Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-14T07:22:28.537Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Evidence and sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2013

John Charles Smith
Affiliation:
St Catherine's College, Oxford
Adam Ledgeway
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

The question of the nature of linguistic evidence, and of what textual sources actually attest, is a slippery one for synchronic linguists investigating their own native language, so it is unsurprising that it should also be a hard one for the diachronic analyst. The widespread use of the term diglossia may have done little more than create confusion in the linguistic analysis of individuals in complex monolingual speech communities and the textual evidence. The consequence is that phonetic change can progress a long way without evidence for it being directly attested in a written source. The realization of this dissociation was the main motivation for the twentieth-century reconstruction of proto-Romance on the basis of extrapolating backwards from medieval Romance written evidence rather than by examining the written texts provided for readers by those who supposedly spoke it.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×