Introduction to Linguistics

A language family where the Proto-Indo-European palatal plosives merged with velar plosives, resulting in a "k" sound.

A language family where the Proto-Indo-European palatal plosives evolved into sibilants, resulting in an "s" sound.

A language with a rich system of grammatical endings attached to words, allowing for complex meanings to be expressed within a single word.

The part of a word that contains its core meaning, typically a combination of the root and any stem suffixes.

A word that belongs to the oldest layer of a language's vocabulary, often with a direct connection to the root.

The largest language family in the world with over 3 billion speakers.

A single, ancient language that was spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. It was the ancestor of all Indo-European languages.

Sir William Jones was a British orientalist who discovered similarities between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, leading to the hypothesis of a common ancestor (PIE).

The theory that Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe of Eastern Europe and spread their language as they migrated.

A group of extinct languages that were spoken in Anatolia (modern Turkey).

A group of extinct languages that were spoken in Central Asia (modern China).

A group of languages that includes English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and many others.

A way to classify Indo-European languages based on how they treat certain sounds (palatal plosives).

Verbs that act like the past tense of strong verbs in the present tense. They use the past tense of strong verbs instead of the regular present tense.

Verbs that form their past tense by adding endings, like '-ed', to the word.

Verbs that form their past tense by changing vowels inside the word, like 'sing' becoming 'sang'.

Preterite-present verbs form their past tense like weak verbs by adding endings, such as '-ed', or by creating new weak forms.

A change in consonant sounds that occurred from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, distinguishing Germanic languages from other Indo-European languages.

In Proto-Indo-European, these verbs originally indicated past or perfect actions, but in Proto-Germanic, they became present tense forms.

English verbs like 'can,' 'shall,' 'may,' and 'must' are descendants of these types of verbs, which originated in Proto-Germanic.

Preterite-present verbs do not form their present tense by changing vowels like strong verbs. They use the past tense of a strong verb as their present tense form.

The Proto-Germanic grammatical system was similar to Greek or Latin around 200 AD, with six cases, three numbers, three genders, two voices, and three moods.

In Proto-Germanic, nouns are formed with a root, stem suffix (theme), and ending. Stem suffix + ending define the stem, and stem suffix itself is called a theme.

Proto-Germanic nouns are categorized by their stems: a-stems, ō-stems, n-stems, u-stems, and i-stems. These are the most common and productive paradigms.

Proto-Germanic verbs can be divided into two main groups: a small set of athematic verbs and a large group of thematic verbs. Thematic verbs are further divided into classes based on preterite tense formation.

Proto-Germanic strong verbs form the preterite tense through ablaut or reduplication. Weak verbs add a dental suffix to the root.

Proto-Germanic had two tenses: present and preterite. This differs from languages like Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, which have six or seven tenses.

Proto-Germanic thematic verbs have a vowel (the "theme vowel") connecting the verb root to its endings. They follow predictable patterns for changes in different tenses.

The Proto-Germanic case system included six cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, and Instrumental. The PIE ablative merged into other cases, mostly dative.

A sound change in Proto-Germanic where voiceless stops like "p", "t", and "k" became voiceless fricatives like "f", "th", and "h".

A sound change that affected voiceless fricatives in Proto-Germanic, making them voiced when preceded by an unstressed vowel. Examples include "f" becoming "v" and "th" becoming "dh".

A phenomenon where a consonant's place of articulation moves closer to the hard palate resulting in a "y" or "ch" sound. This primarily affected velar consonants like "k", "g", and "ɣ".

A sound change that affected Proto-Germanic by transforming the Proto-Indo-European consonant clusters "pw" and "kw" into "hw".

A change where voiceless stops like "p" and "t" became voiceless fricatives like "f" and "th".

A change where unaspirated voiced stops like "b" and "d" became unaspirated voiceless stops like "p" and "t".

A change where aspirated voiced stops like "bh" and "dh" became unaspirated voiced fricatives like "v" and "ð".

A chain reaction of sound changes where each change influenced the next. It can occur in a forward or backward direction.

Nouns that form their plural by adding a consonant suffix, mostly ending in '-n' (e.g., 'sun' to 'sunnan'). They are called 'weak' because they don't change their root vowel like strong nouns.

Verbs that form their past tense by adding a dental suffix (e.g., '-d', '-t' ) like 'deaman' (to decide) to 'dēm-de' (decided). They are called 'regular' because they follow a consistent pattern.

Nouns in Old English that form their plural not by adding a suffix, but by changing the root vowel, like 'fōt' (foot) to 'fēt' (feet).

Verbs in Old English that form their past tense by changing the root vowel, like 'bītan' (bite) to 'bāt' (bit).

Verbs that form their past tense by adding a suffix to a stem, unlike 'strong' or 'weak' verbs that change the root vowel.

Verbs in Old English that are formed by directly adding the past tense ending to the root, without any extra suffixes between.

The way that nouns are sorted into groups based on their endings and how they change in different grammatical cases.