Diachronica journal
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Diachronica journal
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Diachronica journal @diachronica.bsky.social · Jan 20
This is the account of the historical #linguistics journal Diachronica. We publish papers on all aspects of language change. Recent articles and submission information available at benjamins.com/catalog/dia
Diachronica
Issue of Diachronica
benjamins.com
diachronica.bsky.social
Diachronica will be at the LSA in New Orleans! Probably won't have "official" office hours but do come and find any of the editorial team if you have questions about submitting to us!
December 3, 2025 at 12:04 AM
diachronica.bsky.social
42.3-4 print double issue is currently being printed and should be on its way to libraries shortly. I signed off on the proofs for 42.5 today, and the content of 43.1 is lined up and will be printed in early January
December 3, 2025 at 12:01 AM
diachronica.bsky.social
Introduction benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
The introduction to our tone special (double) issue is now online!
Introduction
benjamins.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:10 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
The diachronic evolution of syllable-onset /Cl/ clusters in Romance revisited benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
The diachronic evolution of syllable-onset /Cl/ clusters in Romance revisited: An integrated account
This paper deals with the historical development of the syllable-onset clusters /kl gl pl bl fl/ in Romance languages and dialects and with their articulatory and/or perceptual motivations. Several di...
benjamins.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:09 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
Kra-Dai tonogenesis in Austro-Tai perspective benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
Kra-Dai tonogenesis in Austro-Tai perspective
The complex tone inventories of Kra-Dai languages derive in part from earlier segmental codas via transphonologization. Comparative Austro-Tai research has identified systematic correspondences betwee...
benjamins.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Diachronica journal
betsysneller.bsky.social
I am so grateful to the editors of Diachronica for letting me write this piece in memoriam of Bill Labov.

And so grateful that they let me write what I most wanted to - a piece about Bill's *goodness*, his love for humanity, and how those things *resulted in* what we think of as his genius

🐦
September 10, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Diachronica journal
nilomorph.bsky.social
New publication on Dinka by NILOMORPH member Mirella Blum - "Dialectal tone description enhances historical tonology", in @diachronica.bsky.social

www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour...
Dialectal tone description enhances historical tonology | John Benjamins
Abstract This paper illustrates that in-depth descriptive work of closely related varieties of Dinka, a Nilotic tone language with an unusually complex suprasegmental system, provides solutions to pre...
www.jbe-platform.com
September 17, 2025 at 11:12 AM
diachronica.bsky.social
Falling in love with humanity benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
Falling in love with humanity: Remembering Bill Labov
William (Bill) Labov, pioneering scholar of language change, died on December 17, 2024. His MA and PhD theses in the mid 1960s revolutionized the field of language variation and change, and he spent t...
benjamins.com
September 8, 2025 at 1:06 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
Multiple source explanation in language change benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
Multiple source explanation in language change: The emergence of auxiliary do
The development of the English auxiliary do is a well-studied phenomenon, but there is no agreement on its source (see Denison 1993: Chapter 10). It has been suggested in the literature that a mono-ca...
benjamins.com
September 8, 2025 at 1:06 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
The history of the [ɨm] causatives in Mapudungun benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
The history of the [ɨm] causatives in Mapudungun: From regular phonology to lexicalisation
This paper describes and analyses a historical alternation in what contemporary Mapudungun has developed as a set of transitive roots ending in [Cɨm], where C can represent a labial stop, a retroflex ...
benjamins.com
September 8, 2025 at 1:06 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
The history of the [ɨm] causatives in Mapudungun benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
The history of the [ɨm] causatives in Mapudungun: From regular phonology to lexicalisation
This paper describes and analyses a historical alternation in what contemporary Mapudungun has developed as a set of transitive roots ending in [Cɨm], where C can represent a labial stop, a retroflex ...
benjamins.com
September 8, 2025 at 1:05 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour... is now out, @betsysneller.bsky.social 's beautiful tribute to Bill Labov
Falling in love with humanity | John Benjamins
Abstract William (Bill) Labov, pioneering scholar of language change, died on December 17, 2024. His MA and PhD theses in the mid 1960s revolutionized the field of language variation and change, and h...
www.jbe-platform.com
September 8, 2025 at 1:03 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
Diachronica benjamins.com/catalog/dia....

