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In many languages vowel insertion gives rise to opaque stress patterns. This chapter provides arguments, based on examination of loanwords in Selayarese and North Kyungsang Korean and native vocabulary in Winnebago and Iraqi Arabic, that this opacity is due either to avoidance of epenthetic material in prominent positions, or to maximization of paradigmatic contrasts.

This chapter examines whether there are Scythian loanwords in the Old Iranian languages, namely Avestan and Old Persian. Since all three languages are closely related, it is not simple to prove borrowing. Old Persian vocabulary contains many words which must be of Iranian but non-Persian origin. These words are usually attributed to Median, but it is in principle equally possible that they are borrowed from any other Iranian language, including Scythian. Only when we find phonological features which are characteristic of Scythian can we be confident that we are indeed dealing with a Scythian loanword.

This chapter is a grammatical sketch of Proto-Germanic, parallel to the sketch of Proto-Indo-European in Chapter 2. The section on phonology discusses the Verner’s Law alternation; automatic vocalic alternations; and the ablaut system at length. The section on inflectional morphology discusses the classes of strong, weak, preterite-present, and anomalous verbs, as well as the various classes of nominals. Short sections on derivational morphology, syntax, and the lexicon are included; the last concentrates on loanwords in Proto-Germanic.

‘Language’ is given a comprehensive sense in this book. Many of the chapters are not ‘linguistic’ in any formal sense, but are about the skill (or otherwise) of writers in expressing themselves. They are thus about style, the study of which can be seen as a branch of literary criticism. There are various objections that can be made to the notion (implicit in Bernhard’s statement) that the inclusion of ‘poeticisms’ in prose was an imperial development and represented a debasement of the literary language. The diversity of extant prose is a major theme of this book. Examples of early long sentences are also presented. Bad writing may show up clearly in a translation. This writing may be determined in a non-literary text written by someone who had not had a literary education and might not even have been a native speaker of Latin. Archaism emerges as a generic label rather than a unified category. The chapter then discusses the translation from Greek. Aspects of high-style Latin prose, namely neologism, archaism, Greek loanword, and poeticism, are described.

The presentation of earlier theories of grammatical gender opens with detailed discussion of a famous scene from Aristophanes' Clouds. The presentation of the linguistic facts begins with the question of the marking of gender on (and by means of) pronouns of different kinds in various languages. With Lecture 2, the noun is looked at, to the formal differentiation of nouns according to the sex of the referent, to other types of gender-motivated opposition (e.g., Lat. animus vs anima), and to the relations between neuters and masculines/feminines. Lectures 3 and 4 address the relation between declension and grammatical gender, both in nouns denoting animate beings (including communia and epicoena) and in other nouns (including the example of Lat. dies). This chapter concludes (Lecture 5) with three further discussions: of theories concerning the origin of gender in names for inanimate objects; of the phenomenon of change of gender, with special reference to the gender of loanwords; and of gender-marking on adjectives.

The presentation of earlier theories of grammatical gender opens with detailed discussion of a famous scene from Aristophanes' Clouds. The presentation of the linguistic facts begins with the question of the marking of gender on (and by means of) pronouns of different kinds in various languages. With Lecture 2,the noun is looked at, to the formal differentiation of nouns according to the sex of the referent, to other types of gender-motivated opposition (e.g., Lat. animus vs anima), and to the relations between neuters and masculines/feminines. Lectures 3 and 4 address the relation between declension and grammatical gender, both in nouns denoting animate beings (including communia and epicoena) and in other nouns (including the example of Lat. dies). This chapter concludes (Lecture 5) with three further discussions: of theories concerning the origin of gender in names for inanimate objects; of the phenomenon of change of gender, with special reference to the gender of loanwords; and of gender-marking on adjectives.

