Laguage change

if English hadn't changed since, say, 1950, we wouldn't have words to refer to modems, fax machines, or cable TV. As long as the needs of language users continue to change, so will the language. The change is so slow that from year to year we hardly notice it

Language changes for several reasons. First, it changes because the needs of its speakers change. New technologies, new products, and new experiences require new words to refer to them clearly and efficiently. Consider the fax machine: Originally it was called a facsimile machine, because it allowed one person to send another a copy, or facsimile, of a document. As the machines became more common, people began using the shorter form fax to refer to both the machine and the document; from there, it was just a short step to using the word fax as a verb (as in I'll fax this over to Sylvia).

Another reason for change is that no two people have had exactly the same language experience. We all know a slightly different set of words and constructions, depending on our age, job, education level, region of the country, and so on. We pick up new words and phrases from all the different people we talk with, and these combine to make something new and unlike any other person's particular way of speaking. At the same time, various groups in society use language as a way of marking their group identity - showing who is and isn't a member of the group. Many of the changes that occur in language begin with teens and young adults: As young people interact with others their own age, their language grows to include words, phrases, and constructions that are different from those of the older generation. Some have a short life span (heard groovy lately?), but others stick around to affect the language as a whole.

We get new words from many different places. We borrow them from other languages (sushi, chutzpah), we create them by shortening longer words (gym from gymnasium) or by combining words (brunch from breakfast and lunch), and we make them out of proper names (Levis, fahrenheit). Sometimes we even create a new word by being wrong about the analysis of an existing word. That's how the word pea was created: Four hundred years ago, the word pease was used to refer to either a single pea or a bunch of them. But over time, people assumed that pease was a plural form, for which pea must be the singular, and a new word - pea - was born. (The same thing would happen if people began to think of the word cheese as referring to more than one chee.)

Word order also changes, though this process is much slower. Old English word order was much more 'free' than that of Modern English, and even comparing the Early Modern English of the King James Bible with today's English shows differences in word order. For example, the King James Bible translates Matthew 6:28 as "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not." In a more recent translation, the last phrase is translated as "they do not toil". English no longer places not after the verb in a sentence.

Finally, the sounds of a language change over time, too. About 500 years ago English began to undergo a major change in the way its vowels were pronounced. Before that, geese would have rhymed with today's pronunciation of face, while mice would have rhymed with today's peace. But then a 'Great Vowel Shift' began to occur, during which the ay sound (as in pay) changed to ee (as in fee) in all the words containing it, while the ee sound changed to i (as in pie). In all, seven different vowel sounds were affected. 

Languages that don’t change over time are considered dead languages. The fact that English changes so much, shows that it is alive and well. Because English has changed over time, speakers of 1500 AD would not have understood an English speaker from 500 AD or the modern day English spoken today. The first written English dates back to 450 AD. Over time it has evolved from the use of “Old English,” to “Middle English,”  “Early Modern English,” to present day “Modern English.”  These changes are a direct reflection of the era in which the English was spoken and the modern day technology available. The simple expression “Dude,” in 1880, described a man who went slightly overboard with his fashion. And today, the expression has become part of the teenage vocabulary as a way to show excitement. Times they are a changing, and the English language will continue to do so as well. 

Common words borrowed from other languages are:

• hammock, hurricane, maize, tobacco (Caribbean)
• gull (Cornish)
• howitzer, robot (Czech)
• brogue, blarney, clan, plaid, shamrock (Gaelic and Irish)
• ukulele (Hawaiian)
• bungalow, dungarees, jodhpurs, jungle, loot, polo, pyjamas, shampoo, thug (Hindi)
• paprika (Hungarian)
• bonsai, sumo, origami (Japanese)
• bamboo, ketchup, orang-utan (Malay)
• paradise, lilac, bazaar, caravan, chess, shawl, khaki (Persian)
• taboo, tattoo (Polynesian)
• flamingo, marmalade, veranda (Portuguese)
• mammoth, soviet, vodka (Russian)
• coffee (Turkish)

flannel (Welsh) 

An outline history of the English Language  

English is at first a dialectal variant of a contemporary Germanic language. Grammar is not enforced by a standard, but conventional and stable forms have been described and reconstructed from old texts by modern scholars (e.g. H. Sweet, C.L. Wrenn and Bruce Mitchell) . Written English is rare, and comes from Latin-speaking monks, who used the Roman alphabet, with new letters - Æ/æ (ash), ð/Ð (eth) and Þ/þ (thorn). They did so usually to record texts for others to read aloud or in public (mostly the scriptures). The arrival of the Vikings and establishment of the Danelaw bring about change - some erosion of grammar and addition of new vocabulary.

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The Middle English Period - 1066 to 1485

After the Norman Conquest the language of government is mediaeval French, but in 1362 (under Edward III) English becomes the official language. Writers express concern about change - Chaucer describes this change, while Ranulph Higden bemoans the strange sounds of English in a way that anticipates Gillian Shephard's 1995 outburst against "Estuary English": the English, says Higden, practise "strange wlaffyng, chytering, harryng and garryng grisbittyng" (stammering, chattering, snarling and grating tooth-gnashing).

In 1458 Gutenberg invents printing (in 1475 Caxton introduces it to England) - this enables some standardizing. But note that there is no widespread standard form of spelling nor of punctuation. Some publishers may attempt in-house consistency. Also, for some time after the invention of printing, more books than previously are produced by hand - printing is at first reserved to books likely to justify the time taken to set up type. The press provides the technical means to guarantee standardizing of spelling, but this will wait for some 300 years.

