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Language Change - Coggle Diagram
Language Change
Graphological change
Lettering conventions
The grapheme 'v' was a consonant and a vowel (latinate trend), 'u' appears in the 10th century and the two are used interchangeably until the late 17th century, when it is made so 'v' is a consonant and 'u' a vowel.
'i' used as vowel and consonant until introduction of 'j' in the 15th century. May still be used as a consonant up until the mid 17th century.
long 's' (latin origin) was a convention used at the start and middle of words. Printer John Bell picked up the French type style of no long 's' so as not to be confused with 'f' (1788) . Other printers followed suit.
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Historical Factors
The 'Great Vowel Shift' between 1400-1600, vowel sounds were made higher in the mouth and 'e' in the terminal position was dropped.
During the renaissance, some words changed in spelling to represent their latinate roots, such as 'island', achieving a level of prestige within the language.
American English
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Webster and Americans of his time wanted oppose the 'clipped vowels' of the English aristocracy, accounting for pronunciation differences in 'cemetery'.
Americans began to take great pride in their language and tried to keep it 'pure' as seen in their use of archaisms such as 'fall' for autumn.
English spelling society (simplified spelling society) believe that the spelling system we use today is outdated for the way that we speak and therefore should be changed.
Apostrophes
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Against abolition
Would create a dissonance between what students learn at school and what they see in the world around them.
Defeatism, will cause 'linguistic anarchy'
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Lexical Change
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Historical factors
Norse
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Entered pre-1066, meaning it had already altered Anglo-Saxon language by the time the French arrived.
Often expected to contribute violent words, but words such as 'give' and 'take' were also borrowed from Norse.
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Remains of language found in Northern accents, such as the flattened vowel
Some believe that English should be classed as 'North Germanic' as opposed to 'West Germanic' due to the Nordic influence.
Inkhorn Controversy
During 16th and 17th centuries, English was gaining some national pride
Renaissance writers were starting to take words from Latin and Greek languages and romance languages
Thomas Wilson did not understand the need for foreign words when the anglo-saxon languages were being neglected and going unused. Furthermore he said that the language was changing so rapidly that their mothers would not even be able to understand them. He said that men who travel overseas will start speaking like those abroad in the same way as they dress as such
The inkhorn was a symbol of authorial self-importance, representing academics using it to write their books.
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Swift's Academy
Jonathan Swift proposed in 1712 the establishment of an English academy to police and fix the language.
He disliked the vagueness, shortened forms, unnecessary polysyllabic words obscuring meaning and the modish words of that era.
He fails to fix the language, shows him trying to ‘change from above’ when most language change happens ‘from below’.
Johnson's Dictionary
Published in 1755, the most comprehensive of its time, the pre-eminent work of reference for 150 years until the appearance of the OED.
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Johnson originally made his dictionary to control the language, but realised in the process that language was always changing and could not be preserved.
'Tongues, like governments, have a tendency to degenerate'
Semantic change
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Political correctness
The process of conscious language change in order to better represent certain people or concepts. Mindful language
'Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis' suggests linguistic relativity whereby using politically correct language creates more respect internally.
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