Re: Language Change

Mia, et al.

Don't forget that one way that a language will
change is that it may become (for a time at least)
part of a Sprachbund -- and come to share the
features of (often unrelated) languages of the
zone.

This often affects such matters as word order,
and other very basic features. This feature would
allow you to modify a conlang in almost any
direction, it seems to me. Of course, there would
have to be some documentation of the zone and
the other lingusitic cultures there at the time.

The Balkan Sprachbund is one of the better
discussed in the literature.

> At 11:24 pm -0500 3/1/00, Mia Soderquist wrote:
> >Could someone explain some of the ways that grammar of a language
> >might change over time? I can see that it might gain or lose
> >tenses, affixes of various sorts, etc, but is word order likely
> >to change?
Very best wishes to all the Soderquists for the
new year.

                                        LEO