new languages rapidly spring from old ones!!

Scientists for decades have clashed over whether evolution takes place gradually or is driven by short spurts of intense change.
In the latest chapter in this debate, researchers report in Science this week that it appears that when new languages spin-off from older ones, there is an initial introductory burst of alterations to vocabulary. Then, the language tends to settle and accumulate gradual changes over a long period of time. The team believes this discrete evolutionary pattern occurs when a social group tries to forge a separate identity.
"We treat the words that different languages use almost identically to the way we use genes: … The more divergent two species are, the less their genes have in common, just as the more divergent two languages are, the less their words have in common."

The team focused on three of the world's major language families in its study: Bantu (Swahili, Zulu, Ngumba, for example), Indo-European (English, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit) and Austronesian (South Pacific and Indian Ocean languages such as Taglaog or Seediq). They constructed genealogical trees—this time the trees traced existing languages back to their common roots; the length of a "branch" indicated the extent of word replacement that took place as each old language morphed (possibly with new languages splitting off) into its current form.

offers a few examples of these sorts of events, such as the sudden emergence of American English when Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828. More recently, he says, black American English could fit the bill as an emerging idiom.
"It's plausible to think of black American English as having diverged from standard English as a way of establishing a distinct identity," he says. "I think everybody's impression is those differences [between the two languages] are greater than one would expect for people who live in the same area."

my opinion
i think this article was a little confusing to understand, but i think it is very truth, because after reading the article it makes alot of sense for me.
i think to understand this article you should read it two or three times because its a little bit confusing, but after understanding it is very interesting and it makes sense!!!!
maria rubio