Lakshmi Manasa Maddi: Week 16: Evolution in Language
Lakshmi Manasa Maddi - Week 16: Evolution in Language
As our world is evolving day to day, and getting older as time passes by, I have increasingly understood the importance of acknowledging the origins of our land. The proof that goes the most back in time is found in the lands of Iraq, where an artifact named Kish Thus was found (Nowak). After archeologists conducted deeper research, they found out that Sumerian was considered the first language in existence to date (Nowak). Over time, this language was replaced with Akkadian as the most popularized language spoken around the time period of 2000 BC (Nowak). This led to the emergence of many new languages appearing such as Hurrian, Palaic, Egyptian, Sanskrit, and Mycenaean Greek (Nowak).
With languages following a cycle of repetition, they have grown, “mutated” and died into being “reborn” into a new form of themselves (Nowak). Although languages are really old, it has been scientifically proven that they change depending on the emotions and intentional feelings of others. Factors such as assigning certain meanings to sounds and putting together words in the grammar system to design new languages have been some examples of the process (Nowak). This change in the spoken language mainly comes from native individuals changing the manner in which they pronounce words. For instance, if people who live in a distant forest from the city are living within the boundaries of an area that speaks that language, some native people could be saying a certain word like “ancient” as “ancuent,” which gradually leads to changing the overall structure of the word (Nowak). People from different cultures and locations can alter the pronunciation of that word completely until it turns into one that we find difficult to match with the older word everyone is used to hearing (Nowak).
Beyond all these modifications that have been made to the language, it is important to simultaneously recognize the vast array of opportunities that come with this change since changing the style of language contributes to the evolution of society (Nowak).
Hi Manasa! As I was reading your blog, two thoughts popped into my head "Sumerian, that sounds so familiar but I have no idea what it is" and "I thought the first language would be from Mesopotamia or something that we learned in sixth grade." After a quick google search I was reminded that Sumer was in Mesopotamia, and I don't know why but I found this interaction with myself very funny. I'm not sure how Shakespearean English evolved into our modern language, but I'm very glad that somewhere along the lines since the 1500s, someone decided to make the language easier to understand. Although, sometimes, taking slang into account, I feel like our language has devolved too far. I tend to pick up sayings from my friends, but the phase lasts for a couple months at most so it is slightly difficult to imagine how languages can change so drastically in such a short duration of time.
ReplyDeleteHello Manasa! Your blog on the history of words is extremely interesting. I never really thought about just how much language has changed, even though we had those MCQs that talked about the change of languages and how it was inevitable. I really do wonder or whether or not there is an original language, one that people grow up with without any teaching. While there have been experiments that attempted to find this origin, never have any of them succeeded. There also seems not to be a "prime" language that exists, one that represents the "apex" of linguistics. I hope that one day there will be something that represents progress in language, but for now we can only hope.
ReplyDeleteHey Manasa, your blog post this week on the evolution of language was very interesting and offered a unique return to the initial cohort blog topics of language. There's a unique parallelism between the formations and developments of language and the evolution of living and breathing organisms. Much like populations around the world develop over the course of time and trend, languages also change. Geographical separations and even within certain geographical regions there are minor variations that reflect the unique needs and adaptations of the population. Languages that aren't utilized over the course of time are forgotten and lost, going extinct. Meanwhile, languages that serve large regions and populations develop into languages of their own, such as the romance languages developing from latin and roman origins. While unfortunately there is no "most fit" language yet, it would be an interesting concept to consider the strengths and weaknesses of having a peak optimal language.
ReplyDeleteHi Manasa! I immediately thought back to the APENG exam multiple choice passage about the constant change of language after reading this. Your point about how language evolves based on the emotions of people is pretty interesting, as it does make sense that the way we communicate would change based on the way we feel. I know that this is a constant process regardless of what culture of language it occurs in, but I wonder if there are consistent patterns of change among different languages. You also mentioned that different regions have different dialects, but it would be really interesting to see if external societal factors like religion or climate had an effect on language change.
ReplyDeleteHi Manasa, as soon as I read your blog, it immediately reminded me of the passage that we got on the APENG exam about the changing dynamics of language. (I think we can speak about the questions now...right?) Anyways, the intersection between the development of language and the development of society is such an interesting topic to cover. Society depends on language to develop, while language also depends on society to develop which is really cool. I truly believe that the thousands of languages that we have created as humans are simply one of our greatest accomplishments. Thank you for your blog post!
ReplyDeleteHi Manasa, your blog was really interesting, as we never really think about how so many different languages have evolved out of languages that today sound completely different. It is crazy to think that we could trace back perhaps all 7000+ languages to just one original language. I also wonder how this original language was created. The process of language evolution sounds extremely slow which makes it hard to believe that such drastic changes are even possible, but small diction changes are constantly being made, and over time these small changes create huge language differences. Even Shakespearean English feels so different from modern English even though the two are technically the same language and only a few centuries have passed. I wonder what language will look like in the future, but I think that technology might make language evolution an even faster process.
ReplyDeleteHi Manasa, language is definitely an evolving identity. Sometimes I think that language is going to evolve in the future. I wonder what new words are going to deliver, the future pronunciations of certain words, and how the definition of "formal" language will change. I find it weird how slang words today are going to be considered "old English" in the future. I also wonder how social media and the internet are going to change English. For one, it might make the change in language more consistent across the world.
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