Language processes through cultural time (was: why python annoys me)

[Cameron Laird]

In article <mailman.987630149.8017.python-list at python.org>,
D-Man  <dsh8290 at rit.edu> wrote:
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>Only in English.  In other languages (Spanish comes to mind, I don't
>really know any others but AFAIK all Romance languages are identical
>in this regard) the verb changes to indicate the subject.  I belive
>this comes from the time (~1044 AD) when the Norman French invaded
>England.  At that time the smart (rich) people spoke French while the
>uneducated (poor) people spoke English.  As a result of the English
>speakers being uneducated and spread out the language evolved to
>become closer to slang and varied from region to region.  Sometime
>after the french were no longer ruling the writers of the time began
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This is a vulgarization of the "English as creole" hypothesis
I learned and believed a long time ago (along with a few tech-
nical errors on which other posters commented).  I think there's
now no good reason to believe this (that English "became closer
to slang" as a result of the Norman conquest).  <URL:
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/LingWWW/LIN101-102/NOTES-102/Socio8.html >
readably makes the case, the high point of which I'll summarize
here in engineering terms:  we have considerable evidence that
English was on a trajectory before and after Norman influence that
does not require a "shock" to explain.
-- 

Cameron Laird <claird at NeoSoft.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
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