15-11-2016: Language Change

Language change is one of the few topics outside of video games and music that fascinate me greatly. I find it interesting how different phenomena, such as language contact and social media, can enrich and even modify a language.

I don’t actually recall how or when exactly my interest in language change got started, but I’m sure it was a relatively recent event. Until about two years ago, I never even thought languages could change - at least not so drastically. But having studied English in university for almost a year and a half now, my views and interests have shifted.

I’m now studying a course where we were given a relatively free choice of topic for an essay last week. (By “relatively free”, I mean “restricted to a topic related to the English language or culture but otherwise free”.) Can you guess what my topic is related to? That’s right - language change. Specifically, I decided to explore the effect of social media on the English language.

Usually I hate writing essays, but in this case, chances are I won’t. After all, I got to choose a topic of my own interest for once. And I’ve actually written another essay related to language change before, so I have a basis of sorts to work off of.

This’ll be fun.