Language Change
In
some ways, it is surprising that languages change. After all, they are passed
down through the generations reliably enough for parents and children to
communicate with each other. Yet linguists find that all languages change over
time—albeit at different rates. For example, while Japanese has changed relatively
little over 1,000 years, English evolved rapidly in just a few centuries. Many
present-day speakers find Shakespeare’s sixteenth century texts difficult and
Chaucer’s fourteenth century Canterbury Tales nearly impossible to read.
Why They Change
Languages
change for a variety of reasons. Large-scale shifts often occur in response to
social, economic and political pressures. History records many examples of
language change fueled by invasions, colonization and migration. Even without
these kinds of influences, a language can change dramatically if enough users
alter the way they speak it.
Frequently,
the needs of speakers drive language change. New technologies, industries,
products and experiences simply require new words. Plastic, cell phones and the
Internet didn’t exist in Shakespeare’s time, for example. By using new and
emerging terms, we all drive language change. But the unique way that
individuals speak also fuels language change. That’s because no two individuals
use a language in exactly the same way. The vocabulary and phrases people use
depend on where they live, their age, education level, social status and other
factors. Through our interactions, we pick up new words and sayings and
integrate them into our speech. 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.
Types of Change
Three
main aspects of language change over time: vocabulary, sentence structure and
pronunciations. Vocabulary can change quickly as new words are borrowed from
other languages, or as words get combined or shortened. Some words are even
created by mistake. As noted in the Linguistic Society of America's publication
Is English Changing? pea is one such example. Up until about 400 years ago,
pease referred to either a single pea or many peas. At some point, people
mistakenly assumed that the word pease was the plural form of pea, and an
unfamiliar word was born. While vocabulary can change quickly, sentence
structure—the order of words in a sentence—changes more slowly. Yet it’s clear
that today’s English speakers construct sentences very differently from Chaucer
and Shakespeare’s contemporaries (see illustration above). Changes in sound are
somewhat harder to document, but at least as interesting. For example, during
the so-called “Great Vowel Shift” 500 years ago, English speakers modified
their vowel pronunciation dramatically. This shift represents the biggest
difference between the pronunciations of so called Middle and Modern English
(see audio clips in "Paths of Change")
Agents of Change
Before
a language can change, speakers must adopt new words, sentence structures and
sounds, spread them through the community and transmit them to the next
generation. According to many linguists—including David Lightfoot, NSF
assistant director for social, behavioral and economic sciences—children serve
as agents for language change when, in the process of learning the language of
previous generations, they internalize it differently and propagate a different
variation of that language.
Linguists
study language change by addressing questions such as these:
Can
we trace the evolutionary path of a language?
How
do language changes spread through communities?
How
do historical circumstances influence language change?
What
is the relationship between language learning and change?
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