historical linguistics

historical linguistics, the branch of linguistics concerned with the study of phonological, grammatical, and semantic changes, the reconstruction of earlier stages of languages, and the discovery and application of the methods by which genetic relationships among languages can be demonstrated. Historical linguistics had its roots in the etymological speculations of classical and medieval times, in the comparative study of Greek and Latin developed during the Renaissance, and in the speculations of scholars as to the language from which the other languages of the world were descended. It was only in the 19th century, however, that more scientific methods of language comparison and sufficient data on the early Indo-European languages combined to establish the principles now used by historical linguists. The theories of the Neogrammarians, a group of German historical linguists and classical scholars who first gained prominence in the 1870s, were especially important because of the rigorous manner in which they formulated sound correspondences in the Indo-European languages. In the 20th century, historical linguists have successfully extended the application of the theories and methods of the 19th century to the classification and historical study of non-Indo-European languages. Historical linguistics, when contrasted with synchronic linguistics, the study of a language at a particular point in time, is often called diachronic linguistics.