pielewe wrote:
>
> (2) Then the period after the disappearance of Roman power. Knowing
> Latin had become useless. Most speakers of Latin may have fled. On the
> other hand remaining members of Latin-speaking communities may have
> now started shifting to Albanian, for instance because in the new
> circumstances the Albanian way of life was suddenly the most
> attractive, or least unattractive optino to stay alive.
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.
What I wonder is why for instance the Vlachs in Albania who are there
for almost 1000 years if not longer, we they did not shifte back to
their "previous" language , aka Albanian. Apparently the linguistic
scenarios have power just on the paper and the reality has other way to
deal with these "shifts". Let me tell you there is no reason for someone
who live in a group which is strong enough to shift to a new language.
They will use a second language of the society they are living within,
but they will preserve their own language speaking together. Of course
the both languages will get "condimented" and somehow changed due the
influence of each other. But a shift? A shift has little chances to
happen.
Alex
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