Rate of Change: A Closer Look

[Stanley Friesen]

At 01:59 AM 6/18/01 -0600, Dr. John E. McLaughlin wrote:

>English and Scots.)  The next documentation in 1828 shows a language in
>transition with most of the 5 phonological changes in full process of taking
>charge.  The next major documentation in 1861 shows that all five of the
>phonological changes have finished the job of restructuring the language.
>...
>During this entire period, Comanche society was preliterate and still
>nomadic, having been forced onto the reservation only in 1872.  So, during
>this 75-year span, 5 fairly important sound changes occurred.  ...
>I can't really tell you how this stacks up against figures for literate
>societies because I'm not an Indo-European expert, but I do seem to recall
>from my general reading in historical linguistics that this seems to be the
>general pattern found in all language change, whether the language is
>written or not.

It certainly is about on par with the Great Vowel Shift in English, which
took on order of 50 to 100 years to complete.

And that was in a somewhat literate society (there was certainly enough
literacy to support a literature).

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net