How English has changed over the past 1000 years

Author: Janet Carr

Fashion, beauty and animal loving language consultant from South Africa living in Stockholm, Sweden.

3 thoughts

  1. All languages evolve over time due to movement of population, invasions, wars, cultural and social influences, demography, trends etc.
    As a linguist I have lead research on the change of pronunciation of some phonemes between 950 and 2020 (among other studies).
    It is fascinating to understand that languages are in constant evolution and that even what we call “ancient languages” or “dead languages” change over time.

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    1. This has always fascinated me as well. If someone from 1300 and someone from 2024 met, they probably would not understand each other, even speaking the same language. And the way young people speak today (textspeak, less concentration on spelling) will probably influence the development of the language too. I often notice that Swedes who have lived in other countries for decades and then return to Sweden speak a very dated form of Swedish and do not understand new words.

      Reply

      1. If someone from 1300 and someone from 2024 met, as you said, they certainly wouldn’t understand each other but they would still speak the same language. Languages evolve but they are still the same languages in the scientific sense that defines a language.
        It’s funny that you allude to the fact that the way young people speak today may influence the language of tomorrow. Have you ever considered that there has always been young people inventing their own language? If you read Socrate, Plato and other classics up to Shakeaspeare (who is considered as early modern English) then you’ll find out that younger people have always used their own lexical and syntax forms to express themselves.
        So young people of today have not invented anything in acting the way they do (use of new words, change of spelling, no or little punctuation, basic tenses etc).
        However, that has little to no influence on the language itself as those alterations of the grammar and vocabulary are very superficial and only last for a short period of time.
        What deeply affect a language are the movements of populations (I am talking of massive migrations, not individuals moving to a foreign country) and the social impacts they have on the means of communication (both oral and written).
        I won’t dwell too deeply on that subject as I could write about it for days. It has been my subject of research for more than 32 years and my university students could tell you how passionate I am on that subject!

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