Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

En réponse à Irina Rempt <ira@...>:

> On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> > > That seems like an awful lot of sound changes for one generation,
> but I
> > > suppose it could happen.
> >
> > I think it must have been a gradual thing, just most noticeable when
> it
> > hit my generation.
>
> Sound changes can be big and sudden; I pronounce the Dutch "ei" as
> [Ej] and my kids tend towards [Aj]. So do most other kids, and some
> adults younger than I am (even one teacher I heard today; the whole
> school may have caught it from her).
>
> Obviously, they've been learning Dutch mainly from us - they've been
> learning language at home longer than at school, even the eldest -
> but they sure don't learn *that* pronunciation from us! I've almost
> stopped trying to get them to pronounce it "properly", I think I
> should resign myself to the fact of a sound change...
>
>    Irina
>
I know a sound change even more sudden, because it happened *during* my
generation: it's the collapse of [9~] and [E~] (written generally 'un' and 'in'
in French) into [E~]. When I arrived at primary school (I was 6), everyone was
still pronouncing them different, even me (at least where I lived). When I
arrived in senior high school (I was 16), the difference had disappeared, even
in my own idiolect! I can still pronounce them differently, but if I don't pay
attention I just pronounce them the same (but after having thought of those
sounds, I'm going to pronounce them differently again for a few hours, without
really paying attention :) ). I really lived through a sound change! (and what
surprised me is that without realizing I participated to it :) ) There's also
the collapsing of the two French 'a': [a] and [A], but [A] had nearly
disappeared already when I was in primary school (I just missed that sound
change I think).