Language changes with history and time. Our perception ofwords changes. Everything changes, from cooking with fire tocooking with a microwave.
Even language changes, examples areaccents and books, influential people, and historical occurrences. Accents shows development of culture over time, maybe over ahistorical occurrence, such as a new country being found, thepeople living there might adopt the culture of the founders. Language also changes, from using different sounds in words, whichare called phonemes. The english language has about 43 different phonemes, such asOH, EE, etc.
which make up our language. Different cultures, suchas some Indian Tribes, may have more or less phonemes in theirlanguage, showing either a lower form of language with less wordsand sounds or a higher form with only the necessary sounds andwords. Also the syntax, also known as grammar, have an effect on thesociety. There is no ‘proper’ way to write a book, for example,but just a ‘standard’ way everyone uses. This may be thought of asthe ‘proper’ way but rebels will use no periods and have one longparagraph in a 400 page book. Maybe the culture says it ismandatory to have everything in one continuous sentence, whileothers more civilized or advanced will follow the rules to the veryletter.
Accents also have different languages linked to them. Different letters, phrases, and even a whole new language may becreated in the process of learning the language, over time and ametamorphosis to keep up with the changing world. Letters are called graphemes, meaning the 26 letters of thealphabet, more or less in different languages. In inuit forexample, every grapheme follows a very obvious pattern of a prefixfollowed by a certain suffix, a combination of vowels andconsonants. For example, there might be a set of the letters r, t,and h, and with the suffixes oo, ot, etc.
Different symbols can also be associated with differentcultures. The cross is associated with our religion, although itmight not be in Tasmania, for example. The newer addition of thesesymbols helps to understand the concept more clearly, as intelevision, which is like a talking and showing book. How can language have meaning? Through time it may lose andgain new meaning, through historical occurrences, for example. During the war, a whole new kind of lingo spread like wildfirethrough the battling nations. The study of how language containsmeaning is called semantics, and through this we can see what hasoccurred and what will occur, like a time machine right before oureyes which we must study to use efficiently.
The influence of different people has a major effect on ourlives. Our political system, family, friends, this all mayadversely affect our lives in ways we might regret. Influentialpeople coining words, for example might ‘nuke’ a country. GeorgeBush set a world record by saying the most metaphors in hispresidential speech after winning. Language might not changeobviously with historical occurrences, but it does.
The change is obvious in historical occurrences which affectthe whole world. The ‘meeting’ in the Gulf has stirred up anentire planet, maybe starting a war which will devastate the earth. As gas prices rise, everything needing fuel does. The means ofcommunication between two people change, from ignorance toshouting, to whispering, to nothing between the two. Ourperception of the concept must be clear before we can actuallycommunicate efficiently, language itself must be understood fullyfor it to be used fully.
Changing with history and time means a whole new environmentto live in where we must constantly adapt to our surroundings tosurvive. Car insurance, for example, was considered a luxury 70years ago, now it is life and death. The change can be so subtleover time that it hits us so hard we do not expect it, withhorrendous results sometimes the outcome. Different cultures have different perceptions of theirlanguage, the languages of others, their beliefs about God andtheir religion, etc. Communication is better if we know more aboutthe second party, the lesser known the better sometimes, as one maynot want to communicate with a bunch of motorcycle bandits, forexample.
Slang may also be considered a different belief, as differentcultures have different languages, and slang may be the key thatholds them together as their central language with which tocommunicate. This is not always bad, but sometimes another partyhas no idea of what they are saying, which causes trouble. Slangis a direct example of how over time we can ‘bind’ together andcreate something new, according to our culture and beliefs. Our evolution of language from a simple ‘ug’ to our advancedsystem of grammar has changed the world drastically.
Communicationbetween countries, people, have had eventually an effect on ourlives. As mentioned earlier, there is no ‘proper’ way to uselanguage. There is a standard way, as slang is a change on thestandard, like options on a new car. The standards have changedover time, and are different from culture to culture as a culture’sevolution may have played an important part in the culture’sfuture. The proper ways have been stretched, strung out, and hung todry, in several examples. Slang is a first, while languagesdeveloped from different languages also is an example.
Latin isthe base of many, many languages, and it is also known if you studya language which is very same as one you know, you will learnfaster. The standard is changed everyday, as we coin and use newwords. Influential people also play a part in our evolution oflanguage. The may use one word that is a habit to them, but dothey know they might make a habit for a million people? tenmillion? The whole world? This is an example in speeches ofimportant people, books of all kinds, etc. Books also may influence our writing in a myriad of ways. Ourstyle, our subjects, our concepts, all may be affected.
