1. Old English sound changes.
Change(s)
a. crabba [kraba] → crab
1. The vowel [a] became [æ].
2. The word-final [a] was lost.
b. fisc [fɪsk] → fish
1. The [s] became [ʃ].
2. The final [k] was lost.
c. fl [fuːl] → foul
1. The long vowel [uː] became [aʊ].
d. gāt [gaːt] → goat
1. The long vowel [aː] became [o].
e. lfan [læːvan] → leave
1. The long vowel [æː] became [i].
2. The [an] ending was lost.
f. teþ [teːθ] → teeth
1. The long vowel [eː] became [i].
2. Great vowel shift. Answers will vary. Sample answers:
[i]/[ɛ]
[aɪ]/[ɪ]
[e]/[æ]
a. clean/cleanse
deride/derision
vain/vanity
b. thief/theft
rhyme/rhythm
sate/satisfy
c. feel/felt
crime/criminal
flame/flammable
d. keep/kept
precise/precision
nation/national
e. please/pleasure
line/linear
page/paginate
3. Changes in English. In the answers given below, only syntactic changes are discussed. Lexical changes
(e.g., hath to has) are not noted.
a. It nothing pleased his master.
b. He hath said that we would lift them whom that him please.
ModE: He has said that we would lift those who please him.
c. I have a brother is condemned to die.
ModE: I have a brother who is condemned to die.
d. I bade them take away you.
e. I wish you was still more a Tartar.
ModE: I wish you were even more of a Tartar / I wish even more that you were a Tartar.
f. Christ slept and his apostles.
ModE: Christ slept and his apostles did too.
g. Me was told.
ModE: I was told.
4. Recent and archaic words in English. Answers will vary. Sample answers:
a. 1. fronting: putting on a front that you are something you’re not or have something you don’t.
b. 1. slide rule: a handheld instrument the size of a foot-long ruler used to calculate square roots and
c. 1. credit card meaning “to buy with a credit card,” e.g., I can’t really afford this, but I’m just going to
credit card it.
d. 1. sextant: Once used for navigation, it is now becoming obsolete with the advent of electronic posi-
e. Answers will vary.
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site, in whole or in part.
product has been released.” (from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx)
2. PowerReporting. Website on resources for journalists. (http://www.powerreporting.com/)
3. Power Proofreading. An educational website for children.
(http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/proofread/proof.htm)
4. PowerBar. “a brand of bar-shaped food intended for use esp. by athletes, having a high carbohy-
drate and low fat content with protein and vitamin supplements.” (from dictionary.reference.com)
5. power broker. “a person who wields great political, governmental, or financial power.” (from dic-
tionary.reference.com)
f. Answers will vary.
5. Latin–French correspondences.
a. False. The modern French word for “thing” shows that a /k/, which occurred before the vowel /a/ in Lat-
in, became [ʃ] in French.
6. Indo-European. The Indo-European languages are the ones numbered 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, and 11.
7. Etymology. The answers below come from the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd
edition (unabridged). Only the etymological information associated with each word is given below; the
student may speculate freely on how each word was borrowed.
o. coyote: From the Nahuatl coyotl, borrowed through Spanish.
p. chocolate: From Nahuatl xocolatl, which probably meant “bitter water,” borrowed through Spanish.
Arabic sukkar; obscurely akin to Persian shakar, Greek sákcharon.
8. Analogic change. Sample answers:
1. In common usage, it is considered nonstandard to say it’s me, I’m her, etc., as opposed to it is I or I
am she. In standard English, pronouns in the accusative case form are typically in a non-initial posi-
2. In standard English, you can be either singular or plural. “Tim saw you” can mean that Tim saw one
3. Verbs in English typically fall into two categories: (1) verbs where the past tense and the past partici-
ple are the same (examples: “I sit.” “I sat.” “I have sat.”) (2) verbs where there are three distinct forms
9. Regularity and irregularity. Sound change is regular because every affected sound in a particular envi-
ronment is changed to another sound. For example, the Great Vowel Shift in English regularly caused all
10. The English of Hamlet.
Line 1: hath eat of a king is now has eaten a king.
11. Spanish dialects.
a. Correspondence sets:
i. k-k
ii. a-a
b. Protosounds:
i. k-k *k
ii. a-a *a
iii. s-θ *θ
xiv. ŋ–ŋ *ŋ
c.
Dialect 1: *[ʎ] → [j]
d. Dialect 1 Dialect 2 Gloss Earlier Form
[kasa] [kaθa] hunt (noun) *[kasa]
12. Proto-Polynesian.
a. Correspondence sets:
i. p-p-p-b
ii. o-o-o-o
iii. u-u-u-u
xiv. h-h-s-s
b. Protosounds:
i. p-p-p-b
*p
p → b in Fijian
ii. o-o-o-o
*o
iii. u-u-u-u
*u
iv. t-k-t-t
*t
t → k in Hawaiian
v. a-a-a-a
*a
vi. ŋ-n-ŋ–ŋ
*ŋ
ŋ → n in Hawaiian
vii. i-i-i-i
*i
viii. k-ʔ–ʔ-k
*k
k → ʔ k in Hawaiian and Samoan (though the inverse answer
should be accepted as well, given that there isn’t enough data)
ix. e-e-e-e
*e
x. r-l-l-l
*l
l → r in Maori
xi. h-h-f-v
*f
f → h in Maori and Hawaiian
f → v in Fijian
xii. n-n-n-n
*n
xiii. m-m-m-
m
*m
xiv. h-h-s-s
*s
s → h in Maori and Hawaiian
c. Reconstructed words in Proto-Polynesian. These proto forms are the same as in Samoan.
