Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!uchinews!deb5
From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: What's an old language? was Re: English import...
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: ellis-nfs.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <Dtx77q.2n7@midway.uchicago.edu>
Followup-To:  sci.lang
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: The University of Chicago
References: <4gtn8u$2lv@globe.indirect.com> <3157B7AC.5B9@eurocontrol.fr> <rte-2603961000090001@mac-118.lz.att.com> <4r8oi6INNt9d@hancock.cc.williams.edu>
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 14:35:50 GMT
Lines: 26

In article <4r8oi6INNt9d@hancock.cc.williams.edu>,
Perrin <97sah@williams.edu> wrote:
>In article <rte-2603961000090001@mac-118.lz.att.com>,
>Ralph T. Edwards <rte@elmo.lz.att.com> wrote:
>>What does it mean for a language to be older than another?  I suppose it
>>could mean "not subject to significant creolization."  Also it could mean
>>"more conservative of old features."  For that of course one would need
>>some reconstruction or record of the old features.  Otherwise it seems to
>>me all living languages are the same age, since they presumably all are
>>part of a continuum reaching back to the evolution of language in humans.
>
>	There are defined ways of distinguishing one language from
>another; thus a new language is "born" from an older one when it
>becomes a language distinct from its parent.  Not that a language's
>birthday can be pinpointed with accuracy, but surely one language can
>be said to be older or younger than another.

	Yes.  "Latin is older than French."  Insofar as one views these
as separate "languages" (a term with no generally-accepted meaning as a 
count-noun in linguistics) and not different areas of the same continuum,
this statement is true.  However, statements like "Zulu is older than 
Afrikaans" or "Cantonese is older than Mandarin" have no basis.
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
