Re: THEORY: Sound changes in literate societies

En réponse à John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

>
> Surely Irish, particularly in the Ogham script, beats English or at
> least gives it a run for the money?  Irish clearly has the longest
> *unbroken*
> tradition of vernacular writing right up to the present day, whereas
> Middle English writing is by no means a direct continuation of the
> Old English writing tradition.
>
What about French, whose oldest known written document dates from the 9th
century? (in fact so far that the language spoken though a direct ancestor of
French, is called Romant rather than Old French. You have to wait until the
11th century to come up with documents that can be labelled as Old French. But
since Old French is in direct continuity with Romant, I think it still counts).
It may not beat Irish, but I'm pretty sure it beats English, unless the French
National Education is really too nationalistic and taught me wrong things ;))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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