Historical Linguistics Herbert Schendl.pdf

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the author was an authority on the english historical dialects of london. he wrote many articles, books and reports on dialects, such as "dialect formation: sources and processes" (1943), "dialects of london" (1951), and "new and old facts about the old london dialects" (1955). one of the last articles written by him was "early-medieval english: an essay in comparative dialectology" (1965).


translated by j. h. marshall, a.m. cowan, d. a. harris, m. murray; edited by marie-claire p. embray and s.l. horn. english translation of "die sprachwissenschaft." vol. i: (1918-1940) and vol. ii (1940-1950) by herbert schendl with a foreword by clarence w. jones. wiesbaden: o. harrassowitz, 1964. 411 pp. index, plates, and appendixes. vol. i covers grammar, syntax, and semantics; vol. ii discusses lexicology, phonetics, and phonology.


the work focuses on the linguistic features that can be observed at different time periods. the terms "lexicostatistics" and "phonocostatistics" are used to describe the way in which the features are exploited by lexicographers. the most important features are phonological, and they change over time. a set of rules are used to account for the changes. “the general introduction provides an overview of the different phases of the english language.”


schendl discussed phonology in two ways. firstly, he talked about the rate and order of change of the features of the language. for example, he pointed out that the reduction of the inflection system would take place much more slowly than the appearance of “a phonetic feature such as “a high-mid high-low-mid vowel” (which) only became “the high-mid high-low vowel” late in the middle english period.” he also noted that “the labialization of r was very rare in contemporary english” (p. 541). secondly, he discussed the systematization of the language. he noted that “the existing systems are of two kinds: the earlier phonetic systems, based on gk. syllables (such as the syllabic system, which was used in 3 400 b.c. and in 5 600 b.) the syllabic system is used for the description of the consonants. this system is, however, already outdated by the laryngeal system, which is much simpler and is used for the description of vowels.” (pp. 562-5.) these two points do not contradict each other, but rather have been brought together in his book. 84d34552a1