Details Title: A History of the English Language Description: vocabulary Total Flash Cards: 63 Created: 08/14/2009 13:14:07		New Users: To study from this flashcard set, or to create your own your own study flash cards, REGISTER HERE. Existing Users: CLICK HERE. Additional Language - English Flashcards
Cards in this set: Term ablative Definition A case form typically denoting separation, source, instrument, or cause Term ablaut or gradation Definition An alternation of vowels in forms of the same word, as in the principal parts of strong verbs, such as sing-sang-sung Term abstract meaning Definition reference to a nonphysical, generalized abstraction like domesticity (cf. concrete meaning) Term accent Definition Any of the diacritical marks: acute, grave, circumflex; also the prominence given to a syllable by stress or intonation; also a manner of pronouncing a dialect, as in Boston accent. Term acceptability Definition the extent to which an expression is regarded unobjectionable by speakers of a language Term accusative Definition A case form typically marking the direct object of a verb. Term acronym, aso acronymy Definition a word formed from the initial letters of other words (or syllables) pronounced by the normal rules of orthoepy, e.g., AIDS 'acquired immune deficiency syndrome'; also the process of forming such words Term acute accent Definition A diacritic (') used in spelling words in some languages (as in Spanish que) and to indicate primary stress (as in opera) Term adjective Definition a major part of spech tat denotes qualities and modifies or describes nouns. Term advanced pronunciation Definition an early instance of a sound change in progress Term adverb Definition a major part of speech that modifies sentences, verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Term aesc Definition a letter of the alphabet denoting the sound ae Term affix Definition a morpheme added to a base or stem to modify its meaning. Term affixation Definition making words by combining an affix with a base or stem Term affricate Definition a stop sound with a fricative release Term African-American English or Black English Definition The ethnic dialect associated with Americans of African descent Term Afroasiatic Definition a family of languages whose main branches are Hamitic and Semitic Term agglutinative language Definition a language with complex but usually regular derivational forms Term allomorph Definition a variant pronunciation of a morpheme, as the -s plural morpheme is pronounced [s] [z] or [upsidedown e z] Term alphabet, adj. alphabetic Definition a writing system in which each unit, or letter, ideally represents a single sound. Term alphabetism Definition a word formed from the initial letters of other words (or syllables) pronounced with the names of the letters of the alphabet, e.g., VP 'vice president.' Term Altaic Definition a language family including Turkist and Mongolian Term Alveolar Definition involving the gum ridge; also a sound made by the tongue's appraoching the gum ridge. Term alveolopalatal Definition involving the gum ridge and the hard palate; also a sound made by the tounge's approaching the gum ridge and hard palate. Term amalgamated compound Definition an originally compounded word whose form no longer represents its origin, e.g., not from na + wiht "no whit.' Term amelioration Definition a semantic change improving the associations or a word Term American English Definition The English language as developed in North America. Term Americanism Definition An expression that originated in or is cahracteristic of America. Term analytical comparison Definition comparison with more and most rather than -er and -est Term analytic Definition of a language that depends heavily on word order and function words as signals of grammatical structure Term Anatolian Definition a branch of Indo-European languages spoken in Asia Minor, including Hittite. Term Anglian Definition the Mercian and Northumbrian dialects of Old English, sharing certain features. Term Ango-Frisian Definition The subbranch of Western Germanic including English and Frisian Term Anglo-Norman Definition The dialect of Norman French that developed in England. Term Anglo-Saxon Definition Old English; also one who spoke it; also pertaining to the Old English period Term animal communication Definition the exchange of information amoung animals, contrasted with human language Term apheresis, adj. apheretic, also apheretic form Definition the omission of sounds from the beginning of a word, e.g., 'cause from because, also a form produced by such ommision Term aphesis, adj. aphetic Definition the omission of an unaccented syllable from the beginning of a word, e.g., lone from alone Term apocope or apocopation Definition the omission of a sound from the end of a word such as a from a(n). Term arbitrary Definition unmotivated, having no similarity with the referent (cf. conventional). Term artificial language Definition a language like Esperanto invented especially for a paticular use, e.g., international Term ash Definition the diagraph ae used in Old English and so alled after the runic letter aesc, representing the same sound Term ask word Definition any of the words whose historical [ae] vowel has been changed to [a] in British and [a] in eastern New England speech. Term ASL Definition American Sign Laguage for the deaf, also called Ameslan, one of several such systems, another being BSL (British Sign Language.) Term aspiration, adj. aspirated Definition a puff of breath accompanying a speech sound. Term assimilation Definition the process by which two sounds become more alike, e.g., -ed pronounced [t] after voiceless sounds but [d] after voiced sounds. Term a-stem Definition an Old English noun declension, which originally had the vowela before its inflectional endings, from which came Modern English genitive 's and plural s Term athematic verb Definition an Indo-European verb stem formed without a thematic vowel Term Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian Definition a family of languages, including Malay and Polynesian, spoken from Madagascar to the Pacific islands. Term back-formation Definition a word made by omitting from a longer word that is thought to be an affix or other morpheme, e.g., burgle from burglar; also the process by which such words are made Term back vowel Definition a vowel made with the highest part of the tongue in the back of the mouth. Term Baltic Definition an east-European branch of Indo-European, grouped together with the Slavic languages as Balto-Slavic Term Balto-Slavic Definition a branch of Indo-European including the Slavic and Baltic languages. bar a diacritic used in writing polis as in ( ) Term base morpheme Definition a morpheme, either free or bound, to which other morphemes can be added to form words, e.g., base in basic or cur in recur. Term bilabial Definition involving both upper and lower lips; also a sound made with both lips, e.g., [p,b m]. Term blending, also blend or portmanteau word Definition making words by combining two or more existing expressions and shortening at least one of them; also a word o made, e.g., brunch from brakfast and lunch Term borrow, also borrowing or loanword Definition to make a word by imitating a foreign word; also a word so made such as tortilla from mexican spanish Term bound morphem Definition a morpheme used only as a part of a word, rather than alone, e.g., mit in remit Term boustrophedon Definition a method of writing in which lines are alternately read left to right and vice versa in successive lines Term britiism Definition an expression that originated in britain after american independence or is cahracteristic of britain Term British English Definition the English langage as developed in Great Britain after American Independence Term broad transcription Definition phonetic transcription with little detail, showing primarily phonemic distinctions Term case Definition the inflectional form of a noun, pronoun, or asjective that shows the word's relationship to the verb or to other nouns of its clause, as them in the objective case of they