Internal history
Internal history of a language refers to the historical development of its linguistic forms (phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon) and semantics. It is contrasted with "external history", which refers to the social and geopolitical history of the language.
References
- Matthews, Peter H. (1997). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280008-6.
- Trask, R[obert] L[awrence] (2000). The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Fitzroy Dearborn, Chicago/London. ISBN 1-57958-218-4.