zompist bboard

There are a few things I disagree with there:

* /w/ probably wouldn't merge with /v/; it's realized with pharyngealization, so it'd be more likely to merge with /l/ somehow, or maybe even /r/.
* /θr/ is already shifting to [θɾ], but who knows if that'll last.
* Everything with /r/ is totally insane but I guess it could happen in a thousand years? Non-rhoticity seems more likely, but that's boring. /er ir/ might merge first. (I once went into a CVS to buy earplugs and the cashier thought I'd said 'hair plugs' the first two or three times I asked.)
* I don't know why future Englishes always insist on adding uvulars.

I had a future English once. Maybe I should revive it. But the vowels were a pain in the ass. EDIT:

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Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

At least in my dialect, even though it's not GA, a future merger of /l/ and /w/, or at least a conditional merger of the two (e.g. keeping the two separate initially and in the onsets of stressed syllables, but merging them elsewhere) seems very probable, considering that /l/ has [ɰ] (and occasionally [w]) in onsets (except when stressed and initial, where it not infrequently preserved as [ʟ̞]) and various rounded and unrounded back glides in codas and unstressed intervocalic onsets (determined by their exact environment). I have also heard other vaguely GA-ish varieties with people vocalizing coda /l/ as well to something like [ɰ] or [w].

Conversely, I agree that in anything GA-like a merger of /w/ and /v/ seems quite improbable any time soon.

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Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

Well in my part of New Orleans most coda /l/s are vocalized,

For example /'ɒ:mənd/ <almond> /'kɛjbəw 'kɑr/ <cable car>

I wouldn't be surprised if our odd voiced contrast turned into an Iceland-style aspiration contrast, so we might see something like /'ɑ:mənt/ and /'kʰipo'kɑr/ in the future

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Slava, čĭstŭ, hrabrostĭ!

i wouldn't use almond as an example, because pronouncing it with /l/ is a spelling pronunciation and the original pronunciation has no /l/.

Mall then is a better example. For it I have [ˈmɒ(ː)o̯], showing my realization of /ɔːl/ (both in words that had it historically and words in which it has appeared as a spelling pronunciation).

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Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

also like how far back does L-vocalisation go? because it seems to be found in america and britain... but whether it was separate innovations or a holdover from the 18th century I don't know..

(I actually have trouble pronouncing [ɫ] word finally without forcing it. It occasionally causes difficulty with my students because many of them are used to a Japanese style [rɯ] instead of ɫ, so if I start replacing it with [u] or whatever, they just get confused)

The l-vocalizing places in America were originally settled in part by folks from the West Country of Britain/England, which has the same feature. In fact Bristol was originally Bristow, but the presence of l-vocalism was so widespread that it was considered dialectical and hypercorrected. And it's first charter was granted under that name in 1155, meaning a dark l has been around in Englishes of some form or another for almost a millenium.

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Slava, čĭstŭ, hrabrostĭ!

How do you say "wall", for instance? [wɒu]?

That just sounds weird to me.

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Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

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Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

So far, we've been talking about phonology. What about grammar and lexicon (especially closed categories)?

English is merging adverbs into verbs, although I think that's well established by now. Probably one of the first noticeable (for average people) splits between Northern and Southern GA closed category lexicon will be the 2pl pronoun: "you guys" vs. "y'all". What are some other grammar/closed category lexicon things you can think of?

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Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

I thought you might have meant that, I agree that happens fairly often.

Like in
"He runs quick" or "He runs fast" vs. "He runs quickly"

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Slava, čĭstŭ, hrabrostĭ!

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Basilius

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Basilius

One of these days, I will become fluent in Old English.

Hví? Hón skal ekki liðsinną þér ~

(in other words I should lay off the Old Norse cookies)