© 2019 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible web-
site, in whole or in part.
*takele
*fono
*malama
*kaso
13. Reconstruction of American Indian languages.
a. Correspondence sets:
Consonants
Vowels
i.
m-m
i.
u-u
ii.
p-p
ii.
i-i
iii.
t-t
iii
.
a-a
iv.
m-w
iv
.
ɨ–ɨ
v.
w-w
v.
o-o
vi.
s-s
vi
.
a-e
vii.
ʔ–ʔ
viii
.
n-n
ix.
h-h
x.
k-k
b. Protosounds:
(1) Reconstruction:
p-p
*p
u-u
*u
t-t
*t
i-i
*i
s-s
*s
a-a
*a
ʔ–ʔ
*ʔ
ɨ–ɨ
*ɨ
n-n
*n
o-o
*o
h-h
*h
a-e
*e
k-k
*k
(2) The only protosound listed above that underwent a change is *e, which became a in Yerington
Paviotso.
c. (1) Whenever a w appears in Yerington Paviotso, the sound in the corresponding position in Northfork
© 2019 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible web-
site, in whole or in part.
and *b corresponds to m word-initially and w between vowels in Northfork Monachi. But this
solution is unmotivated; the simpler solution below is better.
(3) The protosounds are *m and *w. Proto *m becomes m in Yerington Paviotso. In Northfork Mona-
chi, proto *m becomes m word-initially and w between vowels. Proto *w becomes w in both Yer-
ington Paviotso and Northfork Monachi.
e. The proto forms are the same as those in Yerington Paviotso except for the words with a proto *e
sound.
“nose”
*mupi
“tooth”
*tama
“heart”
*piwɨ
“a feminine name”
*sawaʔpono
“liver”
*nɨmɨ
“springtime”
*tamano
“aunt”
*pahwa
“husband”
*kuma
“Indians living to the west”
*wowaʔa
“porcupine”
*mɨhɨ
“throat”
*noto
“sun”
*tape
“jaw”
*ʔatapɨ
“older brother”
*papiʔi
“daughter”
*peti
“man”
*nana
“bow,” “gun”
*ʔetɨ
14. Proto-Egglish.
a. Correspondence sets:
i. ʃ-k
ii. u-u
Proto-Egglish words from which the cognates descended:
*kur
“omelet”
*vet
“yoke”
*rɔk
“egg”
*ver
“egg shell”
*gup
“soufflé”
*vel
“egg white”
*pe
“hard-boiled”
b. Sound changes.
i. velar stops → palatal fricatives, word-initially, in Big-End Egglish. This sound change is more
likely than the opposite, because a change similar to this took place in French, as discussed earlier
15. Greek and Latin roots. Answers will vary.
Greek
a. pente “five”: English pentagram, pentagon, pentacle
t. lingua “tongue, language”: English linguistics, language, lingual
16. Post-nominal adjectives in English.
a. All the adjectives that occur post-nominally in data begin with a- and are related to a form that does
17. Pictograms. Part One: The following are sample answers:
a. eye:
Part Two. The most difficult words to symbolize are words like honesty and ugly. Honesty is an abstract
word without a physical referent. The picture drawn above is not a good one, since it symbolizes
18. Rebuses. Part One. Sample answers are given below.
Part Two: Such a system would create problems in attempting to represent, for example, synonyms such
as chair and seat. In addition, as stated above, not all English words can be easily represented in this
way. For example, the word tragedy is hard to represent as a combination of pictures; how would one
symbolize the syllables tra, ged, y? It would also be difficult or impossible to maintain consistency so
19. Non-Roman alphabetic letters. Sample answers:
A. Alphabetic letters:
t
!
r
@
s
#
k
$
w
%
ʧ
&
i
*
æ
?
f
+
n
=
B. We have used regular alphabetic spelling (not phonetic spelling) for sounds not specified in the new
orthography.
a. character
$?@a$!e@
b. guest
ge#!
c. cough
$a+
d. photo
+o!o
e. cheat
&*!
f. rang
@?=g
g. psychotic
#y$o!i$
h. tree
!@*
20. Syllabic systems. Answers will vary. A sample is provided here.
Syllabary:
A = child [ʧaɪld]
B = ish [ɪʃ]
Syllabic representations:
a. child-ish-ness:
ABC
b. child-like:
AD
c. Je–su-it:
EFG
d. life-less-ness:
HIC
e. like-ly:
DJ
f. zoo:
F
g. wit-ness:
GC
h. le-thal:
JK
i. jea-lous:
EI
j. wit-less:
GI
k. les-son:
LM