Terminology Question - Is there a word describing languages evolving from older languages?
Take something like Middle English evolving into Early Modern English or the split between Classical Latin and Ecclesiastical Latin.
Now obviously there's no really clear division between the two languages, these change slowly over time, but presumably there would be a point where academics of the era would recognize that the language they speak is substantially different than the one that came before.
How would they refer to the previous or contemporary language? Is there some term like split language or schism language? Would they just say old version versus modern/ new language?
For example, would a theologian in the 11th century refer to both Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin as being Latin, or would they distinguish between the two and if so how?
Note: This is non-essential research for a fantasy novel, but I'm also separately interested.
Posted Feb 20, 2020, 7:19 AM UTC
Well, the conception of a distinct stage of an older version of one's language will surely be in context to some historical reference, or adjective? We use specific names and prefixes a lot like "classic", "olf", "middle", "modern", often combined with regional descriptions such as "middle low German", capturing both timr and place. But as you noted, those categories are arbitrary as are the dividing lines.
I don't know if there's a general words apart from describing it like saying "previous /older version". But in your fantasy world, wouldn't it make more sense to use specifically created names instead of general terms? Otherwise just xome up with one, maybe?
Sorry for the delay in getting back, but thank you for the description. I was hoping for a nice technical term to throw in, but it's not a big deal.
Oh, I have names for the languages, of course, it was more the process I was thinking about. The situation is somewhat similar to Europe post Roman Empire, with the Latin equivalent becoming the trade tongue. So the heritage languages are all distinct, while the trade tongue evolves slowly over the centuries due to changing usage.