While I recognise the validity of Scott's arguments, I have still some remarks.
Elves are ofcourse not contemporary humans, let alone Americans.
I think that even human languages changed much slower in earlier ages than in the past, say, 50 years. This last half century has seen so much changes and so much more global interaction, that most languages have changed much.
Elves on the other hand had (it is often stated) an incredible capacity of memory. They could remember things of thousands of years before, and they could even recall it like a movie in their mind. So, with that capacity, wouldn't they keep their language(s) as it was (they were)? Ofcourse, they loved language and they made new words for new things, but that would not change the words for the known things. So, the language would be enriched by new words, but wouldn't change that much in character.
*takes mental note to read that part of HoME XII some time*
[ October 27, 2003: Message edited by: Earendilyon ]
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