Level 5 Diploma in Teaching ESOL: Week 18: 'Language Variety & Change'

3. "A living language is like a man suffering incessantly
from small haemorrhages, and what it needs is
constant transactions of new blood from other
tongues. The day the gates go up, that day it begins
to die."
H.L. Mencken, The American Langauge (1919)
"In the last two decades we have witnessed a situation
where our education has no longer been centred on
the idea that the English language is an enormously
precious legacy to be handed on carefully."
Prince Charles in the Guardian Weekly, quoted in Alive
to Language by Valerie Arndt et al (2000)

5. Historical development
Old to Modern English (pronunciation and
written form).
Colonial impositions
Latin - Romans (c. 55BC and c.449AD);
Germanic dialects - Anglo Saxons (c.449AD);
French - Normans (1066)
Cultural influences
Words of Greek origin - Middle Ages and
Renaissance
Reasons for language change

6. Evolution of meanings
wife; holiday; chav
Borrowings
nosh; burger; macho; bungalow
Neologisms
download; eco-friendly; chick flick
Media
Branjelina; WAGS; credit crunch
Technology
Internet; email; satellite TV
Geographical factors
American English 'gotten'

7. Language systems and change
Vocabulary
• Borrowings
• Words no longer used
• Fashion
• Broadening/Narrowing of meaning
• Coinage
• Society/culture

8. Grammar (historical)
• Word order
• Double negatives
• Inflectional affixes
(more modern)
• Less / fewer
• He/they
• There is /there are

9. Pronunciation
• Vowel sounds
• Loss
• Metathesis / Epenthesis