From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 60611
Date: 2008-10-06
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
>
> Seven centuries is an order of magnitude less than 7000
> years. And although it has changed less in that time than
> most languages, Icelandic has still changed quite a bit,
> especially in pronunciation and lexicon, but also in syntax.
> It would have changed even more had there not been a
> conscious effort to resist (and in some cases even reverse)
> additions to the lexicon. (See, for instance,
> <http://forums.skadi.net/archive/index.php/t-17896.html> and
> <http://www.hum.uit.no/a/svenonius/lingua/structure/about/about_is.html>.)
>
>> Why should everything change ?
>
> Doesn't really matter: the evidence clearly shows that
> languages *do* change over time.
========
Not everything changes.
From PIE down to Italian,
the grammar and the verbal conjugaisons changed many times,
but padre is not really different from p&ter.
*t became d, & became a,
what a big change !
The p and r are the same,
This is why I basically focus on lexicon and phonology,
This is why you have to identify which particular languages look stable.
Some languages are exceptionally stable.
Some other change but according to linear laws.
Arnaud
============
>> Do I have to prove that something can be stable ?
>
> Yes, if you want to claim that a significant number of words
> have remained stable for 7000 years at a stretch.
> > Brian
==========
When I opened this mail,
I was expecting a word of castigation
because I had stepped out of the standard agenda of Cybalist.
I'm surprised in a positive way that you are now considering that 7 000
years is not beyond our reach.
I guess one year ago, you would have stated this is just "impossible".
You once wrote it.
Arnaud
=============