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why it's time to stop worrying about the decline of the english language

The problem is, we can’t even read it. In the 13th century, the Arabic lexicographer Ibn Manzur described himself as a linguistic Noah – ushering words into a protective ark in order that they might survive the onslaught of laziness. Thunder used to be “thuner”, and empty “emty”. Hand-wringing about standards is not restricted to English. Our language is flying off at all tangents, without the anchor of a solid foundation.”. And, if we follow the logic, they must also have been better at organising, finding things out and making things work. The fate of every language in the world has been lamented by its speakers at some point or another. Perhaps this is why, even though the idea that language is going to the dogs is widespread, nothing much has been done to mitigate it: it’s a powerful intuition, but the evidence of its effects has simply never materialised. They are more likely to be early adopters of new technology, becoming familiar with the terms used to describe them. We use them in replacement of words at times, but more often than not they are used to add something to a message we are sending. The same is true of the proper noun Google. How many of us have read an emoji-free message trying to interpret if there is sarcasm, anger, or mocking in the words of our messenger? What this means, crucially, is that older people experience greater linguistic disorientation. Take a Free English Level TestSee our other Level Tests, Language Trainers, established in 2004. He knew when the golden age of English was: “The Period wherein the English Tongue received most Improvement, I take to commence with the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s Reign, and to conclude with the Great Rebellion in [Sixteen] Forty Two.”, But the problem is that writers at that time also felt they were speaking a degraded, faltering tongue. Buy a shedload of bottled water? Language Lessons Site Map / Corporate Site / Feedback, Language Courses in more than 200 cities across the USA & Canada. I know, because I have had plenty of arguments with them. In the 14th century, Ranulf Higden complained about the state English was in. Why it’s time to stop worrying about the decline of the English language – podcast People often complain that English is deteriorating under the influence of … John Humphrys was born in 1943. People often complain that English is deteriorating under the influence of new technology, adolescent fads and loose grammar. The Guardian is editorially independent. They are mostly controlled by middle-aged people. With the birth of the internet came the need for search engines – yet another new term – which we would use to search for or look up the information that we needed. There is a clue to its special status in the way we have started saying it. It’s worth pausing here to take a closer look at Trevisa’s translation, for the sentence I’ve reproduced is a version in modern English. Our language is flying off at all tangents, without the anchor of a solid foundation.” The Queen’s English Society, a British organisation, has long been fighting to prevent this decline. It becomes phonetically reduced – or, as some would have it, pronounced lazily. Deviations might be labelled cool, or creative, but because people generally fear or feel threatened by changes they do not understand, they are more likely to be called bad, lazy or even dangerous. We have learned to concisely reduce our arguments to fit them into Tweets. The 21st century seems to present us with an ever-lengthening list of perils: climate crisis, financial meltdown, cyber-attacks. But, as with complex systems in the natural world, there is often a kind of homeostasis: simplification in one area can lead to greater complexity in another. Modern pedants don’t have that excuse. We must surely act before it is too late. Human anatomy makes some changes to language more likely than others. Children are often the agents of reanalysis, reinterpreting ambiguous structures as they learn the language. The blogger Jonathon Owen cites the Oxford English dictionary as providing evidence that “both meanings have existed side by side from the 1600s. As a result, it also gets phonetically reduced, as in “I’ll”, “she’ll” and so on. Sometimes these jump out of place, a bit like the tightly packed lines in a Bridget Riley painting. These days, we google everything; even if we don’t use that particular search engine. If we lived for hundreds of years, we would be able to see the bigger picture. Just before it, in the reign of Elizabeth’s sister, Mary, the Cambridge professor John Cheke wrote with anxiety that “Our own tongue should be written clean and pure, unmixed and unmangled with borrowing of other tongues.”, This concern for purity – and the need to take a stand against a rising tide of corruption – goes back even further. That is why you can say “I’m gonna study history” but not “I’m gonna the shops”. Every language that we speak is evolving. A quick emoji along with that message would save us that worry! In the abstract, it sounds complex but, in fact, it is straightforward: when a word or sentence has a structural ambiguity, what we hear could be an instance of A, but it could also be an instance of B. “Some changes would be wholly unacceptable, as they would cause confusion and the language would lose shades of meaning,” the society says on its website. Because change is often generational, older speakers recognise that the norms they grew up with are falling away, replaced with new ones they are not as comfortable using. Linguists call this epenthesis. Take the loss of so-called major distinctions in meaning bemoaned by the Queen’s English Society. The American Melting Pot: 3 Top Languages to Know for the Bilingual Workplace, 5 of the Best Places to Celebrate Easter in Spain, Learn Spanish Without a Teacher with These 4 Books. We split them into phonemes (building blocks of sound that have special perceptual significance) and syllables (groups of phonemes). But what about those, such as the Queen’s English Society, who say they merely want to ensure that clear and effective communication is preserved; to encourage good change, where they find it, and discourage bad change? If you are from a group with fewer social advantages, even the forms that your parents use are likely to be stigmatised. He certainly didn’t limit himself with all the rules of our grammar and vocabulary! So what is it that drives the language conservationists? The clearest evidence for this is that warnings about the deterioration of English have been around for a very long time. If, like us, you like to keep up to date on what is happening with languages, it seems that every few months someone somewhere is frantically writing up a thought piece for our newspapers wailing at the loss of the English language.

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