Historical linguistics (also called diachronic linguistics) is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:
- to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages
- to reconstruct the pre-history of languages and determine their relatedness, grouping them into language families (comparative linguistics)
- to develop general theories about how and why language changes
- to describe the history of speech communities
- to study the history of words, i.e. etymology.
Read more about Historical Linguistics: History and Development, Evolution Into Other Fields, Conservative, Innovative, Archaic
Famous quotes containing the word historical:
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
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