Conlang evolution

(I'm back after a two-week vacation from the list, and from a few days of
teaching at my grandmother's school, His Majesty Christian Academy. I was
tutoring 8th-year students in English. There were four students, spread
out along twenty pages, or ten lessons.)

I was interested in preserving various forms of my language, Sturnan. I
wanted to do this because I was about to institute a few changes (adding
a couple of letters, for one). I would encourage others to do the same
with their languages, dating the material and storing it in a safe place.
In a few years, you could look back and see how much has changed.

I am interested in finding out how quickly conlangs usually change.
Tolkien's Qenya (1920's) was unintelligible with Quenya (1930's). Sturnan
speakers (speaking Sturnan now) could understand the original Sturnan,
though original Sturnan speakers would need a short course (two weeks
would be enough) before they could understand modern Sturnan.

(I'm not going to submit the vocab I lost, but I *am* doing it, Aidan.
Thanks.)

The one, the of many, the anticlimactic
Chris Wright

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