Spoken Language Change

According to linguists, people who study language, all spoken languages change over time. The rate of this change is not always at the same rate. For example, Japanese has changed relatively little over the past 1000 years, while English has changed rapidly in the past 300 years. There are two main aspects of change. They are: 1) terms used for objects, actions, and concepts and 2) how words are pronounced.
Of these aspects of change, terms are the first to change. Some terms are borrowed from other languages. For example, salsa, a Spanish word for a spicy tomato sauce, has become commonplace in spoken English in the United States. Today more salsa is purchased in the United States than ketchup according to one newspaper account in 2013. This change in language (and eating habits) is a result of a borrowing of terms and foods from other countries and cultures.
Life itself changes and therefore language must adapt to the needs of its users. Consider this: If English had not changed since the early 1960s, then we would not have words for technological advances such as browser (in reference to software used to move around the Web), boot up (in reference to turning on a computer), and remote control (in reference to how to turn on and off …show more content…
This change accounts for one of the biggest differences between what is referred to as Middle English and Modern English. Before the shift, the pronunciation of the word geese rhymed with today’s pronunciation of the word face. Today the pronunciation of geese rhymes with both peace and piece. The “Great Vowel Shift” does not account for the differences in regional accents spoken in different part of the United States and the English-speaking world. Regional accents result from the mixing of languages spoken in a particular region and the interaction of people between various