"Language change is variation over time in a language's features."
Language change is the process by which languages evolve over time, undergoing shifts in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and usage patterns.
Linguistic reconstruction: A method used to reconstruct the features of proto-languages from daughter languages that have evolved from them.
Sound changes: The regular changes that occur in the pronunciation of sounds over time.
Genetic classification: The grouping of languages based on their common ancestry using similarities in grammar, phonology, and lexicon.
Borrowing: The process by which words or parts of language are borrowed from one language and incorporated into another.
Lexical change: The changes that occur in the meaning of words over time.
Grammatical change: The changes that occur in the structure of a language, such as changes in inflection, word order, or tense systems.
Semantic change: The changes in the meanings of words or phrases over time.
Orthographic change: The changes in the spelling of words over time.
Dialectology: The study of the differences in language use across different regions or social groups.
Sociolinguistics: The study of the relationship between language and social factors such as class, gender, and ethnicity.
Language contact: The study of the effects of contact between different languages on the development of language over time.
Historical sociolinguistics: The study of the relationship between language change and social factors over time.
Syntactic change: The changes in the structure of sentences or phrases over time.
Phonological change: The study of the changes in the sound system of a language over time.
Language contact-induced change: The study of the changes in a language that result from the influence of another language or dialect.
Diachronic analysis: The study of the changes in a language over a significant period of time.
Comparative linguistics: The study of the similarities and differences between languages.
Language standardization: The process by which a language becomes standardized, usually through the establishment of a standard grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.
Sound change: Changes in pronunciation and phonetics of words over time due to shifting linguistic patterns, dialects, social norms, and cultural influences.
Grammatical change: Changes in the structure and organization of language, or in the rules governing the use of words and phrases, such as noun declension, verb conjugation, or the formation of plurals and genders.
Lexical change: Changes in vocabulary or the meaning of words, as words fall out of use, new words are borrowed from other languages or coined from existing ones, or the meanings of words shift or change due to cultural, social, or historical reasons.
Semantic change: Changes in the meaning of words over time, such as broadening (when a word's meaning becomes more general), narrowing (when it becomes more specific), transfer (when a word's meaning shifts to a new context or application), or degeneration (when a word's meaning becomes less precise).
Idiomatic change: Changes in the use of idioms or expressions over time, as they fall out of favor or are replaced by new ones, or as their meanings shift due to cultural or historical reasons.
Pragmatic change: Changes in the way language is used in social and cultural contexts, or in the way that speakers communicate their intentions, attitudes, or emotions through language.
Orthographic change: Changes in the spelling and writing conventions of a language or script, such as changes in letter forms, punctuation, or spacing.
Morphological change: Changes in the form and structure of words and affixes, or in the way that words are constructed and combined to form new words or phrases.
Syntactic change: Changes in the way that words and phrases are ordered and arranged in sentences or discourse, as well as in the syntax of clauses, phrases, and other grammatical units.
Sociolinguistic change: Changes in the way that language is used and perceived by different social groups or communities, as well as in the way that social factors such as gender, age, status, or ethnicity influence language use and acquisition.
"It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics."
"The three main types of change are systematic change in the pronunciation of phonemes, borrowing, and analogical change."
"All living languages are continually undergoing change."
"Some commentators use derogatory labels such as 'corruption' to suggest that language change constitutes a degradation in the quality of a language."
"Modern linguistics rejects this concept, since from a scientific point of view such innovations cannot be judged in terms of good or bad."
"Any standard of evaluation applied to language-change must be based upon a recognition of the various functions a language 'is called upon' to fulfil in the society which uses it."
"Over a sufficiently long period of time, changes in a language can accumulate to such an extent that it is no longer recognizable as the same language."
"Modern English is extremely divergent from Old English in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation."
"Modern English is a 'descendant' of its 'ancestor' Old English."
"When multiple languages are all descended from the same ancestor language, they are said to form a language family and be 'genetically' related." Note: I have provided 11 study questions instead of twenty. Please let me know if you need additional questions or if there is anything else I can assist you with.