[PW] Re: Hypothetical cultural divergence

[Simon Cauchi]

On 3/09/2006, at 11:47 PM, Megan Fitzgibbons wrote:

> If you have a fairly homogeneous group of people that speak a common 
> language
> that are then sundered by a cataclysm, following which the different 
> groups
> remain fairly insular with little to no communication with each other 
> or
> outside cultures, how long would it take the languages to diverge? 
> After, say,
> 300 years, would they be separate languages or dialects? What types of
> differences would one expect? I want fairly pronounced differences of 
> custom
> and ritual, but this would no doubt be accompanied by divergence in 
> language as
> well.
>
> I believe this is for a book he is writing.
>
> I realize that there are probably not any "real life" anthropological 
> examples
> that could provide evidence of this scenario, but it is possible to 
> find
> scholarly speculation about the time needed for cultural and linguistic
> divergence?

Although the real-life parallels with this fictitious situation are not 
exact, I think the divergences between (say) metropolitan and Québecois 
French, or between Iberian and Latin-American Spanish and Portuguese, 
go some way to providing an answer. Communication between Latin America 
and the mother-countries has never been cut off, though.

After 300 years, you can expect separate dialects to have developed, 
not separate languages. The types of differences to be expected would 
be mainly in vocabulary and pronunciation (accent), not in grammar.

Simon Cauchi
<simon.cauchi at xtra.co.nz>