--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" <alxmoeller@...> wrote:
>
> that is the tragedy of linguistic models when we compare them with
the
> real life. On your assumtion, the minorities in the actual national
> states should be long, long time dead. That is not the case since
we
> have these minorities stil living even despite the power of
assimilation
> underlying to the modern state and society.
It is a matter of record that lots of languages died out in the Roman
Empire, particularly in the Latin-speaking part. The only languages
to have survived, if I'm not mistaken, are Basque and the
predecessors of Albanian and Welsh/Cornish/Breton, all spoken in the
mountains, all full of Latin loans. Obviously social conditions were
such that language shift was irresistable except in mountainous areas
and even there Latin was ubiquitous. Conditions as obtaining in the
Roman Empire cannot be transplanted to other places and other eras
and vice versa. Language shift is normal, so is language retention.
You can't refute the one by pointing to examples of the other.
Willem