Re: Language change among immortals

My thought is that, in this scenario, you would most likely see about as
much language as we have seen in English over the past 200 +- years.
That's based on the intuitive impression that linguistic change is
primarily a function of the number of intervening generations, not the
raw number of years. However, I believe that language tends to change at
different rates depending on the literacy of the population. A language
which is spoken only will probably change at a much higher rate than one
which is written. And one with formal dictionaries may change slower
still. Also, written language and spoken language seem to change at
different rates, within the same language, with the spoken version of a
given language changing faster than the written version.

þ

轡虫 wrote:

>>and a very good question it is.
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>I was hoping someone would say it was a very stupid, easy question. =P
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>>my own guess about the language-change rate of immortals of any sort...is
>>that it'd partly depend on if they're in regular or semi-regular contact
>>with mortals (who'd have their own language).
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>I might as well describe my particular scenario in case anyone on the
>list thinks its relevant:
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>I'm writing a pair of stories that take place five thousand years
>apart. The people and the country are the same. The people
>(human-like, not dragons or anything) live, on average, 1000 years.
>Humans are a minority in their part of the world, so I don't think
>they would have much of an affect.
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>I want to create the language as it's spoken in these two different
>times but I have no idea how much change would have taken place. Could
>I simply use a natural language as an example, calculate the
>generations, and scale up the number of years to fit? 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?
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>I really have no idea, and I don't even know if I'm thinking about the
>problem in the right way.
>
>--
>kutsuwamushi
>(watch my reply-to, gmail user!)
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