In the past, languages changed over time. New ones (like english) arose and others (like gothic) died. That was hundreds of years ago, though, pre-printing press. Now that most people are literate, will out languages be preserved, or will english be a dead language in another 500 years?
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Anonymous2007-09-23 10:30 ID:6anYLKsd
There are distinct branches of the English language, though. Ebonics is becoming increasingly unintelligible to others outside the socioeconomic class of people who speak it. (Ebonics is NOT just spoken by black people; it's, generally speaking, the language of the poor, especially in the south.) Accents, however, are fading away, due to more prominent American migratory patterns, and also because mass/high speed communications have given us example accents to take after.