On the general level, the paper evaluates analytical methods for combined linguistic, archaeological and historical research. Specifically, the paper takes up the controversially discussed, but never fully resolved, history of the g > ɣ > h lenition in Bohemia, a core migration area of medieval… read more
Bowern, Claire, John Charles Smith, Betsy Sneller, Meredith Tamminga, Jadranka Gvozdanović, John A. Goldsmith, Götz Keydana and Juliette Blevins 2024 Diachrony and Diachronica: 40@40Diachronica 41:1, pp. 127–140 | Editorial
This paper investigates the principles of modal development across modal domains, and the capacity of modal maps to account for these developments. The starting point is a relative newcomer in Slavic, the modal ‘have to’ + infinitive construction, which came to partially replace the older dative… read more
This introduction discusses the construal of temporal categories, their connection with spatial categories and general principles of the patterning of time in language. Transfers between categories and up language hierarchies are frequent types of change. It is shown how aspect may either lose or… read more
The paper analyses the typology of change processes proposed by Andersen (2001, 2006) by minutely investigating semantic and pragmatic properties of temporal categories in the earliest Slovene texts, which emerged under German cultural influence, but preserved primacy of system-motivated… read more
Dialectal grouping of early Indo-European is usually reconstructed by listing phonological, grammatical, and lexical similarities, without asking the question of whether these properties constitute typologically coherent sets that may have determined further developments. Moreover, the dialectal… read more
This paper discusses methods for evaluating potential language contacts before the earliest written documents. It shows that both evaluation of (usually) sparse empirical evidence and typological evaluation are required for an explanation. Of paramount importance are considerations of specificity… read more
The paper discusses two progressive accent shifts which happened in Slavic during the post-migrational period before the end of the first millennium AD. Both shifts cross-cut the preceding pattern in Slavic, yet the first of these was relatively general and the second was highly restricted. In… read more