rate of language change

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

>X99Lynx at aol.com writes:

>This is along the same vein.  If "moving between languages" means anything,
>it means changing languages.  And if it means bilingualism or changing
>languages between generations, it is one very important form of linguistic
>change.

-- you're being a little obtuse here.  "Changing languages" -- as in
linguistic succession, people abandoning, say, Celtiberian for Latin -- is a
different phenomenon from "linguistic change", say Marcus ==> Marco.

If someone who originally spoke Standard Italian learns to speak Standard
English and then speaks that around their children, who then grow up as
Standard English speakers, we have people who've changed languages.  Neither
English nor Italian has changed in the process, however.

Substratum influence is another factor, of course.