until the point where two people (one from the past and one from the present) don´t understand each other? I get the feeling if I spoke to Shakespear I wouldn´t understand him... and that´s only some hundred years.
2006-09-03 07:22:29 · 6 answers · asked by joseguate22 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Historical linguists generally put the time depth for the distinction between language and dialect at about 500 years. This is not a hard and fast number, but generally works. Shakespeare's English, while difficult, is still comprehensible. However, about a hundred years before Shakespeare the language was different enough to be incomprehensible. That is about the time of the Great Vowel Shift in English and the language before then was much more like Chaucer's Middle English, than Shakespeare's Early Modern English. However, Shakespeare could have probably understood Chaucer (only 300 years earlier), but with difficulty. This "about 500 years" measurement has been validated in many different parts of the world, so it is generally taken to be about right.
2006-09-03 09:28:53 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Somewhere I read an estimate that a language changes by about 5% with every generation. Sorry, I don't recall the source, but it was in an article about tracing the probable course of the Polynesians' spread across the Pacific, by analyzing & comparing their current dialects in different locations. But I'd suppose that the rate might be different in modern societies because of the differences in the means of communication.
2006-09-03 14:28:14 · answer #2 · answered by yahoohoo 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Very difficult to predict, bud (think butterfly effect). You see, a number of factors are involved in the differentiation of two dialects which would eventually become different languages. Things as diverse as geographic isolation, a people proud of its dialect, foreign relationships, television and radio, pop culture, etc among endless others would affect this. In any natural scenario, you need a good number of years (I'd say one century minimum) before the changes are so strong that they totally hinder communication.
Take care!
2006-09-03 14:33:23 · answer #3 · answered by Dave 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Shakespeare has been dead for almost 400 years now. Heck, language changes from generation to generation...not necessarily the language itself but the use of the words and their meaning. As the usage changes and the meaning along with it, the language changes.
2006-09-03 14:30:38 · answer #4 · answered by worldneverchanges 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
In America it's about as fast as when the next movie with some stupid buzz word comes out. YES and "LIKE" and "you know" all came from some idiotic movie.
2006-09-03 14:25:40 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
weekly
2006-09-03 14:24:31 · answer #6 · answered by jyd9999 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