19LanguagehistoryandchangeLinguisticinvestigationofthistype,stillcarriedontwocenturiesafterSirWilliam’soriginalinsight,focusesonthehistoricaldevelopmentoflanguagesandattemptstocharacterizetheregularprocesseswhichareinvolvedinlanguagechange.1,FamilytreesWithproto-indo-europeanestablishedasthe‘great-grandmother’,scholarsetouttotracethebranchesofherfamilytree,showingthelineageofmanymodernlanguages,asillustratedintheaccompanyingdiagram.2,FamilyrelationshipsOnthefaceofit,twolanguagessuchasItalianandHindiwouldseemtohavenothingincommon.Onewaytoseetherelationshipsmoreclearlyisbylookingatrecordsofanordergeneration,likeLainandSanskrit,fromwhichthemodernlanguagesdeveloped.3,CognatesTheprocesswehavejustemployedinestablishedsomepossiblefamilyconnectionbetweendifferentlanguagesinvolvedlookingatwhatcalledcognates.4,comparativereconstructionUsinginformationfromthesecognatessets,wecanthenembankonaprocedurecalledcomparativereconstruction.Themajorityprincipleisverystraightforward.Themostnaturaldevelopmentprincipleisbasedonthefactthatcertaintypesofsound-changeareverycommon,whereasothersareextremelyunlikely.5,LanguagechangeThehistoricaldevelopmentofEnglishisusuallydividedintothreemajorperiods.(1)OldEnglish(2)MiddleEnglish6,Soundchanges(1)thechangeknownasmetathesisinvolvesareversalinpositionoftwoadjoiningsounds.(2)anotherchangeinvolvestheadditionofasoundtothemiddleofaword,whichisknownasepenthesis.(3)itinvolvestheadditionofasoundtothebeginningofawordandiscalledprothesis.7,SyntacticchangesSomenoticeabledifferencesbetweenthestructureofsentencesinoldandmodernEnglishinvolvewordorder.8,LexicalchangesThemostobviouswayinwhichmodernEnglishdifferslexicallyfromOldEnglishisinthenumberofborrowedwords,particularlywordsofLatinandGreekorigin,whichhavecomeintothelanguagesincetheoldEnglish.