Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: Language and genes
Message-ID: <D06yI9.5t8@inter.NL.net>
Organization: NLnet
References: <699@percep.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 16:15:44 GMT
Lines: 41

In article <699@percep.demon.co.uk>,
rmallott <rmallott@percep.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In reply to article <3bihbv$40t@amy13.Stanford.EDU> from
>Nathaniel Michael Pearson <raindrop@leland.stanford.edu> Miguel 
>Carrasquer<mcv@inter.NL.net> wrote:
>>
>>I think that sound change, both synchronically and diachronically, 
>>is not gradual at all.  As one goes from one dialect area to another, 
>>phonological systems change abruptly (isoglosses). The "Great English 
>>Vowel Shift" is a diachronical example of abrupt system change...  
>>I think it's futile to look for `causes' of the Vowel Shift: 
>>there aren't any. Not in the social sphere, much less in
>>the biological/genetic sphere.
>
>It is generally thought that the Vowel Shift (affecting the pronunciation
>of the long vowels) took place after 1400 and was completed during the 
>15th century. The exact timing is not known but the end-points as shown 
>in literature are from the time of Chaucer(1342-1400) to that of Shakespeare
>(1564-1616). The Black Death reached England in 1349, with recurrences to 
>the end of the century. About one third of the population died. All sorts of 
>social and other changes followed on this catastrophe. By the time Caxton 
>produced his first work in 1471, English had changed so rapidly that some 
>of the language of Chaucer's time was no longer intelligible. Before the
>Black Death there was a confusion of dialects, with three major dialects, 
>reflecting different patterns of settlement (genetic and language parallelism)
>The changes in the relative importance of the different dialects resulting 
>from the non-uniform consequences of the Black Death offer a perfectly 
>plausible causation for the Vowel Shift (and many other changes in English 
>in this period), with changes in population gene frequencies and in language 
>moving in parallel. Otto Jespersen certainly thought that the effects of the 
>Black Death were a major explanation of language change in England after the 
>time of Chaucer.
>  

Interesting.  Why did the same thing not happen in other parts of 
Europe equally affected by the Black Death?  Or did it?

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
