Re: THEORY: Sound changes in literate societies

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:


> What about French, whose oldest known written document dates from the 9th
> century?
I should also have mentioned that "the earliest French writing" is one
kind of thing, and "the earliest English writing" and "the earliest Irish
writing" another.  The latter languages have no written predecessors,
so any writing done in any kind of English however early is reckoned
as English writing.  People who spoke French, however, for a long time
did not think of themselves as doing so, but rather as using their
local spoken variety of Latin -- the written form of which was
standardized as Latin, no matter how discrepant from the spoken version
at any time.  (Notable is the Latin passive in -r, totally extinct in
every kind of Romance, but artificially preserved in Latin writing.
In fact, the very rarity of errors in using this feature shows just how
artificial it was!)

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_