A language is a living organism that develops alongside its speakers, so experiencing change is a natural linguistic aspect. With time, earlier iterations become unintelligible, as is the case with Old English and current English speakers. However, even relatively close periods may have significant differences in how people use the language because different influencing factors are always present. This paper will focus on identifying old and recent causes that make today’s English distinct from its predecessors.
A language is accompanied by external and internal factors throughout its existence, which alter it to some degree. For instance, what separated Old English from the modern version is the Norman conquest, connections with Vikings, ununiformed writing standards, and 15th-century Latin influence, all of which impacted the language (Horobin, 2016). Such a phenomenon as the Great Vowel Shift also contributed to the gap between how English is written and spoken (Horobin, 2016).
Incidentally, Latin’s impact was not restricted to vocabulary, as it determined the way English grammar was taught and preserved. The approach became obsolete in the 20th century, and nowadays, corpora are used to complete dictionaries and reflect changes, which inadvertently alter people’s speech (Horobin, 2016). Other recent factors include movement among nations, cultural exchange, which may occur within different groups living in one country, and new developments in science, sport, and entertainment (Kleinedler, 2018). Social change is another potent cause, leading to updated word meanings or a lexical unit’s decline in usage (Kleinedler, 2018). However, it is worth noting that unlike in the past, ordinary speakers drive current amendments.
People may perceive changes in a language differently – some welcome them, and others vehemently oppose anything new. Regardless, the process is happening, and while recent alterations are not drastic compared to Old English, they are still significant. The Internet is presently a powerful tool that permeates the language’s spoken version, affecting vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure simultaneously (Zazulak, 2016). Older generations might not understand their grandchildren, but the same could be true for when they were young. English is constantly evolving, although some may call it a degradation, inseparable from social upheavals and inventions caused by its speaker.
References
Horobin, S. (2016). How English became English: A short history of a global language. Oxford University Press.
Kleinedler, S. (2018). Is English changing? Taylor & Francis Group.
Zazulak, S. (2016). How the English language has changed over the decades. Pearson English. Web.