Not all tothe worst, not all to the best. Long time authors with many fansmay be surprised at how their die-hard readers have copied theirwriting style. This also gives people a sense of confidence, asthey can write with a famous author. We lose effectiveness in our everyday use of language. Forexample, it is like walking down a road, with a bag of sand in yourarms, and the bag has a hole in it.
The sand slowly trickles away,being replaced by something new. The analogy shows how somethingold in language may be replaced by something new: effectiveness forcompleteness? effectiveness for new standards? This plagues manypeople, as one day their ideas which they so meticulously thoughtout have gone out of style. The standards are called Form Classes. Form Classes are partsof speech, nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. The rules are not alwaysfollowed closely, but everything may be categorized into one or twoform classes.
Adjectives are minor ‘extras’ in our language. They enrichour language, giving vivid, clear concepts, describing the scene aswe may not see it. Without them, we still have language, except adead language. No one will use it, and it wills slowly fade away. A good example is latin. It is the base to many languages, thoughit is considered ‘a dead’ language.
The change over time has made many languages unknown. As withlatin, there are many so called ‘universal’ languages, which thecreator had the intent for it to be learned worldwide and beyond. Many of these have never caught on like latin, which died before ithad a chance to live. Time will strengthen it for its comeback. An example of a ‘universal’ language is Esperanto.
This is similarto spanish, with no exceptions to the rules. Its syntax is good,clear cut and concise. But hardly no one can speak this language,except for those who choose to learn it. A familiarity betweenspanish and Esperanto is evident although the creator was polish. Perhaps he though the spanish to be a dominant race in the futurewhen he created this language? Or did he want the whole world tocome together as one to cooperate and live freely? The perceptionis different with time and culture, as in the future the spanishwill dominate the earth and spanish will die, revealing theundercoating of another language, another culture?People’s perception of modern language and the language of oldis surprising.
In a survey, ninety six percent of the peoplethought of old language as words like thou, thee, dost, ye, etc. And in the same survey, when an example was given, people followedthe example, not reading the question fully. I purposely miswordedthe phrase to see what people would write. The results are surprising. Only TWO people answered the question right.
The others wrotewords with the same meaning. like big-large, etc. like in t heexample. The reading and the understanding of the question showshow people have developed their understanding over time.
As new concepts are developed, used, and used again, a wholenew language might be created from it. Names for the new conceptsare also created, as with robots. Airplanes, cars, and many othermachines are examples. A second generation from that mightpronounce things differently, like over here we pronounce ‘Levi’s’LEE-VIES, while in Europe, they pronounce it LEH-VIS.
This showsa change to adapt to their language, french. Language has to expand to take on the new concepts we develop. Historical events, such as wars, have a part in uniting twocultures or destroying two. They can destroy one, leaving them topick up the pieces and to start over, or bring two together to makea whole new language. This is good in a way, but if a culture iscompletely destroyed, can it come back to its previous stature?Can it get better?Our perception of phrases can be altered too. As our sense ofhumor has developed from medieval England, for example, we developour phrases too.
Fred lost a string in the house which was alltied up. What do you see? Fred looking for a knotted string? OrFred looking at a knotted house? Our perception of this phrasemight have been only one, the first one, while today there aremillions of possibilities. Language in the form of humor, changeswith time. If we were freezed in time right now, and woke up in the year2090, we would be surprised and shocked to find ourselves there.
If we had no way of going home, we wo uld have to stay, and adaptto the new cultures. We have not seen what has transpired beforethat, so we do not know what to do. But, if we had stayed in 1990and let our evolution take place, we would have seen everything. In the future this is like learning a new culture all by itself. Language changes with historical occurences and time. Timechanges it, the influences of people change it, history changes it.
We all live it, and the change everyday is so subtle we oftencannot detect it. If we were zapped into the future, we would findit foriegn, because we do not know the language and cultures. Historical influences can unite two cultures, destroy many, makenew ones. We all have a different perception of what language isand how it changes, and it might change when we share thatinformation with others, getting their ideas and using our own. Our standards and meanings of words changes too, our sounds andsyntax expanding for new concepts.
New concepts help us tounderstand the world, new concepts are made with time and the needfor them. Language is a wonderful thing that we all use and changeourselves to our own suits and needs.
