Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

McGovern, Warren W.

Abstract

One of the most fundamental aspects of the evolution of spoken language over the course of history is the transformation of its speech sounds. These sound change transformations play an important role in the development of grammatical features such as declensional and conjugational paradigms. These sound changes often occur in highly regular patterns which lend themselves readily to mathematical modeling. Thus, we can construct a list of transformation rules that predict the evolution of words from a parent language to a daughter language to a significant degree of accuracy. This thesis constructs a model expressing these sound changes as a function from a set of words in the parent language to a set of words in the daughter language. This theoretical model is then translated to a practical application in C++ programming, and tested using the evolution of Classical Latin to modern standard Spanish as a sample case study.

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

171 p.

Identifier

FA00003653

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