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Re: Language change among immortals

From:轡虫 <snapping.dragon@...>
Date:Tuesday, November 22, 2005, 0:39
> and a very good question it is.
I was hoping someone would say it was a very stupid, easy question. =P
> 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).
I might as well describe my particular scenario in case anyone on the list thinks its relevant: 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. 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? 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!)

Replies

Aaron Grahn <aaron@...>
Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>