General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSuppose some apocalyptic event occurred such that the population
Of the US was greatly reduced and society/technology was like in England in 1200s or so and people didnt travel much.
How long would it take before people in NYC and SC, for example, wouldnt be able to understand each others speech?
virgogal
(10,178 posts)raccoon
(31,105 posts)But I understand trump. I mean, I understand the WORDS he says. What he means, if anything, is another story.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)raccoon
(31,105 posts)The interstate the interstate. Or its number.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)and then it just went wild.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,571 posts)Used to work with a guy from GA and I was always asking him to repeat what he said - half the time I couldn't understand him. But if there was no communication at all between populations I'm guessing it would take at least 100 years of isolation before different versions of English significantly diverged.
Not to get too nerdy about this, linguists think it took about 200 years after Germanic tribes migrated to Britain for Old English to become isolated from other Germanic languages; but even by the time the Vikings started invading Britain around 700 Old English and Old Norse were probably still somewhat mutually intelligible.
trackfan
(3,650 posts)where, according to the map, cray-awn is the the local pronunciation. I say cra-ahn; and she, inexplicably, says cran.
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)So, INSTANTLY.
OkSustainAg
(203 posts)Is left over 17th century Scottish English. E.g. "Victuals" pronouced vittles.
I also don't see us going back before Victorian or old west tech no matter what catastrophe. Most of my friends and I are tinkers trying to come up with simpler recycled farm tools and equipment.