Routledge Studies in Historical Linguistics
About the Book Series
Historical linguistics is one of the oldest disciplines of linguistics. It is the glue of much other foundational work on the nature of language and provides crucial insights into how humans have migrated and interacted with one another over the last five thousand years. It is both a highly theoretical and profoundly empirical field, rooted in the traditions of language documentation. Routledge Studies in Historical Linguistics reflects the diversity of work that studies language from a diachronic perspective. The scope of the series includes: 1) diachronic issues within specific subfields of linguistics, including (but not limited to) issues related to the theory of change in phonology, morphology, phonetics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, language contact, and typology; 2) Within historical linguistics, work dealing with language classification, grammaticalisation, contact-induced change, reconstruction, as well as theoretical perspectives on language evolution; 3) comparative/historical grammars of specific languages and language families, including detailed comparative reconstruction in phonology, morphology, and syntax; 4) interdisciplinary studies which combine language change with insights from (but not limited to) archaeology, anthropology, history, or geography.
If you’re interested in submitting a proposal to the series, please contact Series Editor Claire Bowern ([email protected]).
Digitally-assisted Historical English Linguistics
1st Edition
Edited
By Carolina P. Amador-Moreno, Dagmar Haumann, Arne Peters
May 05, 2025
This collection features different perspectives on how digital tools are changing our understanding of language varieties, language contact, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and dialectology through the lens of different historical contexts. With a clear focus on English, chapters in the volume ...
Binomials in Late Middle English to Early Modern English: Style, Frequency and Etymology
1st Edition
By Akinobu Tani
March 17, 2025
This book charts the development of style and lexicon in the English language from Late Middle English to Early Modern English through the analysis of binomials across a wide range of texts and genres. The volume elucidates the forms, functions, and origins of binomials, otherwise understood as ...
The English Language Before England: An Epigraphic Account
1st Edition
By Bernard Mees
August 26, 2024
This pioneering work explores epigraphic evidence for the development of English before the Anglo-Saxon period, bringing together linguistic, historical and archaeological perspectives on early inscriptions, making them more accessible to a wider audience. The volume offers a new account of the ...
Historical Linguistics and Endangered Languages: Exploring Diversity in Language Change
1st Edition
Edited
By Patience Epps, Danny Law, Na'ama Pat-El
January 09, 2023
This collection showcases the contributions of the study of endangered and understudied languages to historical linguistic analysis, and the broader relevance of diachronic approaches toward developing better informed approaches to language documentation and description. The volume brings together...
The Diachrony of Verb Meaning: Aspect and Argument Structure
1st Edition
By Elly van Gelderen
August 14, 2020
This innovative volume offers a comprehensive account of the study of language change in verb meaning in the history of the English language. Integrating both the author’s previous body of work and new research, the book explores the complex dynamic between linguistic structures, morphosyntactic ...
Advances in Proto-Basque Reconstruction with Evidence for the Proto-Indo-European-Euskarian Hypothesis
1st Edition
By Juliette Blevins
August 08, 2019
This book presents a new reconstruction of Proto-Basque, the mother language of modern Basque varieties, historical Basque, and Aquitanian, grounded in traditional methods of historical linguistics. Building on a long tradition of Basque scholarship, the comparative method and internal ...