Roberta, David Natvig & Michael T. Putnam
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