Diachrony and synchrony

Complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis

Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A synchronic approach considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. Synchronic linguistics aims at describing a language at a specific point of time, often the present. In contrast, a diachronic approach, as in historical linguistics, considers the development and evolution of a language through history.

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