How Has The English Language Changed Over Time

This essay is about how English has changed over the years. The essay explores how speaking English has changed, like some people have different ways they speak English and some people have the accent. It has changed in the way we write. Now days in the English language there is over 1 million words. Back then there wasn’t much words. English has changed in text messaging. Like now we make the words shorter like lol that means laugh out loud. They have done that because it’s a quicker way. The first text message was in 1992. English also changed in schools and universities. It has changed by now we have technology to help us find information or search up for meaning on online dictionary. This essay examines how English has changed over the years. There are around 800 to 2000 word that are used to speak the English language.

As society begins to change so do other aspects that are within that particular society. Within the articles “Why Good English is Good for You” by John Simon, “Do You Speak American” by Robert MacNeil, and “Lost in America” by Douglas McGrey, each author gives their own insight as to how social changes have impacted the language within America, as well as the implications of those changes. While they each argue different views on how those implications have benefitted or hindered the language, they all agree on the fact that the language is ever-changing.

Americans` perspective on language has changed by social or political factors. Three articles, “Do you speak American?” by Robert MacNeil, “Lost in America” by Douglas McGray, and “Why good English is good for you” by John Simon demonstrate each of the author`s idea that changes by the factors are inevitable, Americans should manage them well. Their ideas are based on the fact that Americans, especially societal and political issues, have changed how they think about language.

Following Eckert (1989, 2000), I define linguistic style as a combination of a particular set of linguistic features distinguishing social groups. In explaining how styles are created, I draw on Kallmeyer and Keim (2003:30) who suggest “the construction of a communicative social style is connected with the formation of specific linguistic and communicative patterns and rules on different linguistic levels. Elements from all expressive levels are combined to form a unique expression

“I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with,” says Amy Tan in her essay “Mother Tongue” (268). Amy is referring to the fact that she varies her type of language based on who her audience is. Once Amy Tan realized this, she began to write things with her different types of English, instead of just using one kind of English for writing books. Amy Tan’s personal life examples of different Englishes shows the idea that everyone has several different types of English of their own. Everyone tends to slant their language to appease different audiences.

“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.” The way we learn English will change completely when technology takes over. Accepting change in the American language will help people from different backgrounds communicate more efficiently.

Do you ever think about the way you speak and why? Well, Paul Robert does an excellent job explaining why people use the dialect they use in Speech Communities. He discusses that people change their use of language throughout their lives to conform to either society or to what kind of person they want to be, or to just conform to who they need to be at a particular moment, in which I agree. People’s choice of language, including myself, are affected by many of their surroundings, such as where they live and grow up at, their peers, and a person’s work place.

“A language variety is basically the style of language that a speaker chooses, whether it be slang, jargon, formal or baby-talk. Social factors are the primary reason that speakers choose different styles,” (Payne). Language allows Cumulative human experience, shared perspective, as well as it allows complex, shared, goal directed behavior. “The physical environment of a conversation or oral presentation plays a large role in the variety of language an individual uses,” (Payne). The difference between how and individual may speak with their grandmother and how the speak to a friend is huge. There is always a time and place in which one should speak in a formal language, other times it is alright to talk informal. Language impacts my life in a huge way and it is mostly in a bad way. I surround myself by people that speak a lot of slang and a lot of curse words so it was bound to affect my language, the way I speak has a lot to do with the people I spend my time

The subject of how technology is changing written English is a touchy subject; many people believe that our current technology is allowing us to become lazy. Text messaging being the ultimate reason we are taking so many short cuts when it comes to writing proper English. There are so many abbreviated words and meanings in text messaging, I sometimes find myself confused when I receive messages from people that I have to google what they are trying to say. I don’t want to respond and assume I know what they are trying say.

Simon states “some people are pleased to call linguistic evolution was almost always a matter of ignorance prevailing over knowledge” (209). This statement shows the opposing view of the liberal -linguist. On the other hand, the other group of people the opposition of the liberal-linguist mentioned by Simon believe that “there is such thing as Standard English” (208). This makes the works of this article balanced and truthful. As a conservative, Simon wants individuals to preserve the English language and not just go with any fad that may come upon us. Henceforth, Simon wants us to teach ourselves and he stresses training yourself. Though Simon presents favoritism toward what he describes as the minority or the conservatives. “we are here… to arrest unnecessary change” (209). He accurately reveals the two viewpoints regarding good English usage.

Too view language as if it were an object devoid of its social context would not be seeing language for its creation and use, language is used at its full potential when spoken, language is so important to humans, we use language to express, to think and communicate within the world we live. Language has changed over time, it is thought that at one time we had one original language that was spoken, and “as different human groups spread across the world and communicated only with each other, the original language changed in different ways in different places” (Gee, P,. & Hayes, E. (2011). pg 8), because of these changes, and socialisation of different humans, we now have many diverse human languages. Language has changed and will continue to

As a language,English is widely used in the world. Its history is only about 6 hundreds years, which means it is a young language. With the development of America and British, the differences between American English and British English becomes more and more obvious. In this essay, I will analyze these differences in grammar, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation.

Think of things that morph over time. What comes to mind? People may think about a music artist’s change from YouTube videos recorded on iPhones to sold-out concerts. Or, they may think about the changes an athlete makes from childhood to becoming a professional athlete. However, did you think about how much a language changes over a couple of years? Every year words are added to and taken from the dictionary. Words are formed and forgotten. Language changes because of a person’s vocabulary and location, but what happens to a language, like the English language, that is spread across the whole world?

Nowadays, the roles of English around the world have changed rapidly. English only served as the first or the second language of certain countries some years ago. Recently, English has a new role as a language which is used as a means of communication between people with different

Language change happens every day. New words are constantly being added and new dialects are forming. People have always argued about the causes of language change and tried to control the changes that occurred but ultimately they accomplished nothing. Languages changes and spread as a result of the people who use it daily. African American English and California English are both examples of the different ways language can change. People try to resist the changes in their language because they do not want to see it change. Language change is a natural process that can be affected by others but never stopped. This course has done an excellent job explaining how language change starts and spreads.