Random Questions #1

[baelarion]

Here's the thing. Sometimes, completely random and weird questions pop into my head and nag me unmercifully for a while. Generally I don't ask them to anyone, since they ARE so completely random. But I think I happen to have a very smart friends list, so I'm going to start putting them here when I think of them. Maybe you'll know the answer,

Comments

[doxasticpirate]

I can't say much for (2), but I think I know a bit about (1), so let me give it a shot

[lordameth]

I often come across references to, or think about, the historical changes in the pronunciation of Japanese. When did saburai become samurai? When did Yedo become Edo, and just how were these pronounced at different times? If we want to entertain the conceit that the Okinawan/Ryukyuan dialects/languages are indicative of what Japanese used to be like (as opposed to being separate languages with a separate history), we can see some intriguing indications of sounds that have since phased out, such as 'ti' and 'di'.

But, despite thinking about these things not infrequently, it never really occurred to me to think about it in the American or British context. Would the British accent at the time of the American Revolution have been more French than the British accent today? What would the American accent have been like? Putting word usage, loanwords, and the like aside, speaking purely about pronunciation, i.e. accents, I wonder...

Interesting stuff.

[galathilion]

i've always wondered about #1.