Distance in change

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/27/99 9:10:56 PM, jer at cphling.dk wrote:

<<In Finno-Ugric linguistics it was for a long time a matter of hot debate
which Finnish sound changes were due to Germanic influence - and which
ones to Baltic. It may have dawned on the field since then that any
language can change by itself, but simple things just need to be said once
in a while.>>

But the question was slightly different:

Assuming two daughter languages (Greek/Sanskrit) of a parent tongue are
separated by distance, does the amount of distance make a difference?  The
original point was that there is enough geographical distance between the two
to account for differences even in the short term, even given the ordinary
natural changes each would go through on its own.

The answer given was that lack of "mutual contact" would at least account for
why they don't develop in the same direction.

As far as the even more original point - the similarity of the aorist in Greek
and Sanskrit and whether that says something about time and descent of the two
languages - I thought that was such a striking common feature that perhaps it
deserved some special attention.  If the aorist is found nowhere in the world
but in this little corner of IE, then the possibility that both languages
developed it independently would seem a little bit unlikely.  But who's to
say.

Regards,
Steve Long