Product Information
History, archaeology, and human evolutionary genetics provide us with an increasingly detailed view of the origins and development of the peoples that live in Northwestern Europe. This book aims to restore the key position of historical linguistics in this debate by treating the history of the Germanic languages as a history of its speakers. It focuses on the role that language contact has played in creating the Germanic languages, between the first millennium BC and the crucially important early medieval period. Chapters on the origins of English, German, Dutch, and the Germanic language family as a whole illustrate how the history of the sounds of these languages provide a key that unlocks the secret of their genesis: speakers of Latin, Celtic and Balto-Finnic switched to speaking Germanic and in the process introduced a 'foreign accent' that caught on and spread at the expense of types of Germanic that were not affected by foreign influence. The book is aimed at linguists, historians, archaeologists and anyone who is interested in what languages can tell us about the origins of their speakers.Product Identifiers
PublisherRoutledge
ISBN-100415355486
ISBN-139780415355483
eBay Product ID (ePID)92677421
Product Key Features
Number of Pages236 Pages
Publication NameLanguage Contact and the Origins of the Germanic Languages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2013
SubjectMiscellaneous, Linguistics / Historical & Comparative, Linguistics / General, Linguistics / Etymology
TypeLanguage Course
AuthorPeter Schrijver
Subject AreaForeign Language Study, Language Arts & Disciplines
SeriesRoutledge Studies in Linguistics Ser.
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height0.7 in
Item Weight16.8 oz.
Item Length9.3 in
Item Width6.1 in