The Life Cycle of Language: Past, Present, and Future

This volume brings together an international group of linguists from a diverse range of research backgrounds to explore the cycles of change in the world's languages. Historical linguistics does not solely focus on reconstructing a language's linguistic past and exploring the mechanisms underlying previous language changes; it also addresses broader questions concerning the development and ongoing evolution of language. The chapters in this book draw on data both from languages from the distant past, such as Hittite, Proto-Turkic, and Proto-Bantu, and from present-day languages including Akan, Cantonese, Kuuk Thaayorre, Selis-Ql'ispé, Nivaclé, and Spanish. The contributions showcase current research in historical linguistics and exemplify the dynamism and inherently interdisciplinary nature of the field.

Author: Darya Kavitskaya
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 02/23/2024
Pages: 496
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.00lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.40w x 2.10d
ISBN: 9780192845818

About the Author
Darya Kavitskaya, Associate Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of California Berkeley, Alan C. L. Yu, William Colvin Professor of Linguistics and the College, University of Chicago

Darya Kavitskaya is Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and in the Linguistics Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her main research interests are contrast preservation and loss and opacity, and she is particularly interested in palatalization and vowel harmony. Her work focuses on phonological issues in Slavic, Turkic, and Uralic, and is connected to other linguistic fields such as historical linguistics, phonetics, and language acquisition.

Alan C. L. Yu is the William Colvin Professor of Linguistics and the College at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on language variation and change, particularly from an individual-difference perspective. He is the author of A Natural History of Infixation (OUP, 2007), the editor of Origins of Sound Change: Approaches to Phonologization (OUP, 2013), and co-editor of The Handbook of Phonological Theory, 2nd Edition (Wiley Blackwell, 2011). He is co-General Editor of Laboratory Phonology, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of American Linguistics. He was elected a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America in 2016.