dialectology & sociolinguistics
roots of eco-linguistics

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language variation
Not everyone speaks the same language the same way. There isvariation in every language
Dialectology developed from the observation that there areregional varieties, such that people in one area speak the language
similarly, whereas people in another area speak the language
differently
Dialectologists began to study the phonological, lexical, andgrammatical differences from one area to another.
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synchrony: mutual intelligibility
In order to decide whether two ways of speaking are twocompletely different languages or whether they are twodifferent dialects of the same language, linguists developed theidea of mutual intelligibility
If the people of one town and the people of another town canunderstand each other’s speech, then the people of both towns
speak the same language, even if they speak that language
differently
The different English dialects of southern England are mutually
intelligible at the present time. Synchronic linguistics focuseson the similarities of dialects “spoken at the same time”.

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synchrony: isoglosses
Dialectologists began to map dialect areas
The lines between dialect areas are called
isoglosses
The Benrath Line (red) is the maken~machen
isogloss. South of the line, the Germans say machen,and, North of the line, they say maken
The Speyer Line (orange) is the Appel~Apfel
isogloss. North of the line, the Germans say Appel.
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a dialect continuum
The Rhenish Fan is a famous
illustration of the German dialectsof the Rhein area
If someone walks from the area ofthe Rheinfränkisch dialect to thearea of the Niederfränkischdialect, the gradual change inGerman speech observed is an
example of a dialect continuum.
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5dialect continua of Europe
Europe has several dialect continua:
the Scandinavian dialect continuum
the West Germanic dialect continuum
the North Slavic dialect continuum
the South Slavic dialect continuum
the West Romance dialect continuum
the East Romance dialect continuum6

striking similarities of distant languages
As Europeans traveled to India, they noticed striking similarities between languages
that were geographically distant and also mutually incomprehensible
In 1583, Thomas Stephens noted similarities between the Indian languages he wasstudying and ancient Greek and Latin
In 1585, Filippo Sassetti noted Italian and Sanskrit lexical similarities
In 1647, Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn hypothesized that various European and Asian
languages were derived from a common language.

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“sprung from some common source”
In 1786, Sir William Jones made one of the most famousstatements in the history of linguistics:“The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of awonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more
copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely re ned thaneither, yet bearing to both of them a stronger af nity,
both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, thancould possibly have been produced by accident; sostrong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all
three, without believing them to have sprung from somecommon source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.”fifi8

diachrony and Comparative Grammar
Franz Bopp compared Greek, Latin, Persian, andGermanic languages
Dialectologists and philologists realized thatsynchronic differences were evidence of change overtime, and diachronic linguistics research grew
Mutually unintelligible languages, such as English,Norwegian, and German were sometimes called“dialects” because they were historically descended
from an older common language.
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diachronic linguistics
August Schleicher rst used
the language tree(Stammbaum) model of dialect
genesis, which became thestandard explanation of thesimilarity of dialects from
Icelandic to Bengali
hypothesized to have acommon ancestral language.

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The Comparative Method
Karl Brugmann and the Neogrammarians developed
the Comparative Method of historical languagereconstruction
The regularity of sound change was recognizedExceptions to regular sound change was to be
explained by borrowing, sporadic phonetic changes,and analogy(For an update on scholarly opinion, cf. The Comparative
Method Reviewed: Regularity and irregularity in languagechange, Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, eds., 1996.)
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a sprachbund
Linguists eventually realized that somewidespread language similarities were theresult of widespread areal borrowing, notgenetic inheritanceA sprachbund, or “linguistic area”, or “area oflinguistic convergence”, or “diffusion area”, or“language crossroads” is a group of languages
that have common features resulting fromgeographical proximity and language contact.
Various sprachbunds have been identi ed inthe world. 

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social splitting vs cultural borrowing
The tree model of language change suggests that language
communities split and subsequently develop differently
The wave model of language change is an alternative theory
that can better explain the way certain language innovations
can spread through a dialect continuum or through asprachbund as cultural borrowings.

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Language in society
Franz Boas created modern American anthropology
by placing linguistics as an equal science together
with archeology, physical anthropology, andethnology
Boas understood the concept of phonological contrast,
and his students developed the emic/etic distinction, afundamental linguistic concept, and arguably the mostimportant tool in the exploration of human cognition
Language as an important element of human ecology
was eventually recognized.
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linguistic ecology, eco-linguistics
Linguistic ecology now understands language as morethan “dialectology” or “areal linguistics” or “languagein society”. We also want to know how different waysof speaking relate to “other stuff”
Language ecology rst considered the sociolinguistic
causes of language variation. However, linguistic
differences can have nonlinguistic causes
Michael Halliday has also carefully noted that
nonlinguistic changes can have linguistic causes.

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next week: Scandinavia

Next week, we will consider theScandinavian language situation.

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