[pierrem15]

How long would you have to live before your dialect becomes noticeably different than current speech? 200 years? How about mutually unintellible? 1000 years?

Of course if just about everyone in your cohort also lived to a 1000, then the pattern wouldn't change at all.

[Michael Barnes]

Thought you might be interested...

[Quix]

One's original language would still have to change as the language of the culture one was living in had changed compared to one's childhood language.

Of course, if there were endless centuries of a virtually identical aggrarian culture, then perhaps on.

But as societies and cultures tend to change at least somewhat, then language would also change--even if only by a few additional words year by year. A few additional words year by year could add up considerably depending on frequency of use--by 1,000 years.

We tend to use about 2,800 words most of the time--say 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, we tend to use another 800-1,000 words from our particular professions and hobbies.

So, if we are having 3-4 words added every year--AND IF they replace others from our past--in 1,000 years, we could have a whole largely different vocabulary.

imho.