Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics...

effects on language structure. One source of language change is contact and the resulting diffusion of linguistic traits between languages. Language contact...

transcription delimiters. A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement...

common may be of /z/ to /r/. When a dialect or member of a language family resists the change and keeps a /z/ sound, this is sometimes known as zetacism...

Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution...

linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker. By extension, language extinction is when the language is no longer...

The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2...

linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system...

Language Change: Progress or Decay? is a book on language change by Jean Aitchison in which the author concludes that language change is neither a process...

language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...

A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language, called the proto-language of that...

of language, historical research today still remains a significant field of linguistic inquiry. Subfields of the discipline include language change and...

On Explaining Language Change is a 1980 book by Roger Lass in which the author examines various aspects of language change. The book was reviewed by Suzanne...

not change any existing dialect, which distinguishes koineization from the normal evolution of dialects. While similar to zonal auxiliary languages, koiné...

new language, known as a creole, language contact can result in changes, such as language convergence, language shift or language death. Language convergence...

of Prakrit. Marathi is one of several languages that further descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. Further changes led to the formation of Apabhraṃśa followed...

climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a...

repetition, and change without conscious planning or premeditation. It can take different forms, namely either a spoken language or a sign language. Natural...

proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language...

Germanic language, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In...

In language change, analogical change occurs when one linguistic sign is changed in either form or meaning to reflect another item in the language system...

Language convergence is a type of linguistic change in which languages come to resemble one another structurally as a result of prolonged language contact...

to linguists as they not only show language changing in real time, but can also shed light on how and why the change occurs. The term egg corn (later contracted...

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any first-language or second-language speakers, especially if the language also has no living descendants...

called taboo language, language taboo or linguistic taboo is a kind of taboo that involves restricting the use of words or other parts of language due to social...

A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new...

Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to...

A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with another language. Basque in Europe, Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa...

descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning...

The Salishan (also Salish; /ˈseɪ.lɪʃ/) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British...