The presentation of earlier theories of grammatical gender opens with detailed discussion of a famous scene from Aristophanes' Clouds. The presentation of the linguistic facts begins with the question of the marking of gender on (and by means of) pronouns of different kinds in various languages. With Lecture 2, the noun is looked at,to the formal differentiation of nouns according to the sex of the referent, to other types of gender-motivated opposition (e.g., Lat. animus vs anima), and to the relations between neuters and masculines/feminines. Lectures 3 and 4 address the relation between declension and grammatical gender, both in nouns denoting animate beings (including communia and epicoena) and in other nouns (including the example of Lat. dies). This chapter concludes (Lecture 5) with three further discussions: of theories concerning the origin of gender in names for inanimate objects; of the phenomenon of change of gender, with special reference to the gender of loanwords; and of gender-marking on adjectives.

The presentation of earlier theories of grammatical gender opens with detailed discussion of a famous scene from Aristophanes' Clouds. The presentation of the linguistic facts begins with the question of the marking of gender on (and by means of) pronouns of different kinds in various languages. With Lecture 2, the noun is looked at, to the formal differentiation of nouns according to the sex of the referent,to other types of gender-motivated opposition (e.g., Lat. animus vs anima), and to the relations between neuters and masculines/feminines. Lectures 3 and 4 address the relation between declension and grammatical gender, both in nouns denoting animate beings (including communia and epicoena) and in other nouns (including the example of Lat. dies). This chapter concludes (Lecture 5) with three further discussions: of theories concerning the origin of gender in names for inanimate objects; of the phenomenon of change of gender, with special reference to the gender of loanwords; and of gender-marking on adjectives.

The presentation of earlier theories of grammatical gender opens with detailed discussion of a famous scene from Aristophanes' Clouds. The presentation of the linguistic facts begins with the question of the marking of gender on (and by means of) pronouns of different kinds in various languages. With Lecture 2, the noun is looked at, to the formal differentiation of nouns according to the sex of the referent, to other types of gender-motivated opposition (e.g.,Lat. animus vs anima), and to the relations between neuters and masculines/feminines. Lectures 3 and 4 address the relation between declension and grammatical gender, both in nouns denoting animate beings (including communia and epicoena) and in other nouns (including the example of Lat. dies). This chapter concludes (Lecture 5) with three further discussions: of theories concerning the origin of gender in names for inanimate objects; of the phenomenon of change of gender, with special reference to the gender of loanwords; and of gender-marking on adjectives.

This chapter considers the linguistic categories ‘Latin’, ‘Greek’, and ‘barbarian’, with particular reference to the debate in Gellius 19.13 over the status in Latin of the word, nanus (dwarf), thought barbarian by Fronto but proved Greek by Sulpicius Apollinaris. As such, it is admissible in Latin (where indeed it had been used by Helvius Cinna in relation to ponies); but even if not, use by Fronto would have conferred on it a higher standing than the vulgarisms introduced by Laberius enjoyed. It is demonstrated that grammatical tradition treats Latin as a form of Aeolic Greek, so that Greek loanwords are not intruders as barbarian words are. The chapter also considers the difference between the historical Fronto's approval for Laberius' word-choices and Gellius' own, on the whole unfavourable judgement on them.

An analysis is made of the evidence for a non-Indo-Aryan linguistic substratum in Sanskrit texts, which has remained perhaps the principal and (in the author’s view) the most persuasive reason brought forward in support of the Aryan invasions and migrations. The issue here is: Do the Vedic texts preserve linguistic evidence of languages preceding the Indo-Aryan presence on the Indian subcontinent? This is an essential aspect of the debate, but one that has been mostly ignored by Indigenous Aryanists. The different sections of the chapter look at linguistic (syntactical) innovations in Sanskrit, the existence of “loanwords” ascribed to either Dravidian, Munda, and/or unknown origins, terms for flora in Indic languages, and place names and river names. Finally the possibility (first raised by Bloch) is explored that it was Dravidian that intruded into an Indo-Aryan speaking area and not vice versa.

This chapter deals with the linguistic evidence from outside of India, particularly loanwords from the Finno-Ugric languages (which have been identified either as Indo-Iranian, Iranian, or Indo-Aryan) as well as the Mitanni and Avestan evidence, all of which have a direct bearing on the problem. Here, too, Indigenists have their own way of accounting for the evidence. The first section of the chapter looks at Semitic loans in Indo-European (Nichol’s model), Finno-Ugric, and other traces of Indo-Aryan (in the Caucasian and Ketic languages, on the borders of China and Korea, in the Kuban region north of the Black Sea, around the Caspian Sea, in Europe, in Afghanistan, and the Middle East). It then examines whether the Avesta (the body of texts preserving the ancient canon of the Iranian Zarathustran tradition) and the Mitanni (a kingdom in north Mesopotamia in the fourteenth century B.C.E.) treaties can throw any light on the Indo-Iranian homeland.

