Re: Estimated timeframe of albanian s->sh transformation

I have been observing this thread with some scepticism. I think the
question can only make sense if it means, "How long time passed
between the first sign of a new fashion (sh) and the last sign of
the old one (s) it came to replace?" Now for a small village that
can probably be quick, if the villagers have been observing the
speech of outsiders with increasing tolerance and suddenly act in
unison in adopting it. But then it's not the story of a whole speech
community. If anyone knows of a well-documented case of an absolute
innovation that saw its first light and immediately exploded to
encompass an entire language within a generation or two it would be
very interesting to hear about it.

Jens