Re: Conlangs in History

Fabian wrote:

> > Of course, there's also a reference to the fact that "you" is both
> > singular and plural in Standard Galactic.  What are the odds that a
> > language spoken 25 millennia from now, even if descended from English,
> > would replicate our strange 2nd person?
>
> Quite high actually. English is the most famous example, but French very
> nearly followed suit as well.
Well, that isn't exactly a very large sample.  It actually *is* a typologically
rare thing to have.  It just so happens that Western European languages are
a Sprachbund:  grammatical features that one has are likely to spill over into
the neighboring, not closely related language. So, the fact that French has it
(and German, and Italian IIRC) is not good evidence that

> Japanese traditionally makes no distinction
> between singular and plural pronouns, although the plural suffix -gata
> or -tachi is occassionally used.
Like I said, if number is a grammaticalized part of the pronominal system,
then it is likely that all pronouns will have it.

> If you want to express politeness to the lisatener, there are only so many
> ways it can be done, after all. It is a coincidence, but not a particularly
> unlikely one.
In the context of the Western European Sprachbund, that's not really
even a coincidence.

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Tom Wier   |     "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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