12-13-2012, 06:08 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
Another factor is that a written form tends to make a language more conservative with its grammatical structures. Also not only words loaned from one language to nother there is evidence that many european languages adopted a more complex grammar from latin.
If you have for example a big empire in the center of your setting like rome or imperial china, it will "export" its grammar and even parts of its phonetical spektrum to other contrys. Vietnamese for example adaptet its tonals from chinese. Alphatbeths or Writing tends to rather be imported than develop regionally, Greek and Thai alphabeth can both be traced to mesopotamien alpabeths. Or chinese characters wich are in use from vietnam to japan. |
12-13-2012, 07:26 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
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Not only that, but the one really complex analytic grammatical construct of Latin (and Greek, and unique to these two branches), its way of handling indirect speech, has been ignored by every living tongue in Europe. However, supporting the larger point, ultra-analytic English might have been influenced by the more analytic grammar of insular Celtic. Dutch, a fairly close relative of English, is much more synthetic. Another Englishism that supports this is the loss of "thou," carrying a French tendency to the extreme, even to the point of sacrificing intelligibility. Actually, the origin comes from Egyptian hieroglyphics, but they do have a common origin. |
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12-13-2012, 07:50 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
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Are you using "analytic" here to mean something different? Or are there European languages with more elaborate declensions and conjugations than Latin has, and less reliance on word order and prepositions? (I don't think there are any polysynthetic languages in Europe, are there?) Bill Stoddard |
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12-13-2012, 08:50 AM | #14 | |||
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
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12-13-2012, 09:33 AM | #15 | ||
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
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I thought that the evidence leaned towards something invented independently by people from the Levant in Egyptian service.
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12-13-2012, 09:34 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
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Bill Stoddard |
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12-13-2012, 09:38 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
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12-13-2012, 10:12 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: The City of Subdued Excitement
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
Three suggestions:
1) Narrow your search. You probably don't need to know everything about how all the ways that any language could change. What kind of change do you want to bring to your language? Some sound changes? Grammatical evolution? Vocabulary innovations? If you are happy with some parts of your language (perhaps the pholology, for instance), then don't worry about that kind of language change. 2) Find a conlanging community, and ask there. The readership of this subforum can be surprisingly knowledgeable about a lot of things, but we're united by our interest in GURPS, not language. 3) Buy a used freshman introduction to linguistics text on Amazon. These things get replaced by new editions every few years, so the older ones are cheap, and they don't assume any prior knowledge of the field. It should have a section on language change, and that should be enough to get you going, or at least let you know what kinds of things you want to learn more about. |
12-13-2012, 10:25 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
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12-13-2012, 11:45 AM | #20 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Re: Guidelines for Linguistic Evolution
I got the terms reversed. Early morning posting.
Last edited by Rasputin; 12-13-2012 at 11:47 AM. Reason: Fixed quoting. |
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