historical linguistics

English - Turkish

Definition of historical linguistics in English Turkish dictionary: tarihi dilbilim; tarihsel dilbilim
diachronic linguistics: artsüremli dilbilim, tarihsel dilbilim

English - English

Definition of historical linguistics in English English dictionary: The scientific study of language change; The study of linguistic change over time in language or in a particular language or language family, sometimes including the reconstruction of unattested forms of earlier stages of a language. Also called philology. Branch of linguistics concerned with examining changes in phonology, grammar, and semantics during a language's evolution, reconstructing earlier stages, and uncovering evidence of the influence of other languages. Its roots are in Classical and medieval writings on etymology and in the comparative study of Greek and Latin during the Renaissance. Only in the 19th century did more scientific language-analysis methods lead to the development of historical linguistics as a scholarly discipline. The Neogrammarians, a group of German linguists who formulated sound correspondences in the Indo-European languages, were especially influential. In the 20th century the methods of historical linguistics were extended to other language groups; the study of linguistic change; diachronic linguistics