Re: Looking into the future

In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Håkan Lindgren <h5@...> wrote:

> I'm aware that this is way off topic for this list, but I like
> listening in to the learned discussion going on here and I'd like
> to know what you think about this. Shoot it down if it's a bad idea.
>
> Since reconstruction of past languages started, we have learnt a lot
> about language development over time and about the way words change
> according to sound laws. What if we used this knowledge not to look
> into the past, but to take a look into the future? An educated guess
> what English (or your mother tongue) could sound like 500 years from
> now would be exciting to read. Have there been any serious attempts
> at doing this? Are the uncertainties involved too large, making this
> a useless idea?

Were the phonetic changes predictable by some mechanism, your idea
would have some practical basis. Unfortunately this is not the case.
One may try to predict something only for already known tendencies,
that is not too far in the future.

Regards,

Marius Iacomi