Rate of Change: A Closer Look

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/22/2001 2:19:29 AM, mclasutt at brigham.net writes:
<<Today, there are five main phonological changes that separate Shoshoni from
Comanche and make the two mutually incomprehensible without extensive
practice.>>

I'm sorry because I think you may have mentioned this before - but how did
the separation of the Shoshoni and Comanche work?  Did one separate and move
away or did they both migrate to other places?

<< So we wind up with 75 years of extensive phonological change and then 75
years of very little phonological change in the same preliterate
language....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.  The true Indo-Europeanists can undoubtedly provide detailed
information to verify or correct this impression.>>

Actually, one can see this the other way around.  It's the linguists in the
field with preliterate languages that are becoming literate who are in the
best position to discern a difference between what changes and at what pace
in preliterate versus literate languages.  The "rate of change" in unrecorded
languages that were spoken thousands of years ago is obviously not subject to
direct observation.

Regards,
Steve Long