Re: evolving languages

(lotsa snippies)
> And, just as irregularities in grammar will simplify (such as 'holp'
> becoming 'helped'), irregularities in the phonology can sometimes
> simplify in the same way. A relatively rare combination that is liable
> to be killed (for example, hiatus) may be generalised away;
Okay, I just read a really good article on that tendency, in On Language,
by William Safire (in NY Times Magazine, does anyone know the collumn?).
The main example word was "nuclear," and how Americans (including
George Dubya himself) have a tendency to pronounce it ['n(j)u:kj@l@],
because
it is the only word with the -uclear cluster and -cular is much more
well-known
through analogies with pendicular, etc.
(snipettes)

> Tristan.
Jake