1. Change and Choice
Chapter 9

2. Introduction
When a child learns to speak, they invent words, but these get corrected by adults
Sometimes new words do stick
Blog
Groupon
Other times words change meaning
Uptight (1960s meant cool, sharp looking)
Spam (lunchmeat or junk ?)
Terrific (causing terror  really great)

3. Introduction Different people also use words differently
This can be in response to social pressure, cultural identity, or ideologies
Words can change, but so can sounds, syntax, spelling, and speaking styles
We can use this knowledge of current languages to help study and recreate ancient languages as well

4. How (and Why) Languages Change
External change
Types of changes that occur because of language contact and language borrowing
More rapid
Example: English borrowing word ‘syrup’ from Arabic
Internal change
Types of changes that occur because of the way speakers gradually modify their language over time
Slower
Example: change in the meaning of ‘bad’ from bad to good (slang)

5. External Change Words are the most easily borrowed parts of speech
Remember the borrowed words we looked at in chapter 2?

6. Guess which words are native or foreign
Moose (NA)
Bandage
Elixir (Greek)
Bathroom
Delicatessen (Ger)
Bonkers
Capital
Garage (Fr)
Lemon (Persian)
Skunk (NA)
Tapioca (SA Indian)
Llama (SA Quechua)
Handbag
Typhoon (Chi)
Stone
Canoe (NA Indian)
Admiral (Arabic)
Nippy
Squash (NA Indian)
Coffee (Arabic)
Syrup (Arabic)
Fahrenheit (Ger)
Cliché (Fr)
Futon (Japanese)
Floor

7. External Change
Sometimes speakers of a borrowing language will pronounce the words the native way
But most of the time the words are changed to fit the style of the borrowing language
Example: American vs British pronunciation of ‘garage’

8. External Change Speakers also change the way borrowed words are used
Au jus means “with gravy”
We say with au jus, which means “with with gravy”
We fit it to our syntax
Another example is how to pluralize words
Example: safari (there is no plural in Swahili)
We say safaris

9. External Change
We also reanalyze unfamiliar words and make them our own
‘hamburger’ meant in the style of Hamburg (a city)
What does it mean now?
We have taken ‘burger’ to mean something specific in our language and have made new words from it
Cheeseburger
Baconburger
Veggieburger

10. External Change Word change example: ‘robot’
Where did this word come from?
jessica-oreck-and-rachael-teel
What about pants?
jessica-oreck

11. Internal Change Slower and more predictable than external change
Tend to follow rules and structural patterns of the language
Example: using ‘they’ as gender neutral singular pronoun
Instead of he/she
Ties to feminism and gender equality
Replacing ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ with more informal ‘you’
Y’all or youse (South, New York)
Ties to ideology and cultural identity

12. Internal Change Change can also happen because of misanalysis
Errors in speaking or spelling
Could’ve: some mistakenly say could of instead of the correct could have
Originally, this 
was a ‘napron,’ but it shifted to
‘an apron’

13. Internal Change
Language is spoken in real settings by real people so of course it will change
Even morphemes can change
What is the first morpheme in ‘disrespectful?’

14. Internal Change
Language is spoken in real settings by real people so of course it will change
Even morphemes can change
What is the first morpheme in ‘disrespectful?’
Dis-
What does it mean to dis someone?

15. Examples of Language Change
Languages evolve and related languages can evolve out of one native language
English is 1,000 but is very different now than it was at a native language

17. Examples of Language Change
Between occurred the Great English Vowel Shift
Changed structural aspects of language
Also reflected social and ideological aspects

18. Language Families Languages have similarities
These are usually related languages

19. Language Families Languages have similarities
These are usually related languages
They are called a family of languages or genetically related languages
Examples: Greek and Latin, Sanskrit
English, Dutch, German

20. Language Families
Linguists can reconstruct ancient languages by knowing how languages are related
They compare sets of words in related languages and observe any shifts or changes
Cognates are sets of words in related languages that have descended from a common ancestral language

21. Language Families

22. Languages in Contact Some languages seem to spring to life over night
Most of the time this is because of population contact
Example: Colonization

23. Languages in Contact

24. Languages in Contact
Pidgin is a language that developed through contact of two unrelated languages
It is a hybrid language made out of the unique situation of two cultures merging
They tend to be short-lived
An exception is creole, a mix of French, English, and African cultures and languages (slave trade)
This developed from a pidgin language and is now a complete language on its own
New Orleans, Haiti

25. Languages in Contact

26. Bilingualism This is the ability to speak two languages
Many people speak one language at school or work and a different one at home
Many times future generations abandon their home language, which is called transitional bilingualism
This is the first step toward language death
However, if generations maintain bilingualism, this is called stable bilingualism

27. Bilingualism
If you speak more than one language you have to know how to use them properly in different contexts
Codeswitching is when a person uses more than one variety of language in either one situation or in different situations
You can even switch in and out during one sentence or conversation
Can anyone in class do this?

28. Bilingualism