why does language change?

Answer 1

The short answer is that language changes because it is learned, and because people are spread out over different regions and into different cultures. Part of the change in language is just random, but some of it is the adaptation to changing needs. Language also can become more uniform through centralized media and publications, the setting of official standards, and standardized education.

Think of how the changing technology with computers and the internet has created a lot of new terms and words, both technical terms like "RAM" and "megahertz" and casual things like "blog" and "email" and "website". These things didn't exist 100 years ago.

Some of the way languages change is just random. If you separate two groups of people (such as in the ancient world, two groups separated by a large barrier like an ocean or mountain range), their language will slowly change until it becomes different dialects and then different languages.

One other major factor causing changes to language is the influx of people with other languages. These people contribute their own words to the language, but they also change the accent and slang and idioms too. This is how English came to have words with roots in both German and romance languages like French in it, and how American English came to differ from British English.

When people do things like watch TV, it makes language more uniform. People hear a news announcer and it influences the way people speak. Because TV is non-interactive, the flow is just one directional and the speech becomes much more standardized. This is one major reason why the regional dialects in the US vary less now than they did 100 years ago.

It's interesting that regional dialects and divergence of communication systems is not limited to human language. The same patterns have been observed in bird songs, in species that learn their songs, and for calls (signals) in species that learn their calls. Scientists have demonstrated that populations will often understand and respond to calls of species neighboring theirs, but will ignore calls from species that are separated from them by great distances.

I hope this is helpful.

Answer 2

Pretty much all things change. Language is used by many different people who have different levels of understanding of it. People have a tendency to copy those around them even if it's not the correct usage/meaning. People are also inventive and will use language in a new or different way to surprise or amuse others. New things are discovered, made, invented and need ways to talk about them. All of these factors cause language to change.

Answer 3

I think the easiest explanation is simply the cultural changes that occur with time. As times change, the objective (basically a culmination of subjective views of the time period) opinions/values of the era change, and stories supporting the particular values of the specific time period are written. For example, the Old Testament was written in a time when harsh punishments (many capital) were the norm, so describing a rather violent God that deals out strict punishments was quite normal. However, during the time of the New Testament, punishment was less violent, resulting in a kinder God. This isn't to say that the God in question is necessarily changing. Arguments can be made that there are either two things occurring: 1) the perception of the deity is shifting with the times (not necessarily the deity itself), or 2) the followers of the belief are either getting closer to "the truth" or farther away from it thanks to random occurrences/enlightenments/messages from God. Of course, there's always a third option: That religion changes with the time to fit with social/moral values in order to better apply to society and therefore gain more adherents.

Answer 4

Language changes as the culture develops. New inventions or concepts have to be described in new ways. The definitions of words actually change. Compare the English of the King James version of the Bible (1611) with contemporary English to see a prime example.

Answer 5

Basically the first three answers are wrong. They are only talking about adding new words and this is a minor way that language changes.

Language just changes from generation to generation. The sounds, especially of the vowels, are pronounced differently from one generation to the next. The grammar shifts from one generation to the next, especially in terms of developing new ways to form sentences and dropping old ways. In terms of forming new words, old suffixes collapse together or drop out of use while new suffixes begin to develop as a grammatical word loses its independent stress and freedom of placement. The process is complex and there really isn't a "why" to it all. Language just changes. The main reason is that language is THE most complex aspect of human behavior and all learning from one generation to the next is imperfect. These imperfections in learning are one of the reasons that languages change from one generation the next. And this happens in ALL languages, not just modern ones and not just languages with lots of new words. ALL languages change from one generation to the next. That is why there are 6000 languages in the world today, all of which developed from the first modern human language about 100,000 years ago.

Answer 6

Do you think that your culture and values are identical to those of settlers in the old west? Did they have computers or the Internet?

No, of course.

Culture evolves over time, and language evolves to enable expression of those changes.

Answer 7

with introductions of new technology (the web) someone must invent a way that describes the new event whether it is technological or an activity. there also seems to be a pattern of lazy language. such as "how are things going for you?" to "wa's up?"