Everything in this universe is perpetually in a stage of change. This is a fact commented on by philosophers and poets through the ages. Similarly, a flick through any book of quotations reveals numerous statements about the changeable world we live in. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus claimed in the sixth century B.C. that “everything rolls on, nothing stays still”. Moreover, Edmund Spenser spoke of “the ever-whirling wheel of change, the which all mortal things doth sway” in the sixteenth century. Additionally, twentieth-century Irish poet William Butler Yeats stated that “time and the world are ever in flight”. (Aitchison, 2001)
Language, like everything else, joins in this general flux. This is noted by German philosopher-linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 that “There can never be a moment of true standstill in language, just a little as in the ceaseless flaming thought of men. By nature it is a continuous process of development”. (as cited in Aitchison, 2001)
Even the simplest and most colloquial English of several hundred years ago sounds remarkably strange to us (Aitchison, 2001). One of these examples is the work of Robert Mannyng who wrote a history of England in the mid fourteenth century. “In symple speche as I couthe, That is lightest in mannes mouthe. I mad noght for no disours, Ne for no seggers, no harpours, Bot for the luf of symple men that strange Inglis can not ken” (as cited in Aitchison, 2001). Mannyng claimed that he made his language as simple as he could so that ordinary people could understand it, yet it is barely comprehensible to the average person today (Aitchison, 2001). Additionally, many present speakers find Chaucer’s fourteenth century Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare’s sixteenth century texts nearly impossible and difficult to read (Mahoney, 2005)
Language, then, gradually transforms itself over the centuries (Aitchison, 2001). There is nothing surprising in this. It would be strange if language alone remained unaltered in a world where humans grow old, tadpoles change into frogs and milk turns into cheese. “Time changes all things: there is no reason why language should escape this universal law”, as the famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure noted (as cited in Aitchison, 2001).
Languages are passed down, after all, through the generations reliably enough for parents and children to communicate with each other. Similarly, linguists find that all languages change over time at different rate. For example, while Japanese has changed relatively little over 1, 000 years, English evolved rapidly in just a few centuries (Mahoney, 2005). But what is language change? How and why they change?
Wikipedia (2006) defines language change as the manner in which the phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic and other features of a language are modified over time. Time is constantly changing, so all languages are also continually changing. At any given moment the English language, for example, has a huge variety within itself which is known as synchronic variation. From these different forms comes the effect on language over time known as diachronic variation. (Wikipedia, 2006)
Historical linguistics and sociolinguistics are the two linguistic disciplines concern with studying language change. Historical linguists examine how a language was spoken in the past and seek to determine how present languages derive from it and are related to one another (Wikipedia, 2006). The history of a group of languages can be discovered by making comparisons between and among languages and even within a single language (Language Change and Variation, 2005). Sociolinguists, on one hand, are interested in the origins of language changes and want to explain how society and changes in society influence language (Wikipedia, 2006).
There are varieties of reasons why languages change. Large-scale shifts often occur in response to social, economic and political pressures (Wikipedia, 2006). History records many examples of language change brought about by invasions, colonization and migration. On the other hand, a language can change dramatically if enough users alter the way they speak it even without those kinds of influences. (Mahoney, 2005)
Correspondingly, the needs of speakers also drive language change. New technologies, products, industries and experiences simply require new words. For example, cell phones and internet, did not exist in Shakespeare time, thus we all drive language change by using new and emerging terms (Mahoney, 2005). Further, the unique way that individuals speak also fuels language change because no two individuals use a language in exactly the same way. Their use of phrases and vocabulary also depend on where they live, their age, education level, social status and other factors. (Ancient Script, 1996-2005)
Also, we pick up new words and sayings and integrate them into our speech through our interactions. Teens and young adults for example, often use different words and phrases from their parents. Some of them spread through the population and slowly change the language (Ancient Script, 1996-2005).
