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Re: ? how would you classify this language ?

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 15, 2004, 16:18
Rodlox wrote:

> Please bear with me for a moment, as your reply to this will greatly > expand > my understanding of language groups & language evolution... > > Assume that, tomorrow or the next day, you either encounter or create a > (con)language which has the following features: > * Indo-European word order. > * Semitic grammatical rules. > * Sino-Altaic phenomes. > > into which group would you classify it, however tenatively?
Usually a language is grouped according to where the bulk of the _vocabulary_ comes from. If the con-vocabulary is completely a priori (invented) then you'd just have to say it's "a priori, with X word order, Y grammar, Z phonemes" (note spelling!). I'm not sure there's a typical Indo-European word order-- Proto IE is assumed to have been SOV, most of the descendants vary between SOV and SVO.
> > also, which of those (rules/phenomes/order/other) is most prone to change > through time? which is least prone to change?
Most likely: sounds/phonemes, but in fact _everything_ can change, often as the result of sound changes. Slowest change probably in vocabulary.

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Rodlox <rodlox@...>