Generation by generation, pronunciations evolve, new words are borrowed
Generation by generation, pronunciations evolve, new words are borrowed
or invented, the meaning of old words drifts, and morphology develops
or decays. The rate of change varies, but whether the changes are faster
or slower, they build up until the "mother tongue" becomes arbitrarily
distant and different. After a thousand years, the original and new languages
will not be mutually intelligible. After ten thousand years, the relationship
will be essentially indistinguishable from chance relationships between
historically unrelated languages.