sound changes (was Conlangea Dreaming)

On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> 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
[snip]

<despair>  You mean all that time my French teacher was nitpicking over
the difference between the two, they were going away anyway?  Mon Dieu...

Sometimes I really wonder if the language that I learn in the classroom
is going to be any good for communication with Real People who are L1
speakers of that language.

YHL