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Le changement linguistique dans la langue orale selon deux recherches sur le terrain séparées d’un siècle

  • Montserrat Adam-Aulinas
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Historical Linguistics 2007
This chapter is in the book Historical Linguistics 2007

Abstract

This article compares the linguistic change produced during the twentieth century in ten features of verbal morphology in the north-eastern part of Catalonia, to the south of the Pyrenees. For the start of the twentieth century, we examine Alcover’s oral corpus (1906–1928) and, for the end of the century, we examine the data compiled from a field research project performed between 1999 and 2000. The features are classified into two spatial geographical types. The first comprises those performed more frequently in Roussillon (French Catalonia), and less frequently south of the state border: 1. Morph of the person-number = /i/ in the 1st person singular of the present indicative (e.g. canti) in verbs of classes i, ii and iii; 2. Morph of mood-tense = /a/ (= [e]) in the 2nd person singular of the present indicative in verbs of classes II and III (e.g. dormes); 3. Lack of thematic vowel in the infinitive and thematic vowel /í/ in the rest of the tenses (e.g. fúger ~ fugim); 4. Lack of velar extension in the 1st person singular of the present indicative of the verb ‘ser’ (som); 5. Epithesis [e] to the infinitive of monosyllabic verbs (e.g. dire). The second comprises features found in an area corresponding roughly to the diocese of Girona, located south of the state border: 6. Addition of /z/ to the morph /m/ of the 1st person plural of the present indicative of the verb ser (and diffusion to other persons, tenses and verbs) (e.g. soms); 7. Epithesis [k]/[t] in the 1st person singular of the present indicative (e.g. cantoc, cantot); 8. Posterior epenthesis in the morph /./ of the infinitive (e.g. néix(e)re: /néʃr/ + [e] ); 9. End of the lexical root in non-etymological /b/ for verbs in the subgroup [-w] of the verbal subclass [II, +ext.] (e.g. crevies); 10. Velar extension in the 1st and 2nd persons plural of the present indicative of verbs in the verbal subclass [II, +ext.] (e.g. creguem). These two types of feature intersect in the diocese of Girona. This study focuses on the northern part of the Girona area. In general, we find differences in the behaviour of the two groups in terms of their linguistic development during the twentieth century. At the start of the twentieth century the overall level of production of type I features in each place was generally lower than that of type II features. In addition, the presence of alternative forms originally from central Catalan (variety located to the south of the diocese and which coincides to a large extent with standard Catalan) can be clearly seen in type I features. Over the twentieth century, the fall in the production of type I features considered as a whole is particularly notable. This is not the case, however, of type II features: the current data show that they are still quite widely used. The data suggest that the type to which the features belong — defined by their spread throughout the geographical area from the place where they are most used — may be responsible, at least in part, for the differences in their behaviour with regard to the linguistic change that occurred over the course of the twentieth century.

