Historical and Comparative Linguistics

The study of language in change.

At LUCL, the field of Historical and Comparative Linguistics covers a wide range of approaches that all have in common that they study language in change.

• Researchers in the Comparative Indo-European Linguistics group study and compare the ancient Indo-European languages in order to reconstruct a prehistoric ancestor language.
• Those in the field of Historical Linguistics and Philology study older stages of literary languages and reconstruct non-Indo-European prehistoric ancestor languages.