Table of Contents

1. The fact of language change
2. Lexical and semantic change
3. Phonological change I: Change in pronunciation
4. Phonological change II: Change in phonological systems
5. Morphological change
6. Syntactic change
7. Relatedness between languages
8. The comparative method
9. Internal reconstruction
10. The origin and propagation of change
11. Social and historical pressures upon language: contact, planning and the birth and death of languages
12. Language and prehistory
Appendix: The Swadesh 200-word list

About the Author

Robert McColl Millar works at the University of Aberdeen where he is head of the undergraduate Language and Linguistics programme.

Reviews

The strength of the book is its suitability for beginning students ... a highly recommendable introduction into historical linguistics - one, I might add, one has been looking out for a long time. -- Werner Abraham, Studies in Language