Isogloss

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Isoglosses on the Faroe Islands
High German subdivides into Upper German (green) and Central German (cyan), and is distinguished from Low Franconian and Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines
, are marked in black.

An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain

areal linguistics, in which they represent the extent of borrowing of features between languages in contact with one another; and in the wave model of historical linguistics, in which they indicate the similarities and differences between members of a language family
.

Major

/y/ cuts across France and Germany, while the /y/ is absent from Italian and Spanish words that are cognates
with the /y/-containing French words.

One of the best-known isoglosses is the

centum-satem isogloss
.

Similar to an isogloss, an isograph is a distinguishing feature of a writing system. Both concepts are also used in historical linguistics.

Etymology

The term isogloss (Ancient Greek ἴσος ísos "equal, similar" and γλῶσσα glōssa "tongue, dialect, language") is inspired by

isobars. However, the isogloss separates rather than connects points. Consequently, it has been proposed for the term heterogloss (ἕτερος héteros "other") to be used instead.[1]

Examples

Centum–satem isogloss

Main article:
Centum–satem isogloss

The centum–satem isogloss of the

Indo-European language family relates to the different evolution of the dorsal consonants of Proto-Indo-European
(PIE). In the standard reconstruction, three series of dorsals are recognised:

Labiovelars: *kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ
Velars
:		 *k, *g, *gʰ
Palatals
:		 *ḱ, *ǵ, *ǵʰ

In some branches (for example

interrogative pronoun
" became quō "how? where?". They are known as centum branches, named after the Latin word for hundred.

In other branches (for example, Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian), the labiovelars merged with the velars: PIE *keup- became Vedic Sanskrit kopáyati "shaken" and *kʷo- became Avestan kō "who?"; but *ḱm̥tom became Avestan satəm. They are known as satem branches, after the Avestan word for hundred.[2][3]

Since the Balto-Slavic family, the Indo-Iranian family, and the other satem families are spoken in adjacent geographic regions, they can be grouped by an isogloss: a geographic line separating satem branches on one side from centum branches on the other.

North–Midland isogloss (American English)

A major isogloss in

Cleveland, Ohio; lower Michigan; northern Illinois; and eastern Wisconsin) have the shift, while regions south of the line (including Pennsylvania, central and southern Ohio, and most of Indiana
) do not.

Northwest Semitic

A feature of the ancient

Proto-Semitic and subsequent non-Northwest Semitic languages and dialects, the root letters
for a word for "child" were w-l-d. However, in the ancient Northwest Semitic languages, the word was y-l-d, with w- > y-.

Similarly, Proto-Semitic ā becomes ō in the

Aramaic languages
and dialects of Northwest Semitic, the historic ā is preserved. Thus, an ancient Northwest Semitic language whose historic ā became ō can be classed as part of the Canaanite branch of Northwest Semitic.

Such features can be used as data of fundamental importance for the purposes of linguistic classification.

Isographs

Just as there are distinguishing features of related languages, there are also distinguishing features of related scripts.[5]

For example, a distinguishing feature of the

Aramaic has open-headed forms. Similarly, the bet of Old Hebrew has a distinctive stance (it leans to the right), but the bet of the Aramaic and Phoenician scripts
series has a different stance (in both, it leans to the left).

In 2006, Christopher Rollston suggested using the term isograph to designate a feature of the script that distinguishes it from a related script series, such as a feature that distinguishes the script of Old Hebrew from Old Aramaic and Phoenician.[6]

See also

  • Areal feature – Linguistic feature arising through language contact rather than common descent
  • Dialect – Geographically or socially determined language variety
  • Dialectology – Scientific study of linguistic dialect
  • Dialect continuum – Geographic range of dialects that vary more strongly at the distant ends
  • Cultural boundary
     – Geographical area associated with a specific cultural orientation
  • Language border – Geolinguistic boundary between mutually intelligible speech communities
  • Joret line – isogloss between langues d'oïl in Northern France
  • Sprachbund – Group of languages sharing areal features
  • Uerdingen line – Isogloss in German dialectology

References

  1. ISBN 90-272-3698-4
    .
  2. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7
    .
  3. ISBN 3-89500-219-4
    .
  4. ISBN 978-1-57506-091-0
    .
  5. ISBN 0-19-507993-0
    .
  6. S2CID 160670117
    .

Bibliography

External links

Look up isogloss in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Isoglosses.
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