Atkinson’s theory of language origins

Feb 10, 2012 by

Atkinson’s theory of language origins

In a number of earlier posts, I’ve discussed the recent work by Quentin D. Atkinson from the University of Auckland on the origin and spread of language. In an article published in Science, Atkinson shows that by applying...

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On geographic determinism and nasal vowels in French

Dec 30, 2011 by

On geographic determinism and nasal vowels in French

In a recent post, I discussed one example of geographic determinism applied to linguistic typology. The thinking behind geographic determinism is as follows: certain kinds of terrain or weather favor certain structural features in...

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Adding apples and oranges?

Apr 25, 2011 by

In several earlier positngs (and also here), I discussed the research on the geographical origin of language by Dr. Atkinson recently published in Science. In those postings I identified several problems with Dr. Atkinson’s...

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Great Vowel Shift — part 3

Aug 3, 2010 by

To conclude this series of postings on the Great Vowel Shift let’s look at the possible causes of this wholesale upheaval in the vowel system of English. The question of why the Great Vowel Shift happened can be broken down...

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NT PRNCNG VWLS?

Apr 20, 2010 by

This cartoon, discussed also in yesterday’s posting, suggests that one direction in which English is going is “dropping the vowels”. Here I rush to assure the reader that this is probably not going to happen....

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