Re: Language Change

raccoon@elknet.net writes:
>I read about this phenomenon in anthropology as well. In one tribe we were
>studying, children were given uncommonly-used words as names; one example
>was something like "hair on an anteater." Then when that person died, they
>couldn't use the old word for anteater hair, but that wasn't a big
>linguistic loss since it was uncommon to begin with.
Interesting. I was thinking of using the "no use of a word after person
dies" thing to explain why Saalangal has very few cognates to neighboring
languages in Sumatra, but then I thought it would be niftier to make the
reason be, that the language was probably a secret language to begin with.
(or not explain it at all :)).
>
>From what I've read, yes, dialect differentiation tends to happen when the
>groups become isolated somehow. Thus the great difference between Romance
>languages such as Romanian and Dalmatian on the one hand and Spanish and
>French on the other.
>
I thought this must have been the case. In Tagalog, every other language
in the philippines (well except Chabacano which is a creole of Spanish and
a Philippine substrate), you can pick out many, many cognates, yet the
different dialects are almost unintelligible, depending where you are, and
what you speak.
>
>Back to Barry:
>> It's worth the risk of burning, to have a second chance...
>
>What's this from?
It's from one of the verses from "I Still Believe" By Brenda K. Starr:

Each day of my life, I'm filled with all the joy I could find
You know that I,  I'm not the desperate type
If there's one spark of hope left in my grasp
I'll hold it with both hands
It's worth the risk of burning to have a second chance



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It's worth the risk of burning, to have a second chance...