if there was a people that lived on mars and that were somehow extingushed leave behind some traces of their being there after say 25000 years or would all traces be gone?
My two cents: Our founding fathers took great pains to distinguish our English from that of the aristocracyThey wanted us to sound out each syllable of words like secretaryI'm not sure that slang is the proper word, without sounding defensive, but usage is the biggest differentiatorWe call coffee java, joe, cuppa mud (among other things)And yes, even here, we call things by different names or use different pronunciationsIn New England, they ah their r's, mothah, rivah, but stick an r sound at the end of ma (for mother or mom) so it sounds like mahrThey call a traffic circle a rotary, a water fountain a bubblerIn the south, the language morphs into something almost unintelligible: chile, dat wahtah barn you uph! (Child, be careful, that hot water will scald you!)In a lot of the south, you get grits with your breakfast, whether you ask for it or notNew Yawkers have a language almost of their own, close to how they sound in Joisey (New Jersey) which has some pronounciations that sound like New EnglandYou could spend years in studying our very own usagesGo to N'arlins (New Orleans) and it's like stepping off of a space ship.
If you dont like amurica then you can just git out!
I'm no expert but its a matter of slangAfter a while, a population will have certain habits and in this case, word changes I guessAmerican and British, although evidently very similar, are different because of the 'pond' that separates themAmericans weren't just British people to begin withSoon enough other ethnic groups joined the bundle and this created a wider chance of vocabulary I guessDon't forget there were also native americans, and many other european groups that could've contributed to the American english slang that the British did not have access toThe only example I can think of is the world 'thongs'To me (and many others), are pieces of lingerie but apparently, according to a friend of mine from Willongong (is that how it's spelt?) in Australia, 'thongs' are flip flopsSo, why are there two different meanings? There just isSimple as thatSorry this wasn't very detailed but hopefully I cleared some things up.
Words and pronunciation change in languages due to three main things, time, distance, and necessityThis is how new languages are formedWhen one group with a common language divides and are not in day to day communication with each other, they will not hear the pronunciation of the other group, and gradually each group will start to pronounce the same words differently,mot the point that eventually, over time, the word will be pronounced completely differentlyAlso, necessity plays this role: suppose these two groups split up and one group goes to a place where there are mangoesMangoes are new to them, and so they invent a word for themThe other group also moves, and they go to a place where there is iceThey invent a word iceAnd so on, each group building a different vocabularyOver many generations, the two groups will speak a language that, at first, is the same basic language, but that becomes more and more different until they become distinct from each otherI teach English as a second language, and it is easy to see how languages have evolved in this wayGreat question! Lady Morgana
25,000 years can erase a lot of tracesOn Earth, we have a hard time finding proof of civilization older than about 16,000 years (Lascaux paintings)Mind you, these people did not have modern technology to create substances that could resistImagine if they could have laser-etched their drawings on some stainless steel plates, then cover them with an aluminum-based transparent lacquerThe next oldest artifact is a device designed to determine the dates (to establish a calendar) based on the position of the Sun at sunsetThis object (remains found in England near the more modern Stonehenge) is about 10,000 years oldBased on that, I would answer: Yes, it could be possible.