Benjamins now has a "share on bluesky" button (along with Facebook and LinkedIn)
benjamins.com
August 23, 2025 at 12:56 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
Método comparativo para la determinación de préstamos de lenguas indígenas no habladas en el español benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
Método comparativo para la determinación de préstamos de lenguas indígenas no habladas en el español El caso de los cognados en el muysca ORCID logoDiana Andrea Giraldo Gallego | Universidad de Antioquia El muysca pertenece a la familia lingüística chibcha y aunque se clasifica como una lengua no hablada, préstamos léxicos con su origen sobreviven en el español de Colombia. Aquí se muestran algunos de estos que se identificaron como tales al implementar el método comparativo. Los préstamos determinados bajo este método se tomaron de Giraldo Gallego (2015). Se concluye que (a) el método comparativo es útil para determinar préstamos de lenguas indígenas no habladas en el español, como ocurre con el muysca; (b) la comparación con lenguas no habladas favorece la propuesta de cognados de lenguas habladas, como acontece con el tunebo; (c) la propuesta de cognados permite la identificación de rasgos fonéticos-fonológicos, como en el caso de un posible segmento lateral alveolar aproximante para el muysca (Giraldo Gallego 2016a); y, además, (d) ayuda en la reconstrucción de étimos en una protolengua como se evidencia con el protochibcha. Keywords: cognado, familia lingüística chibcha, muysca, préstamo léxico, protochibcha
August 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
A long farewell benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
A long farewell What the loss of V2 made briefly visible ORCID logoCecilia Poletto | Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main | Università degli studi di Padova ORCID logoPierre Larrivée | Université de Caen Normandie ORCID logoFrancesco Pinzin | Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main ORCID logoMathieu Goux | Université de Caen Normandie The verb second word order (V2) is known to have been present in some Medieval Romance languages, and to have been lost. The loss is however a gradual process that we propose to relate to the decreasing height of the verb movement in the left periphery through the Medieval period: whereas in the initial period the verb could move to a high position (CP Topic/Focus projection), in the final period only lower peripheral positions are accessible. This means that the ongoing change will make visible constructions involving verb movement to a lower position. Such constructions are studied here in parallel texts calibrated for provenance and text type from two Romance languages for the period from the beginning of the 14th century to the 16th century. More specifically, we investigate Participle and Infinitive Fronting in French and Venetian, showing that these structures involve low movement and correlate with a V2 of the low type. Keywords: verb second, language change, fronting, Medieval Romance, French,
August 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
Emergence and evolution of free variation in Central Pame prefixes benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
Emergence and evolution of free variation in Central Pame prefixes Sound change vs. paradigmatic structure ORCID logoBorja Herce | University of Zurich Many word forms from different classes in Central Pame (cent2145, Otomanguean) allow two synonymous forms, one containing a prefix with the vowel /a/ and another one with /u/ (e.g. wa-ttsáuʔ~wu-ttsáuʔ ‘(s)he feels’). I conduct historical corpus research and elicitation to throw light on the diachronic origin and contemporary profile of this unusual phenomenon. Evidence suggests that it started as a sound change /a/ > /u/ between bilabial consonants. However, paradigmatic pressures have largely dismantled the original distribution of allomorphy synchronically, generalizing free variation (i.e. overabundance). In addition, other phonological and morphosyntactic cues have emerged for the probabilistic prediction of these allomorphies. The case provides an extraordinary window into the cognitive underpinnings of sound change, allomorphy, and the paradigm in a highly-inflecting and understudied language. Keywords: paradigm, sound change, overabundance, analogy, Otomanguean, Central Pame
August 23, 2025 at 12:53 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
Towards reconstructing grammatical tone in the northwestern Bantu verb phrase benjamins.com/catalog/dia....
In this paper, I provide a first systematic analysis of grammatical tone (GT) in the verb phrase of northwestern (NW) Bantu languages. Based on a sample of twelve languages, I show that GT on preverbal subject agreement, tense, aspect, mood, and polarity markers, on the verb stem, and tonal phrase-medial/phrase-final verb distinctions are inherited features. In contrast, GT on elements immediately following the verb is an innovation in some genealogical subgroups of NW Bantu. In Proto-NW-Bantu, GT generally co-occurred with segmental morphemes. This “co-exponence” type is retained in the Proto-B clade of NW Bantu, while languages of Proto-A innovated more exponence types, namely tone-only and segment-only exponents, synchronically exhibiting all three exponence types in individual languages.
August 23, 2025 at 12:52 PM
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ruthejbooth.bsky.social
"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details:

LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...

(This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
August 14, 2025 at 5:30 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
We will be at ichl next week! Happy to talk about potential submissions
August 15, 2025 at 3:28 AM
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andrewgarrett.bsky.social
Entirely selfishly, I'm also pleased by echoes of work I've done: "Convergence in the formation of IE subgroups: Phylogeny and chronology" (2006); "Descent and diffusion in language diversification: A study of Western Numic dialectology" (with Babel, Houser & Toosarvandani, 2013).
August 2, 2025 at 12:00 AM
diachronica.bsky.social
New article in the tone special issue
#linguistics
benjamins.com/catalog/dia....

