Re: Language change among immortals

On 11/21/05, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> kutsuwamushi wrote:
>
> > Or would
> > language change continue at a similar pace, because
> > people's language evolves continually throughout their
> > lives, not just primarily at one stage of it?
>
> Personally I feel it takes quite a jolt for a person's language
> to change noticeable within their lifetime. (Excluding
> emigration to a foreign country, of course.) The principal
> factor would be exposure to a dialect that is perceived as
> more prestigious than one's own.

I'm not sure it has to be preceived as more prestigious. I'm
sure people vary in their susceptibility to pronunciation
change, but for most I suspect it is quite unconscious. My
brother grew up in Michigan and moved to Georgia at about
age twenty-five. Today, at age forty-three, when he comes
back to Michigan to visit, everyone remarks on his southern
speech. Yet, he doesn't believe that he speaks any differently
than he did when he lived in Michigan.

--Ph. D.