Abstract

Reflections about the debated concept of (linguistic) substrate. At least two acceptions of «substrate» are possible: 1) (more generically) substrate as sector of contact linguistics; 2) (more particularly) substrate as encoding of a specific linguistic theory (and related praxis) of the linguistic change, which had its peak between the end of 19th century and the first half of 20th century. These acceptions need to be kept distinct, in order to avoid misunderstandings and erroneous analysis; some examples are included.