Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
> 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).
Interesting! All I have for a reference is my own pronounciation of
French. (which is mighty bad, of course) [9~] & [E~] exist for me, but
[A] does not, or at least not in any words I can think of.

I always thought of sound change as a much more gradual thing, with
small changes from generation to generation - evidentely not so!

--
Robert, who pronounces English with a bland lack of accent - or so I
like to think.