Re: M
| From: | Herman Miller <hmiller@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, July 7, 2001, 1:52 |
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On Fri, 6 Jul 2001 21:31:22 +1200, andrew <hobbit@...> wrote:
>I'm waiting to see the grammar of future Martian now. Will there be any
>changes in language after colonization?
There might be some creolization. I don't know much about pidgins or
creoles, so I'm reading a book to get some ideas (_Pidgins and Creoles_ by
Loreto Todd).
Some of the obscure features of English grammar (like the subjunctives)
will probably get dropped. Silly rules like the one about "splitting
infinitives" will be entirely forgotten.
"They" with a singular verb might become acceptable as a gender-neutral
third pronoun. Perhaps "he" and "she" might vanish entirely, resulting in
an animate vs. inanimate distinction (they/it).
But these are just ideas at the moment.