Re: A question

Pat,

I can't answer your question, cause I don't know, but I do have an
idea.  Why not assume that due to massive cross-emigration, English
gets into an areal group with some very different language(s) such as
Japanese, and there's lots of cross-influence?  Maybe the features of
each language which are most difficult to the others get wiped out --
such as extensive conjugations, or English's baroque syllable
structures (CCCCVCC or what have you, compared to Japanese's which is
closer to CV(N)).  A lot of the vocabulary stays the same, given the
new limitations, but a certain amount is borrowed.  It'd be a lot
easier if you had a built-in direction for change to proceed in than
if you had to do it by mere extrapolation of existing tendencies.

Imagine that the Japanese play William the Conqueror to the American
Saxons, I guess I'm saying.  But not exactly. :)

Just an idea.


Ed Heil
.. edheil@postmark.net
.... http://edheil.iwarp.com
...... "Heads of state who ride and wrangle
       Who look at your face from more than one angle
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       Like sharpened knives through Chicken McNuggets."
         --Cake, "Nugget"

Patrick Dunn wrote:

> I'm thinking of writing a bit of a time travel story -- guy goes on a
> relativistic journey that goes wrong, comes back to Earth 1000 years later
> to find things suck.  You know, that sort of thing.
>
> My point is, I want to make a new English.  But I don't know what kind of
> sound changes are currently occuring in our language.  Does anyone know?
>
> My clumsy non-linguist ear hears a dropping of final /s/ and /z/, an
> ellision (is that the right word?) of dentals after nasels, and a
> conversion of unstressed /u/ into /a/.  So "I don't want you to go to the
> park."  Might come out /ai don wan ja ta go ta da pak./
>
> Still, this isn't weird enough for 1000 years.
>
> What I want to know is, what general trends is english going through.  For
> instance, are vowels getting higher, fronter, backer, etceteraer?  Is it
> my imagination, or are /th/ and /dh/ going away (that would be a relief to
> my Japanese students, I'm sure!)?
>