Answer:
comparing certain languages to determine if they were derived from a common ancestral language
Explanation:
Historical linguists are interested in comparing certain languages to determine if they were derived from a common ancestral language. They are concerned in a branch of linguistics known as diachronic linguistics and are interested in explaining changes in language with time, why these changes occurred and the study of the earlier stages of language in humans.
Answer:
Historical linguists are interested in comparing certain languages to determine if they were derived from a common ancestral language.
Explanation:
Historical linguistics is the linguistic discipline that studies the change of languages over time and the process of linguistic change. Therefore, historical linguists study the diachronic evolution of languages and their genetic relationship or kinship, requiring an understanding of the language's past. When the similarities between words from different languages are due to a common origin, these words are called cognates. These cognates can be used to determine the succession of phonetic changes within a language or group of languages (which allows partially reconstructing the history of a family of languages) or the degree of closeness of two languages within a family.