Likewise, the inevitably of language change is guaranteed by the way in which language is passed on from one generation to another. Children do not begin with an intact grammar of a specific language but construct the grammar on the basis of the available linguistic data. It is hardly surprising that differences will arise, in such situation, even if only subtle ones, from generation to another. (Language Change and Variation, 2005)
Vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciations are the three main aspects of language over time. Vocabulary can changed quickly as new words are borrowed from other languages or as words get combined or shortened (Thomason, n.d.). Some words are even created by mistake. One of such examples is the word ‘pea as noted by the Linguistic Society of America in its publication, Is English Changing. Pease referred to either a single pea or many peas up until 400 years ago. People mistakenly assumed that the word ‘pease’ was the plural form of pea at some point, thus a new word as born. (Mahoney, 2005)
Grammatical constructions or the sentence structure also change. One of the examples is the passage in the Old English Lord’s Prayer, “not lead thou us into temptation”, which is in sharp contrast to modern English, “don’t lead us into temptation”. Nowadays, ‘not’ must follow an auxiliary verb ‘do’, there is no pronoun subject in the sentence and if there was, it would by ‘you’, thus ‘thou’ has entirely disappeared from the modern language (Thomason, n.d.). In the same way, today’s English speakers construct sentences very differently from Chaucer and Shakespeare’s contemporaries (Mahoney, 2005).
Changes in sound are somewhat harder to document but at least as interesting. During the so-called Great Vowel Shift 500 years ago, for example, English speakers modified their vowel pronunciation dramatically. This shift represents the biggest difference between the pronunciations of so called Middle and Modern English (Mahoney, 2005). Sounds change also causes communication breakdown. If you go into a Chicago store and ask for ‘sacks’ in an East Coast accent you may get socks instead. In addition, Bostonians sometimes have trouble understanding Alabamans even when both are using Standard English grammar. (Thomason, n.d.)
Associated to the three main aspects of language over time are articulatory simplification, analogy and reanalysis, language contact, hypercorrection and phonological change which are the principal causes of language change. Articulatory simplification is itself difficult to define precisely. Nonetheless, in our everyday speech, we can identify cases of articulatory simplification such as the deletion of a consonant in a complex cluster or in some dialects and the insertion of a vowel to break up a complex cluster. Analogy and reanalysis are cognitive factors that play a role in change in all components of the grammar. (Language Change and Variation, 2005)
Analogy reflects the preference of speakers for regular patterns over irregular ones. It typically involves the extension or generalization of regularity on the basis of the inference that if elements are alike in some respects, they should be alike in others as well. Reanalysis is particularly common in morphological change. It typically involves an attempt top attribute a compound or root + affix structure to a word that was not formerly broken down. (Language Change and Variation, 2005)
Language contact is the situation where speakers of a language frequently interact with the speakers of another language or dialect. As a consequence, borrowing can occur particularly where there are significant numbers of bilinguals and multilinguals. The lexicon is typically most affected of this borrowing. It also affects all components of the grammar as well. Hypercorrection occurs when a speaker who is attempting to speak another dialect or language over-generalizes particular rules. Phonological change in English like the Great Vowel Shift is a major change that resulted in new phonemic representations of words and morphemes. Basically, the long vowels shifted upwards; that is, a vowel that used to be pronounced in one place in the mouth would be pronounced in a different place, higher up in the mouth. (Language Change and Variation, 2005)
Generally, before a language can change, speakers must adopt new words, sentence structures and sounds. These are the roles the five principal causes of language change play about.
Bibliography:
Aitchison, J. (2001). Language Change: Progress or Decay?. Cambridge University Press: England.
Internet. (1996-2005). Why Do Languages Change?. Ancient Scripts.com. Retrieved November 27, 2006, from www.ancientscripts.com
Language and Variation. (2005, April 25). Retrieved November 27, 2006, from http://ocw.mit.edu
Mahoney, N. (2005, July 18). Language Change. The National Science Foundation.
Thomason, S. Language Variation and Change. Linguistic Society of America. Retrieved November 27, 2006, from www.lsadc.org
Wikipedia. ( 2006, November 10). Language change. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved November 27, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org
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