ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contributions that endangered and lesser-studied languages are making to historical linguistics. These insights offer important revisions to models of change that have been constructed primarily with reference to standard and well-attested languages. The chapter also emphasizes the value of rich, open-ended documentation of connected speech for exploring the world’s variety of grammatical structures and their pathways of development, particularly for endangered languages. Recent decades have seen an explosion of work focused on the documentation and description of endangered and lesser-studied languages, with many initiatives led by and/or carried out in close collaboration with their speakers and community members. Work on endangered and understudied languages is feeding a growing list of ways in which processes of language change are sensitive to social, cultural, and/or typological variables. The fields of historical linguistics and endangered language research are moving in new and exciting directions, enriched by the deepening synergy between them.
