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Re: One language for the world

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 7, 2000, 14:25
Tom Wier wrote:
> [T]he New York Times > recently had an article stating that scientists have indeed been able to go > faster, 300 times faster, by speeding it through cesium gas, which, predictably > oddly, causes the light to exit the tube of cesium gas before it has entered it
If the New York Times said that, the New York Times is talking shite, which is no surprise.
> but my question is: how would living on another planet affect language change? > Lexically, yeah, I could believe that easily; but grammatically I don't see any > reason for it to change in a fashion any different from the language change > already attested on earth.
In Larry Niven's early sf novel _World of Ptavvs_, we get just a reference to the Jinxian accent (Jinx being one of the first settled planets in Known Space); it took about two generations to develop. At that time, Known Space was being settled by slower-than-light freezer ships, with maser-beam communication at light speed. That seems to be consistent with the development of Australian English. -- Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...> Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)