accents

From: brennus (galaxym812000_at_yahoo-dot-com.no-spam.invalid)
Date: 03/18/05 

Date: 18 Mar 2005 03:33:15 -0600

There is some evidence that accents in human languages can still
change without external influences. For example, Icelandic, as
conservative as it is, has changed a little bit in acccent and
pronunciation from that of Old Norse. Yet, Icelandic society was
almost completely isolated from the rest of northern Europe after the
middle of the 12th century.

Linguists have also noticed changes in the accents of Black American
speakers. Just a century ago, Black American accents were nearly
identical to those of White American Southerners. Recordings of them
were made as late as the 1940's. By comparing the speech of 21st
century American Blacks with these, we know that their accents have
undergone some changes. However, I can't think of any external
influences that would really cause their accents to change. The
majority of them still live in the South or have until the last 15 to
25 years. Even, outside the South, they have little interaction with
Northern Whites or Hispanics.

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