Re: Dune Conlang

"Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
> Well, just because the Reverend Mothers have all those memories
> of earlier forms of the language doesn't mean they'll use it much less
> impose that on the speech of those around them.  Even assuming that
> they would willingly adjust their speech to hers, that doesn't mean
> they'll do so correctly (especially when it comes to phonology).
Well, the Reverend Mothers (actually, wasn't that the BG term?  Didn't
the Fremen use a different term?) would be prestigious, so, if they did
use the earlier forms of the language, they'd probably have an influence
on the other tribal members.  But, I doubt that it would be THAT much of
an influence.

And as for the Galach, even that seems far too close for the time span.
The book takes place 10,000 years after the formation of the Spacing
Guild, which seems to have been formed about 11,000 years in OUR future,
so about 20 millennia (hmm, similar time frame to the Foundation series,
in Foundation's Edge it was stated that the most commonly accepted
estimate of the origin of space travel was 20,000 years before their
time).  PIE is typically estimated to have been spoken around 5000 years
ago, and look at how different English is from that!  Four times that
time span, there should be no trace of English left.

--
"Old linguists never die - they just come to voiceless stops." -
anonymous
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