Bill,

 

Thanks for that link.  There've been a number of similar studies in the
past few years looking at language relationship and language change
through the lens of fairly coarse data, like vocabulary change.  It's
certainly true that a language's vocabulary may change very rapidly, as
the vocabulary of English did at least a couple of times during the
Middle English period and a number of times since.  Vocabulary is the
part of language most susceptible to cultural influence and to changes
in the environment it's spoken in.  The 20th c. saw more rapid periods
of vocabulary change in English.    What's more questionable is whether
such periods of rapid change occur as readily in phonology, morphology,
and grammar.  

 

I question the article's contention that American English appeared when
Noah Webster produced his dictionary and speller.  Webster's influence
grew slowly from 1784 through the first third of the 18th c., and he did
have some effect on the spelling of American English.  However, there is
good evidence that American English was identified by people in Britain
as a distinct dialect as early as 1750.

 

Herb

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Spruiell, William C
Sent: 2008-02-07 15:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Mini-article on language change (link)

 

Dear All:

 

There's a science news site called Science Daily that serves as a kind
of one-stop press release service for university researchers. I read
over it every day or two to see if anything is listed that would be of
interest to my students; today, there's an interesting one on language
change:

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080206154123.htm

 

 

The site's articles range from way-too-technical all the way to
way-too-cute, but this one's not at either extreme.

 

Bill Spruiell

Dept. of English

Central Michigan University

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