Mechanisms of Linguistic Change AThe changes that have caused the most disagreement are those in pronunciation. We have various sources of evidence for the pronunciations of earlier times, such as thespellings, the treatment of words borrowed from other languages or borrowed by them, the description...
C It is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly plays a part in the spread of change: one person imitates another, and people with the most prestige are most likely to be imitated, so that a change that takes place in one social group may be im...