Abstract

This article compares the linguistic change produced during the twentieth century in ten features of verbal morphology in the north-eastern part of Catalonia, to the south of the Pyrenees. For the start of the twentieth century, we examine Alcover’s oral corpus (1906–1928) and, for the end of the century, we examine the data compiled from a field research project performed between 1999 and 2000. The features are classified into two spatial geographical types. The first comprises those performed more frequently in Roussillon (French Catalonia), and less frequently south of the state border: 1. Morph of the person-number = /i/ in the 1st person singular of the present indicative (e.g. canti) in verbs of classes i, ii and iii; 2. Morph of mood-tense = /a/ (= [e]) in the 2nd person singular of the present indicative in verbs of classes II and III (e.g. dormes); 3. Lack of thematic vowel in the infinitive and thematic vowel /í/ in the rest of the tenses (e.g. fúger ~ fugim); 4. Lack of velar extension in the 1st person singular of the present indicative of the verb ‘ser’ (som); 5. Epithesis [e] to the infinitive of monosyllabic verbs (e.g. dire). The second comprises features found in an area corresponding roughly to the diocese of Girona, located south of the state border: 6. Addition of /z/ to the morph /m/ of the 1st person plural of the present indicative of the verb ser (and diffusion to other persons, tenses and verbs) (e.g. soms); 7. Epithesis [k]/[t] in the 1st person singular of the present indicative (e.g. cantoc, cantot); 8. Posterior epenthesis in the morph /./ of the infinitive (e.g. néix(e)re: /néʃr/ + [e] ); 9. End of the lexical root in non-etymological /b/ for verbs in the subgroup [-w] of the verbal subclass [II, +ext.] (e.g. crevies); 10. Velar extension in the 1st and 2nd persons plural of the present indicative of verbs in the verbal subclass [II, +ext.] (e.g. creguem). These two types of feature intersect in the diocese of Girona. This study focuses on the northern part of the Girona area. In general, we find differences in the behaviour of the two groups in terms of their linguistic development during the twentieth century. At the start of the twentieth century the overall level of production of type I features in each place was generally lower than that of type II features. In addition, the presence of alternative forms originally from central Catalan (variety located to the south of the diocese and which coincides to a large extent with standard Catalan) can be clearly seen in type I features. Over the twentieth century, the fall in the production of type I features considered as a whole is particularly notable. This is not the case, however, of type II features: the current data show that they are still quite widely used. The data suggest that the type to which the features belong — defined by their spread throughout the geographical area from the place where they are most used — may be responsible, at least in part, for the differences in their behaviour with regard to the linguistic change that occurred over the course of the twentieth century.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology
  6. Middle English vowel length in French loanwords 9
  7. Dental fricatives and stops in Germanic 19
  8. Dialect variation and the Dutch diminutive 37
  9. Part II. Morphology, syntax and semantics
  10. On the disappearance of genitive types in Middle English 49
  11. An asymmetric view on stage II in Jespersen’s cycle in the West Germanic languages 61
  12. Temporal reference and grammaticalization in the Spanish perfect(ive) 73
  13. (Un)-interpretable features and grammaticalization 83
  14. Imperative morphology in diachrony evidence from the Romance languages 99
  15. VO vs V(…)O en Français 109
  16. On the development of Recipient passives in DO languages 123
  17. The emergence of DP in the history of English 135
  18. A diachronic view of Psychological verbs with Dative Experiencers in Spanish and Romanian 149
  19. On the loss of the masculine genitive plural in Cypriot Greek 161
  20. The rise of peripheral modifiers in the noun phrase 175
  21. Wild variation, random patterns, and uncertain data* 185
  22. Part III. Sociolinguistics and dialectology
  23. Le changement linguistique dans la langue orale selon deux recherches sur le terrain séparées d’un siècle 197
  24. Patrons sociolinguistiques chez trois générations de locuteurs acadiens 211
  25. Change of functions of the first person pronouns in Chinese 223
  26. Vinderup in real time 233
  27. Variation in real time 245
  28. Part IV. Tools and methodology
  29. UNIDIA 259
  30. Visualization, validation and seriation 269
  31. Quantifying linguistic changes 285
  32. Historical core vocabulary: Spring and/or anchor 295
  33. Index of languages and terms 307
  34. Index of subjects and terms 309
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.308.16ada

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology
  6. Middle English vowel length in French loanwords 9
  7. Dental fricatives and stops in Germanic 19
  8. Dialect variation and the Dutch diminutive 37
  9. Part II. Morphology, syntax and semantics
  10. On the disappearance of genitive types in Middle English 49
  11. An asymmetric view on stage II in Jespersen’s cycle in the West Germanic languages 61
  12. Temporal reference and grammaticalization in the Spanish perfect(ive) 73
  13. (Un)-interpretable features and grammaticalization 83
  14. Imperative morphology in diachrony evidence from the Romance languages 99
  15. VO vs V(…)O en Français 109
  16. On the development of Recipient passives in DO languages 123
  17. The emergence of DP in the history of English 135
  18. A diachronic view of Psychological verbs with Dative Experiencers in Spanish and Romanian 149
  19. On the loss of the masculine genitive plural in Cypriot Greek 161
  20. The rise of peripheral modifiers in the noun phrase 175
  21. Wild variation, random patterns, and uncertain data* 185
  22. Part III. Sociolinguistics and dialectology
  23. Le changement linguistique dans la langue orale selon deux recherches sur le terrain séparées d’un siècle 197
  24. Patrons sociolinguistiques chez trois générations de locuteurs acadiens 211
  25. Change of functions of the first person pronouns in Chinese 223
  26. Vinderup in real time 233
  27. Variation in real time 245
  28. Part IV. Tools and methodology
  29. UNIDIA 259
  30. Visualization, validation and seriation 269
  31. Quantifying linguistic changes 285
  32. Historical core vocabulary: Spring and/or anchor 295
  33. Index of languages and terms 307
  34. Index of subjects and terms 309
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