Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun linguistics An ensemble of areal features: similarity in grammar, vocabulary, etc.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

German, literally "speech alliance" or "speech confederation".

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Examples

  • So Hybrid Theory would give us a clear post-IE date for this change of *-bhi- to *-mi-, likely occurring sometime after the phonation shift in dialects neighbouring the Germanic/Balto-Slavic sprachbund.

    Archive 2008-02-01 2008

  • So Hybrid Theory would give us a clear post-IE date for this change of *-bhi- to *-mi-, likely occurring sometime after the phonation shift in dialects neighbouring the Germanic/Balto-Slavic sprachbund.

    Sporadic phonetic changes in the Indo-European case system 2008

  • Incidentally, is there any particular reason why Scott is interested in Salishan languages specifically, rather than the NW Coastal sprachbund in general?

    languagehat.com: ANYONE FOR SALISHAN? 2004

Comments

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  • Presumably a group of people linked by a common language. Why does it have to be in German? German words always sound so heart-achingly, mind-bendingly philosophical.

    December 18, 2007

  • Actually, I understand sprachbund as a collection of languages which exhibit similarity derived from their close association, and not from genetic history.

    The existence of sprachbunds is one of the prime differences of linguistic evolution from biological evolution (discounting the rather large corner case of bacterial conjugation).

    December 18, 2007