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Originally Posted by Targan
Totally different situation now compared to mediaeval times. We have audio and audio visual recording now, not to mention widespread literacy - slows down language drift.
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Mmmmm... I dont' really think that your appreciation is totally right. Language drift exists, and this is specially true for the non-hegemonic languages. One important cause for the language drift is the coexistence between different languages in the same geographical areas, and the demographical balance between their speakers. The english language used in Australia is hegemonic and without important competence, but the future evolution of, per example, the english spoken in the south of the United States, with its daily coexistence with the spanish, could be very different. Of course, the same is true about the spanish talked in Mexico or in the southern states.
Catalans are sometimes specially sensitive to the matter of language drift. We mainly consider ourselves a nation without state, being inside Spanish state. Our language have not the same protection as the Spanish nor the same demographical weight (we are now about 7 millions). The influence of the spanish language is strong, specially due to the media, and the adoption of spanish terms is sometimes inevitable. At long term it can cause such an important drift that the the survival of our language is uncertain. I know that my point of view can seem somewhat "provincial", in my little corner of the world. But some of us have a day to day struggle to keep unnecessary variations of catalan at minimal to transmit it to our children. We have the conviction that a language implies more than words and grammar. So, language drift is day-to-day matter. Happily, catalan enjoys a good health in Internet.