historical linguistics
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Related to historical linguistics: descriptive linguistics, structural linguistics
historical linguistics
n. (used with a sing. verb)
The study of linguistic change over time in language or in a particular language or language family, sometimes including the reconstruction of unattested forms of earlier stages of a language. Also called philology.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
historical linguistics
n
(Linguistics) (functioning as singular) the study of language as it changes in the course of time, with a view either to discovering general principles of linguistic change or to establishing the correct genealogical classification of particular languages. Also called: diachronic linguistics Compare descriptive linguistics
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
historical linguistics
The study of the changes in a language over a period of time.
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited
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Noun | 1. | historical linguistics - the study of linguistic change; "the synchrony and diachrony of language" linguistics - the scientific study of language sound law - a law describing sound changes in the history of a language deriving, etymologizing, derivation - (historical linguistics) an explanation of the historical origins of a word or phrase |
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Translations
Historische Sprachwissenschaft