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Topic ClosedEvolution of languages
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Evolution of languages
    Posted: 05-Oct-2004 at 08:45

G'day all,

 

I'm new to this interesting forum and would like to pose a question.

 

One trend in the evolution of the English language has been towards greater simplicity.  The Old English of Bede was heavily inflected with multiple genders; the language that emerged in the renaissance period was a  far simpler one grammatically.

Does anyone know of a similar process occurring in any other language?  Indeed, are there any general trends apparent in the evolution of languages over time?

 

Cheers.

 
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Posts: 831 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Oct-2004 at 14:43
Hi Jols, welcome to AE!
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Posts: 366 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Oct-2004 at 18:01
Well, Portuguese does seem to be getting more simplified, though very, very, slowly. As a matter of fact, Portuguese is more simple, gramatically speaking, then the Latin it originated from.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Nov-2004 at 23:28
"Does anyone know of [trend towards greater simplicity] occurring in any other language?


Try every language family known to man. It's a known FACT of linguistic change. See also: Sturtevant's paradox (sound change is regular and causes irregularity; analogy is irregular and causes regularity).
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Posts: 691 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Dec-2004 at 09:17
That's right Cevlakohn!
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