Can you think of example of how our language is alive and....?

Question

Can you think of examples of how our language is alive and constantly evolving? For example, do you use certain words or gestures that only your family or closest circle of friends would understand? what are they?

Answer 1

Hi, I teach Applied Linguistics at a university in Kyoto Japan and I have studied this quite a bit.

Language is always evolving and you can witness its evolution all the time. You ask for certain words that one family uses, and though it does in a minor way effect the language it doesn't really bring about change. The fact that my mother always called marshmallows "woofle-nittys" and everyone in my family understands that, it won't really effect change.

Vernacular will cause change. Local dialects are crucial to the evolution of language because it spreads. Today the world has shrunk to a very small place thanks to mass media. The fact that a kid in Moose-snout Iowa understands many words from the local dialect of an LA ghetto neighborhood because he listens to rap music or sees a movie is powerful. There is no one driving force behind the helm of the English language.

Do you see where I am going with this? Do you realize that 20 years ago there were no words like "on line", "Internet", "email", "blogg", "cybersex", or "MP3"? The internet and technology are constantly changing our language. What's more is that because English is the driving force behind the internet, English is imposing itself onto other languages at an exponential rate. So English is changing and it is also changing other languages.

I hope my quick ramblings while eating a tuna fish sandwich between classes has helped. Good luck!

Answer 2

While it's not a matter of my own family, consider Americans vs Brits. Originally, in the days of American colonialism, our two languages were very identical. However, now we have discourse such as how in Britain a "fag" refers to a cigarette, while in the United States it derisively refers to a homosexual.

Answer 3

No, I couldn't think of anything in particular, so I took out my trusty computer (I bought it as a business expense so it would be taxable-offable) and I googled "living English" and then I Yahoo!ed it.

Mostly, results were English teaching courses..

So you might try this one for some more ideas :
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=English%20is%20a%20living%20language

Answer 4

nicely, extremely i don't be attentive to why i'm posting this message right here, because of the fact i do no longer talk English, I stay in Brazil and that i talk Brazilian Portuguese... so i will in simple terms point out issues I say in Portuguese... between the funiests is "bililiu", it extremely is almost a trojan horse that at wet days flies around the lighting fixtures of the streets and of your living house in case you preserve the living house windows opened 'until eventually at last the sundown... right here, "bililiu" is a be conscious regularly happening to point that factor each and every adult males have... the di*ck.... yet refering to a infant... the small certainly one of a infant... in my falily, they use that be conscious to point that style of trojan horse. sometime, whilst i grew to become right into a splash youthful, at clasroom, I, in loud voice, pronounced: examine out the "BILILIUS" around the sunshine"... all people, alongside with the instructor laughed a lot, some even cried!!! yet i did no longer be attentive to of that meaning for them! It grew to become right into a disgrace!

Answer 5

ni shi wang ba dan