Accent and tone
The double origin of the Paicî prosodic system
Florian Lionnet | Princeton University
Accent and tone The double origin of the Paicî prosodic system ORCID logoFlorian Lionnet | Princeton University What happens when an accentual language develops a tonal contrast from laryngeal features: is the accent system kept alongside the new tone contrast? Is it lost? Do both prosodic systems merge? In this paper, I present the tone system of Paicî, which illustrates the latter outcome. Paicî seems to possess two integrated prosodic subsystems: a purely tonal H vs. L contrast, and a typologically unusual downstep with accentual properties. Building on Rivierre (1978), I show that a comparison with neighboring Xârâcùù, where accent is marked by a similar downstep, explains this apparently mixed system: the H/L tonal contrast emerged through tonogenesis in an already accentual language, where accent was marked by a downstep just like in Xârâcùù. This caused the former downstep to be reinterpreted as tonal. The Paicî case is interesting for the study of the interactions between accent and tone, both in synchrony and in diachrony. Keywords: tone, accent, downstep, Paicî, Xârâcùù, Oceanic, New Caledonia
August 1, 2025 at 1:58 PM
diachronica.bsky.social
New article in our tone special issue
#linguistics
benjamins.com/catalog/dia....

Tonogenesis
A diachronic typology
Lilja Maria Sæbø | Oxford University
Eitan Grossman | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Steven Moran | University of Neuchâtel | University of Zurich
Tonogenesis A diachronic typology ORCID logoLilja Maria Sæbø | Oxford University ORCID logoEitan Grossman | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ORCID logoSteven Moran | University of Neuchâtel | University of Zurich This article presents the Database of Tonogenetic Events (DTE), which describes 259 tonogenetic events from 104 genealogically and geographically diverse language varieties. The DTE allows us to identify the main types of reported tonogenesis triggering contexts, the types of resultant tones, and their effects on pitch. We illustrate the usefulness of the database with case studies addressing (i) the frequency of different types of tonogenesis, (ii) the diachronic pathways linking phonological triggering context and resultant tone, and (iii) areal trends. We also discuss the shortcomings of the database with respect to the diachronic typological study of tone. Keywords: tonogenesis, typology, tone, historical linguistics
August 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
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mixedlinguist.bsky.social
Another reason humans are infinitely better than "AI": it can't keep up with language change. Urban Dictionary bests Gemini every time!

Gemini's definition of wireback:
The term "wireback" is not a recognized or established slang term. It's likely a misspelling or a misunderstanding of other terms
Urban dictionary definition of wireback: A slang term used to mock robots or AI, poking fun at their reliance on messy wires and artificial support, like a half-baked machine acting clever. "That wireback botched it, guess the tin trash can’t keep up with the humans again!"
July 31, 2025 at 7:31 PM
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henrysweetsoc.bsky.social
Are you working on topics related to the history of linguistics?🫵
Consider submitting an article to ✨Language & History✨, the journal of the Henry Sweet Society! It is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal published 3 times per year both online and in print.
www.henrysweet.org/language-and...
Language & History — Henry Sweet Society
Published in 3 issues per year both online and in print, Language & History is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that aims to promote the study of the history of all branches of linguistic…
www.henrysweet.org
July 31, 2025 at 7:45 PM
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jahochcam.bsky.social
So glad this is out! Still wish we had the data processed in time for @jmhenner.bsky.social to use but pleased to have his contribution in more ways than 1. See below for a brief commentary re Jon, deaf linguists & participating in SiL research and doing it in a way that disrupts or crips it all
Series of 3 images of Jon during Zoom session expressing full support for open access in ASL Zoom window of 4 participants - top left to bottom right - Frank smiling, Jon with two-handed heart gesture, Leeann smiling and Julie holding heart over heart with 🥹 face Twitter thread showing Jon’s belief in open access work and recognition of the work it takes. Text: Jon Henner @jmhenner - Paying participants. Assistants. Language Coders. Web coders. Web maintenance. Web systems. Technology. This scales. If I want a project with 10 people I need to seed it thinking ahead. 5:15 PM - Dec 15, 2021 Julie A. Hochgesang, PhD @jahochcam Dec 15, 2021 Exactly Hoping that #MoloASL will be released this upcoming summer and part of #05S5ASL in the spring with more as the year progresses Jon Henner @jmhenner • Dec 15, 2021 *** I don't want to collect good data and let it die on a VHS tape on my shelf like two generations ago. It needs to be available and accessible.
July 31, 2025 at 7:44 PM