Kinds of langauage change

 
 
LANGUAGE CHANGE: Progress or Decay? 
Language, without a doubt, is an important marker of ethnic identity which means attachment 
to language is as strong as people’s regard of themselves as a social group. A negative ethnic 
identity contributes to the low prestige of the ethnic group’s language which, in turn, makes it 
more susceptible to shifting to a high prestige language, such as English.  
 
In the modern world, language change is often socially problematic. Language change is 
always perceived as a negative thing especially by the older folks feeling that the language 
has gone “down the hill”. Many other influential figures, in the eighteen century, felt that the 
English language was in a state of serious decline and that a national institution should be 
created to establish rules to prevent further decay.
Each language is inextricably tied up with a unique view of the world, belief system, and 
literature, regardless of whether the literature is written or not. A language is the culmination 
of thousands of years of a people’s experience and wisdom. People are language users and 
which language they choose to use and how they use it- is the choices they make on an 
individual and daily basis. This ultimately determines whether their languages die or thrive 
(Kulick, 1994, p. 7). 

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Conclusion 
English today is one of the fastest changing languages in the world because both old and new 
users of the language are actively shaping it as English has become a language of education 
and in an increasing number of countries. Today, English belongs to any country which uses 
it and the more people use English, the greater it would have impact on the language change. 
Change can be a very good thing because it helps people in business to trade goods and 
services, travel and communicate with other nations more effectively. If the language we 
speak did not change, there would be an even greater language barer than there already is. 
Another reason why languages need to change is for people to communicate with others who 
have a different culture, understanding and pronunciation of our language. If there were no 
change, humans would be so lost in this world of different languages and different beliefs.