Re: Orthography supporting sound changes?


Ar an seachtú lá de mí Eanair, scríobh Peter T. Daniels:

> > > > > In principle, It appears not to be impossible to me that
> > > > > reversals of lossy sound changes could happen if the old
> > > > > pronounciation is preserved by writing. I'm thinking of a
> > > > > reversal of a sound merger, or re-appearance of a lost sound.
> > > > >
> > > > > Are there any reported examples of such sound change reversals
> > > > > having happened, where it can be demonstrated (or at least is
> > > > > strongly believed by many) that the orthography was the only
> > > > > preserver of the old situation (so it was not also preserved by
> > > > > maybe regional or social variants of spoken language)?
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > > You left out the most relevant point: children would have to learn to
> > > spell before they learned to talk.
> >
> > Because children are the only vectors of sound change?
>
> Pretty much.

Well, that’s false. Consider the twentieth century in Europe, and the
displacement by the standard language of local varieties in Italy, France
and Germany, among other countries. Often this displacement was a matter of,
in large part, sound changes.

Part of the displacement, at least, happened with military service--cf. the
Breton experience, where the first step in its hopefully-reversing death was
sparked by the realisation of soldiers in the Grande Guerre that French as a
vernacular was much more useful--and soldiers under 16 in Europe haven’t
been the normal course of events for a 150 years, at least.

--
I AM IN JAIL AND ALLOWED SEND ONLY ONE CABLE SINCE WAS ARRESTED WHILE
MEASURING FIFTEEN FOOT WALL OUTSIDE PALACE AND HAVE JUST FINISHED COUNTING
THIRTY EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDERED TWENTY TWO NAMES WHOS WHO IN MIDEAST.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Orthography supporting sound changes?
    ... > displacement by the standard language of local varieties in Italy, ... "Sound change" is a technical term, ... > Breton experience, where the first step in its hopefully-reversing death was ... there's no way to relate French to Breton via "sound change." ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Orthography supporting sound changes?
    ... >> hopefully-reversing death was sparked by the realisation of soldiers in ... The process of displacement of the local language by ... standard French was sparked off by military service; I cite Breton because I ...
    (sci.lang)