Morphing Languege

Some folks seem to think that our written language is set in stone, unchanging, but I would stand to disagree. In fact, I'm sure its pretty fluid. Language is always morphing and changing- evolving if you will. It has been evolving for thousands of years. Words change meaning over time, they mix together to form new words and they live & die over time. Our language is nearly alive. Pick just about any English word & you can find roots of at least 2 other languages in it. Pick out the puzzle pieces and you can trace our history through our words; almost like a time capsule.



Still, many grammar nazis rush for the lash when I use a lot as one word or say ain't in a serious sentence. Even now my autocorrect is having fits over it. To me it's just another evolution language. The  “rules” of writing aren't laws. They're more like guidelines really. It's important to know them & to have a standard so that everyone understands one another, but allowing for some flexibility is allowing our language to grow. It's happening anyway, just look at the word gay. At one time it meant happy. Then it got picked up in slang, its use with the new meaning became widespread, and now the dictionary lists the new meaning. Its official. The meaning has evolved.



Our language is in a constant state of metamorphosis. There's no need to worry or be snarky about it. And yes, we will have to put up with things like “Dog y u no haz mai cheezburgr- dis iz noe cheezburgr iz I seez it”, but take comfort in knowing such ridiculous, nearly unintelligible nonsense rarely ever gets past fad status. If it did it would surely spell our doom, idiocracy ruling all. I think its just supposed to be cute, or something.



If there is any language pollutant we might want to worry about its abbreviated text speak, but even that wouldn't be likely to evolve into anything other than a form of shorthand. It wouldn't be so bad. Cursive is quickly dying anyway. It needs a successor. At least most text speak makes sense, its usually just acronyms; a product of our technology more than anything. 160 characters isn't much to work with!



The nice thing about it is that we do get a choice. Our language doesn’t have to go down undesirable paths. We can help steer the course of its evolution by simply choosing whether or not to participate in change. If you don't like text speak, don't use it. If alot of other people agree and boycott also, it wont catch on. Same thing with the casual speech slang’s like rily & proly. You don't have to use it, but I might if I'm crunched for text limits. It certainly wont be the end of the world.



If there is one thing I've learned its that change is inevitable. If you try to be the stone that stops it, you'll just get eroded away. It's better to be the water & go with the flow. Language is a flow & my raft is all set!