This chapter argues that there is a deep connection between feature ordering, contrast, and phonological activity. Contrasts are governed by language‐specific feature hierarchies; only contrastive features so determined are active in the phonology. These claims are supported and illustrated by case studies involving vowel harmony, consonant co‐occurrence, and loanword adaptation.

This chapter offers a summary of this book’s findings with regard to the issues raised in Chapter 1. The Latin/Spanish continuum has been receptive throughout its history to the incorporation of loanwords resulting from oral and written language contact. Any analysis of the impact of loanwords must rest on a base of solid etymologies. A study of cross-linguistic trends observable in loanwords may help evaluate hypotheses that identify a specific lexical item as a loanword. This chapter offers thoughts concerning the grammatical category of loanwords, the rivalry between loanwords and items already present in the language, their diffusion through the speech community, and their subsequent integration, vitality, and survival.

This chapter examines the entry and subsequent diffusion and incorporation of New World vocabulary from the native languages of the New World into early modern Spanish. In the New World, speakers of Spanish encountered languages with which they had not even a minimum degree of familiarity. At the outset communication was at best rudimentary. Early borrowings from these languages entered Peninsular Spanish via written reports from the New World. The overwhelming majority of indigenous lexical items that entered Peninsular and New World Spanish are nouns designating realities of the local physical terrain, flora, fauna, foods, dress, customs, indigenous social organization, etc. Only a relatively small number of words from the New World took root in Spain. The proposed New World origin of some items (e.g. tabaco, poncho) remains controversial.

This chapter examines the impact of Germanic languages, primarily Gothic, on the Latin of the Iberian Peninsula. It may be inaccurate to talk about direct language contact between speakers of the Hispano-Latin/Hispano-Romance continuum and Gothic. The Latin of the Visigoths may have been characterized by the presence of Germanic lexical items retained during the (perhaps still ongoing) process of shift from Gothic to Latin. The majority of the Germanic roots found in Spanish entered as borrowings from other languages, especially medieval and modern varieties of Gallo-Romance. The etymological study of Germanic loanwords illustrates the analytic importance of the distinction between the immediate source of a loanword in the recipient language and its more remote ancestry. The chapter concludes with an overview of the small number of (early) modern borrowings from Flemish and German.

This chapter studies French and Provençal loanwords. Most medieval Gallo-Romance loans reflect spheres of activity in which France predominated over its neighbors in the Iberian Peninsula. In some instances the Gallicisms displaced referentially similar words in medieval Hispano-Romance. Gallicisms played the leading role in introducing the suffix -aje/-age into Hispano-Romance. French lexical influence on (early) modern Spanish reflects French predominance in European cultural, political, social, and intellectual life from the sixteenth century onwards. Almost all borrowings from this period are nouns. Much technical terminology of the nascent natural and social sciences entered Spanish from Gallo-Romance through written sources. Such neologisms often take the form of semantic loans and calques. The modern influx of Gallicisms provoked the first overt reaction against loanwords in restricted circles of the educated speech community.

This chapter studies the lexical impact on Spanish of Portuguese and Catalan. The medieval Galician-Portuguese tradition of lyric poetry and Portugal’s later importance as a maritime power may account for the transmission into Spanish of many Lusisms. More problematic from the perspective of etymological analysis are a series of lexical items referring to realities of rural life and the weather, whose phonological evolution from Latin seems, on the surface, to reflect tendencies associated with Luso-Romance. In the fifteenth century, the sociolinguistic prestige of Catalan declined significantly. The close morphological and lexical affinities between medieval varieties of Catalan and of southern Gallo-Romance often make it difficult to determine which of these two languages is the immediate source of a given Old Spanish lexical item. Catalan also served as the language through which some medieval Arabisms and Italianisms entered Hispano-Romance.