IE and Substrates and Time

[Ross Clark]

Anthony Appleyard wrote:

> Someone wrote:-

>>So can we not assume that somewhere between 1000 and 2000 years is required
>>for communications difficulties to become strenuous, and more than 2000 years
>>for them to be so large as to prevent communications ...

>   Sheila Watts <sw271 at cus.cam.ac.uk> replied:-

>>This seems to me to be too broad a generalisation to work in any useful way.
>> ...

>and others have written about the amount of change since dispersion in e.g.
>Polynesian compared with Melanesian. I read a theory that there is one
>mechanism whereby a massive change in a language, or even a completely
>unrelated language, can develop quickly: in some natural environments where
>living is easy: very rarely but in theory it could happen, some children too
>young to have learned much of their parents' language could stray, or be the
>only members of their tribe to survive an enemy attack in a tribal war, manage
>to survive uncontacted to adulthood, and start a new tribe.

I've seen a reference to this theory recently -- I'll see if I can
find the source, but I believe it was attributed to Horatio Hale, in
a paper I haven't seen. Since I have great respect for Hale as a
linguist, I am reluctant to associate him with a theory that sounds
to me like fantasyland. I believe Hale had in mind the striking
linguistic diversity of California, compared to areas further east.

Ross Clark