Language separation

[asterroc]

Last night T$ and I were watching a cartoon series by Tartakovsky last night, and I assumed he was Polish while T$ told me he was Russian. There ensued a conversation about how Poland had been part of Russia at times in the past, and vice versa, so it makes sense they'd have similar names. Which prompted me to wonder if there is a language that is partway between Russian and Polish, or if there's a pidgin combination of the two (or whatever the appropriate word is instead of "pidgin").

Does this really happen, are there "intermediate" languages when there isn't geographical separation between two regions with different languages? I'm thinking of a comparison between how languages separate and how species evolve, that it'll start with two subspecies that become more and more distinct, and sometimes there'll be a third subspecies that can interbreed with both even when the two extremes can't interbreed with each other. Is it like that?

I am hopeful q10 will reply to this with his expertise, but if anyone has info it'd be interesting.

Comments

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

not only are there intermediate languages, there are the language equivalent of ring species - one beautiful example is a chain of villages between france and italy, where any two neighbouring villages understand each other, but on one end they're speaking french and on the other end italian.