New CBB

Yeah off course.

Y'know,

Since cave-people drew chubby animals and stick-figures and hands and weird designs on cave-walls,
languages have been fracturing into dialects and then new languages.

with the invention of metal tools to carve inscritpions into slabs of rock, languages have been fracturing into dialects and then new languages.

with the invention of clay tablets and styluses, languages have been fracturing into dialects and then new languages.

with the invention of paper and ink, languages have been fracturing into dialects and then new languages.

with the invention of the bound book, languages have been fracturing into dialects and then new languages.

with the creation of the printing-press, languages have been fracturing into dialects and then new languages.

So, with the creation of the telephone and the computer and Internet, okay, I'll be humble, back off from my previous "no possible way" stance, make the 180 from the other thread and say:
languages will continue to fracture into dialects and then new languages.

Especially, but not always, in the absence of the above-mentioned technologies.

American English dialects are diverging at a good pace in spite of modern mass communication. This is because, according to William Labov, only in-person interactions have any significant influence on language change, mass media affects it very little.

Oh, and quit trolling, Arilando

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Mekoshan
Alpic

Do you have evidence for that?

Oh bloody hell. Are you actually trying to piss people off?

FWIW, he mentioned the name of one of the world's most famous sociolinguists in that post, so yeah, I'd say it's probably pretty safe to assume that he does, in fact, have evidence. If you're actually interested in learning stuff, google it. If you're more interested in continuing to pull stuff out of your ass and refusing to listen when people try to correct you, you're on the wrong board.

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Even though documentation and spreading of the knowledge about dialects are supported by modern technology I think mass communication accelerates the dialect death. In order for dialects to evolve you need fast communication on the local level and slow on the regional and above. Today there's no difference in the speed of communication, hence networks are no longer defined by geography and dialects - at least not geographically based (and other types are today too fragile and fragmented) - can't evolve.

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Member formerly known as Morpheus. Member to be known as Vice Forum Administrator since Undecimber 13, 2013.

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

this is not to say that dialects are frozen in place, either.

Um. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure most of us still have our strongest networks with people we actually meet IRL on a regular basis... People whose social life exists primarily in cyberspace are still quite rare (and frankly, that's usually considered a sign that something's wrong). And meeting people IRL on a regular basis does still kind of depend on geography, since the speed (and cost) of actually traveling from place to place hasn't quite managed to keep up with the development in communication.

Now, it is of course true that modern communication technology has notably increased people's exposure to (if not actual mutual interaction with) different varieties, and especially to ones considered "standard" or otherwise prestigious. Which, coupled with people's desire to speak in a more prestigious manner, may well be a major cause of the dialect leveling that undeniably has taken place in many areas during the 20th century. But as I said somewhere on this board not too long ago, some reversal of this trend can already be observed; I'd say it's way too early to say where this development is leading (and of course, it could lead in entirely different directions in different areas - or even in different social groups in the same area).

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