> >#little or no language change for Dragaerans. So distinctly different > >#languages probably imply *very* ancient divisions. > > > >This is one of those places where sf/fantasy authors simply don't deal > >with the science, because it would mess up their main point, which is > >telling a good story (and whatever else they want to do with it). > > Yes and no. Consider Quebcois and, for that matter, Hungarian. You know > (in fact, you know better than I) that when I cultural group transported > whole to a new location, one of the things that can happen is that the > language "freezes." There are no dialects of Hungarian, and the language > stopped evolving (with the exception of foreign loan words) some thousand > of years ago. That is, according to the linguists I've read, and according > to my late father, a magyar of five hundred years ago could understand a > contemporary Hungarian with no difficulty. That is some of what I was > playing with. I very carefully did not assert that this had happened with > every language in the East. There is another force that may prevent alteration of the language in the Empire.. the Orb itself. It seems to behave (among other things) as a magical recording device. If it keeps a consistant historical record with audio for the Emperor, his influence on the court could work to prevent major language alterations. -Greg Schwartz