Re: THEORY: on the teleology of conlanging (was: RE: terminaldialect?)

> I'll second this.  For one thing, there are certain phonologies that
> would probably be bound to change, for instance having /q/ without /k/.=
=20
> If such a lang existed (perhaps all /k/'s had evolved to /x/), I would
> wager that within two generations, /q/ would become /k/.  But definitely
> a lot of if's exist.  However, there does seem to be some underlying,
> unknown, laws.  Compare how separated, but related, languages often have
> similar changes occur, such as consonant mutation in the Celtic langs.
Mm-hm; such a phonology would not be consistent with itself... not that I k=
now
exactly what this "consistency" actually is... that's what I'd like to get
a clearer picture about.  Did consonant mutations evolve in the individual
Celtic languages or did the original ancestral tongue already have them?



> > So, getting the point:  here too you see that you can't really foreorda=
in=20
what
> > your language will be like many centuries or millennia hence, because a=
ll=20
sorts
> > of social events will intervene which you could never have foreseen.
>=20
> You could, I think, design a conlang that would be more likely to remain
> stable.  A simple phonology would be less likely to change.  Irregular
> inflections are quite likely to be regularized, so a regular conlang
> would be more stable there.  A simple pattern of inflections (that is,
> no multiple conjugations like Latin's -are, -=EAre, -ere, -ire; where =EA=
 =3D
> e-macron) would also be stable.  But there's no way to prevent ALL
> changes.  And, of course, make the speakers a small, and socially
> conservative, people, and you'll slow down changes.  But, I think that
> you're term "terminal dialect" is very appropriate, an unchanging
> language is DEAD (just like a "terminal disease").
I was thinking more in terms of "terminal velocity" :)
I don't think an entirely regular language is neccessarily more stable, tho=
ugh;
often irregular forms crop up which are more convenient (e.g. the slang "go=
tta"
as in "he's gotta go" is quicker than "has to" or "must"), and evidently
convenience is what it's all about in language change...

Josh


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