DIACHRONIC AND SYNCHRONIC
DIACHRONIC AND SYNCHRONIC. Contrasting terms in LINGUISTICS, which make a distinction between the study of the history of language (diachronic linguistics) and the study of a state of language at any given time (synchronic linguistics). Language study in the 19c was largely diachronic, but in the 20c emphasis has been on synchronic analysis. The terms were first employed by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who used the analogy of a tree-trunk to describe them: a vertical cut was diachronic, a horizontal cut synchronic.
More From encyclopedia.com
Hamitic Languages , Skip to main content
Hamitic languages Formal Language , formal language
1. A language with explicit and precise rules for its syntax and semantics. Examples include programming languages and also logics su… Mother Tongue , MOTHER TONGUE. A general term for the language of the childhood home, learned ‘at one's mother's knee’, often used synonymously with NATIVE LANGUAGE.… International Language , international language, sometimes called universal language, a language intended to be used by people of different linguistic backgrounds to facilita… Iranian Languages , Family of languages spoken in Iran and adjacent countries.
The Iranian languages are closely related to those of the Indo–Aryan family, such as Sansk… Pashto , Pashto (Pushto) One of the two major languages of Afghanistan, the other being Persian. Pashto is spoken by about 12 million people in e Afghanistan…
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
DIACHRONIC AND SYNCHRONIC