13 Facts About Historical linguistics

Historical linguistics, termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time.

Historical linguistics is founded on the Uniformitarian Principle, which is defined by linguist Donald Ringe as:.

At first, historical linguistics served as the cornerstone of comparative linguistics, primarily as a tool for linguistic reconstruction.

Comparative linguistics became only a part of a more broadly-conceived discipline of historical linguistics.

However, most other branches of linguistics are concerned with some form of synchronic analysis.

Ferdinand de Saussure's distinction between synchronic and diachronic Historical linguistics is fundamental to the present day organization of the discipline.

In practice, a purely-synchronic Historical linguistics is not possible for any period before the invention of the gramophone, as written records always lag behind speech in reflecting linguistic developments.

That is an insight of psychoHistorical linguistics, which is relevant for language didactics, both of which are synchronic disciplines.

Principal tools of research in diachronic Historical linguistics are the comparative method and the method of internal reconstruction.

Findings of historical linguistics are often used as a basis for hypotheses about the groupings and movements of peoples, particularly in the prehistoric period.

Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in order to establish their historical relatedness.

Comparative Historical linguistics has the goal of constructing language families, reconstructing proto-languages, and specifying the changes that have resulted in the documented languages.

Etymologists apply the methods of comparative Historical linguistics to reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information to be known.