Language Evolution and Its Attitude and Change

Language is a beautiful thing. It is the way humans communicate to each other through varied sounds. These sounds form words which eventually form sentences. With that, communication is born. Language, however, isn’t just something that happens. There are set rules that one must follow. It is systematic and meticulous, but that is not to say it is not unbending. Language is flexible. It changes with time which is part of what makes its evolution so organic. What is it about language that makes it uniquely human? Surely other species “speak” to one another, but the thing that makes language so exclusive to humans is this set of organized rules and the ability to continually create words. The possibilities in word combinations we have are infinite, whereas other species rely on body language or tonal sounds and have the brain capacity to retain only a finite number of words. To better understand our human language, have to look deeper into it. By exploring language, we can better understand its origin, its development, and the future of its evolution.

Scientists have often studied the origin of language, questioning whether or not language is a natural process. Harrub, Thompson, and Miller (2003) state, “Linguistic research, combined with neurological studies, has determined that human speech is highly dependent on a neuronal network located in specific sites within the brain.” This shows that the human brain is highly evolved, more so than our other animal counterparts. Because of this, we are hard-wired to be able to process language from a very young age. A baby will hear, process, and acquire language from the moment its born simply because someone is speaking to her. Although the child is being spoken to, she still does not have the ability to produce the same sounds or words, yet can still communicate in other ways such as facial expressions and tears. An important thing to note is that we in other ways such as facial expressions and tears. An important thing to note is that we have the ability to learn language from infancy because we “acquire language in speech communities” (Curzan & Adams, 2011, p. 19). It is from these speech communities in which we develop the way we connect with one another. And once that connection is made, it continues to grow, thus feeding the language evolution and prompting change to start.

Language change, of course, cannot stay stagnant. Change, by its very nature, is constantly shifting. Sociolinguists, linguists who study language variation through socio-economic status as well as region, constantly look for change within language to better understand this growth. What they have discovered is that language change coincides with time. Take, for example, Curzan and Adams’ example regarding the language of Chaucer and the language of Shakespeare (2011, p. 20). They claim that the length of time between Chaucer and Shakespeare can be measured through changes in sound, grammar, and semantics. Words can change through a process called metathesis. The most notable, and perhaps the most influential, change in the English language occurred during the Norman conquest of 1066 (Curzan & Adams, 2011, p. 22). Many French words suddenly entered the English language thus birthing new words that eventually became English as we know it today. Through this cross-cultural interaction, communication changed and developed into something more complex and more worldly.

Clearly, Shakespeare and Chaucer are not the only two examples of language change. A more relevant example could be Randy Cohen’s example of ask versus aks (as cited in Curzan & Adams, 2011, p. 2). Today, generally speaking, if people heard someone using the word aks instead of ask, they would be frowned upon and assumed to be less educated than someone who would “properly” or “correctly” use ask. However, for the most part, what people fail to understand or realize is that the origin of the word ask actually descended from the Old English verb ācsian. It is evident that the /s/ sound follows the /k/ sound, thus not making aks incorrect at all. The reason for this change can be attributed to human creativity. Because we use it every day, language is constantly being challenged. The more people challenge it, the more it changes. The cycle is never ending and is what propels language into the future and beyond.

Although it is inevitable that language changes, there are some people who still refuse to either acknowledge or accept it. Sadly, some feel that others are uneducated if they speak in a different way. For example, “what seemed like a terrible change in the nineteenth century now often seems to us unremarkable” (Curzan & Adams, 2011, p. 24). What they are referring to is the invention of the passive progressive tense. So why do some people so strongly oppose this change? For one, people are attached to language. Some are traditionalists and are firm believers that there is only one correct way to use language. Language is so closely tied to upbringing and socioeconomic status that a difference in communication could sadly be perceived as a step down. People find security in something that stays the same. The volatility of language is what people criticize, yet there is nothing that we can do to stop this change. Language, just as time, stands still for no one.

It is not a matter of progress versus death of a language when it comes to change. What we have established and acknowledged is that language will continue to change for as long as it is around. The best way to approach this argument is to accept that language will be around forever and change is part of the package it comes in. Change in language is not such a radical idea. And because of this, it should not be treated as such. It is a gradual development and typically, development equals growth, not the opposite. In her book, Language Change: Progress or Decay, Jean Aitchinson claims that linguists were under the assumption “that language change was a continuous but very slow process...it happened so slowly and over so many decades that it was quite impossible to detect its occurrence” (2001, p. 37). However, we now know this to be misleading because, as Aichinson states, they were just looking in the wrong direction. Language change definitely occurs over time, but that does not mean it happens unnoticed.

As long as humans are around, language will be present. It is, in essence, a part of our survival. Learning to communicate with one another is the way the world developed. Through the intricacies, details, changes, and evolution, language is single-handedly our way to understand one another. An amazing thing about language, too, is that although it is shared, it autonomy depending on the region and culture as well. Bees, in any part of the world, communicate in the exact same ways. They do dances to convey what it is they need to say and a bee in Zimbabwe will understand a bee in Nova Scotia. However, people of different backgrounds speak different languages, although they can mean the same thing. These variations are what make human language so special and an exclusively human trait. Continuing to embrace language and its evolution is paramount in continuing to grow as a culture. It will unite the world into cohesion and break down barriers that segregate. It is what will bring us from our past into our present and catapult us into the future.

References

Aitchinson, J. (2001). Language change: Progress or decay? (3rd ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Curzan, A., & Adams, M. (2011). How English works: A linguistic introduction (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Longman.

Harrub, B., Thompson, B., & Miller, D. (2003). The origin of language and communication. Retrieved from http://www.trueorigin.org/language01.asp