Re: Yay!!!! I have a web page!!!!
From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
Date: | Thursday, November 12, 1998, 2:13 |
Josh Roth wrote:
> Well these languages did have 2 ancestors....basically the speakers of 2
> different languages moved into the same area and each group learned some of
> the other language, and the two languages mixed over time. That's really
> never happened?
Well, not quite. There are languages with lots of borrowing, and lots
of influences, from another language, but, AFAIK, there are no cases
where you could say that both languages contributed equally. I.e., it's
either language A with borrowings (both lexical and gramatical) from
language B, or language B with borrowings from language A. I don't know
of any case where there is a complete fusion of two languages, even down
to the grammar and basic vocabulary. There might be, but if so, it's
extremely rare.
--
"It has occured to me more than once that holy boredom is good and
sufficient reason for the invention of free will." - "Lord Leto II"
(Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert)
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