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The Tudor Period - 1485 to 1603

This period sees experiments in style and debates about composition and diction. We catch hints of these in Shakespeare's plays - Falstaff's speaking in "Cambyses' vein" (Henry IV, Part i, Act 2, scene 4) or Pyramus and Thisbe (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, scene 1). Trade and discovery bring about rapid change, especially in the lexicon, and while some settling down of spelling may appear, it is far from being standardized.

Like a modern teenager, Shakespeare spells his name in many different ways. Modern school editions of the text of his plays may mislead you, as the spelling in these is in 20th century standard forms mostly. On the other hand, modern editions of Elizabethan poetry may retain archaic spelling variants - as (in John Donne's poetry, say) of personal pronouns ending in -ee - mee, hee or shee (like thee). Richard Mulcaster writes that it would be "verie praiseworthie...if som one well learned and as laborious a man, wold gather all the words which we use in our English tung…into one dictionarie".

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The 17th Century

It is in this period that the debate about standard forms becomes most strident. Lexicographers attempt to create dictionaries. In 1604 Robert Cawdrey produces the first English dictionary which uses synonyms to describe or define the 3,000 entries. Daniel Defoe proposes the creation of an Academy (as in France) to supervise and regulate the language. Far more influential in establishing a mature model of English prose and verse is the publication in 1611 of the "Authorized Version"(never authorized, in fact) of the Bible. This translation was intended to produce a Bible for public reading aloud.

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The 18th Century

In 1712 Jonathan Swift writes to the Lord Treasurer, urging the formation of an English Academy to regulate usage as "many gross improprieties" could be found in the language of "even the best authors". Dr. Samuel Johnson, in the preface to his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, notes that "tongues…have a natural tendency to degeneration" but mocks the lexicographer who imagines that his dictionary "can embalm his language", as "to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride". In the act of giving us the most enduring of our authorities for standard forms, Johnson sees its limitations.

In 1721 Nathan Bailey produces the first substantial dictionary, the Universal Etymological English Dictionary which, by the 1736 revision contains 60,000 words. His definitions lack illustrative support and he is vague about usage. This is remedied dramatically by Johnson in his Dictionary of the English Language. It has some 40,000 words (fewer than Bailey has) but has extensive quotations to support descriptions or definitions of words. Johnson had earlier sought to regulate and control the language - now, having considered its history more thoroughly, he recognizes this as folly. Nevertheless, his dictionary does establish models for spelling most of which are still accepted today.

In 1762, Robert Lowth publishes A Short Introduction to English Grammar - here are found many of the invented “rules” that Jean Aitchison dismisses in the first of her 1996 Reith Lectures (A Web of Worries). Lowth establishes the prescriptive tradition, mistakenly prescribing Latin-derived models. Lowth's ideas still enjoy support today.

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The 19th Century

In this century, Noah Webster establishes American standard spelling in his 1828 dictionary. Differences from Johnson's are relatively few but mostly notorious. Most familiar are variants on the affixes -our and -re (Webster has -or and -er: e.g., color, labor; theater, center). In the UK Sir James Murray begins work on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in 1879 - he takes five years to reach ant. The researches of the brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm lay the foundations for modern language science, and show that English is not "descended" from Latin but from a Germanic original. So attempts to explain it by the categories of Latin, or to make speakers or writers conform to classical models are historically mistaken. Yet such "Flat Earth" views persist.

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The 20th Century

Modern language science develops and the idea of prescription becomes less persuasive. Attempts at spelling reform and artificial international languages provoke interest but no long-term standardization. The invented languages (such as Esperanto) are less widely spoken today than Klingon (invented by a fan of Star Trek). But English has become the global language - which may help establish an International standard.

Modern recording technology and mass broadcasting give currency to the idea of standard spoken forms. Finally, computer technology provides a powerful means for encouragement of standard written forms with spell-checking and grammar-checking. Interestingly, these allow the user to choose which standard to follow: US English, UK English, Australian or NZ English or International standard forms. 

Grammar

Models or examples that we imitate may become real or de facto standards. Texts with a large audience may thus create patterns to which we conform. Prescriptive rules are compiled because the writer presumably wishes to "correct" some real language tendency - these invented rules (akin to matters of etiquette or table manners) are likely to fail, but may in the meantime promote social attitudes about "correct" or "incorrect" English that are confused with genuine rules.

Some "rules", like those drawn up by Lowth in 1762, have acquired currency: for example, that one should not put a preposition at the end of a sentence, use double or multiple negatives, split the infinitive, or use they as a gender-neutral pronoun. Professor R.W. Zandvoort describes how English usage ignores these pseudo-rules, while Jean Aitchison in her lecture A Web of Worries gives historical and modern examples to show what Zandvoort describes.

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Lexis and semantics

This is less problematic or, rather, the problems are readily grasped. Some lexical items with some meanings are certainly standard features of English at a given time - the OED is full of them. Equally, some other items are obviously not standard or have n/s meanings. And many items are in the process of becoming or ceasing to be standard. Thus, in spite of continual language change, we can create a standard lexicon at any time. We can take this further and show how a given lexical item with a given meaning may be standard in a given context or within a variety but be n/s as regards the mainstream.

For example Hoover began life as a brand name, a proper-noun equivalent to generic vacuum cleaner. Nowadays, in spoken UK English Hoover or arguably hoover is acceptable as a generic name or common noun. At the turn of the century supplements to the OED recorded various forms of Kodak (small portable camera) including kodaker (photographer) and kodakry photography. These are no longer standard although Polaroid is acceptable to denote the instant photographs produced in such cameras.

Both lexis and semantics (especially semantic change or drift) may be culturally determined. They may depend on some other thing (a process or object) which ceases to be familiar, and so the word disappears or the meaning shifts. This has happened to words like wireless, telegram or terms from imperial measurement and pre-decimal currency (foot, inch, gallon, bushel, halfpenny [do you know the standard pronunciation of this?], and shilling.