Re: THEORY: Vowel shift (was: THEORY: Storage Vs. Computation)

"From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html" wrote:
> i'm no native speaker so i had some trouble to understand that australi=
an
> ranger who went "[b=F6:rdz flo:j owa:j]"
Interesting.

> i wonder whether english native speakers around the world will still
> understand each other in a century.
Well, in the mid-19th century, it was predicted that within a hundred
years, British and American would be distinct languages.  In an
interesting book, _The English Languages_ (available at Amazon.com, at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521485827/niktaylor0c), the
author argues that English is evolving towards a state much like that of
Arabic, where a single dialect (Standard Arabic) can be understood
across all the Arab-speaking nations, even tho the national dialects
(Iraqi Arabic, Lebanese Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, etc.) are, in some
cases, not mutually intelligible.  He feels that an International
English (or World English) is evolving, based largely on American,
British, and Australian Englishes, and will unite the disparate English
Languages.  It's very interesting.

--=20
Happy that Nation, - fortunate that age, whose history is not diverting
-- Benjamin Franklin
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