As we discussed in the beginning of the term the origin of language is very ambiguous. There are multiple theories discussing where language came from, but there are two that stand out more than others. The biblical theory is based off of the Tower of Babel. Originally, every person on Earth spoke the same language. There was complete peace and all decisions were made with unity. Then everyone decided to that they wanted to go to heaven, so they decided to build a tower to reach it. Everyone and anyone throughout the world worked together for their common goal of reach heaven. As God made the decision long before this tower being built that humans or mortals were not allowed to come to heaven until it is time he needed to find a way for the people to stop building this tower. As a solution, God separated the countries by making them speak difference languages. This is how the term babel became a word which meant language that cannot be understood. Clearly, the tower was never completed to its final destination point because when everyone started speaking different languages, no one could understand each other. The second theory is called the Golden Age theory. This is where people from a past generation see how language has changed and they see “kids these days…” This is more common view of people today of how language has changed, but both share the same negative connotation that language change is a bad thing. Language changing is not a bad thing, but it is inevitable. No one will ever truly know where language came from and how it was developed as a complete, thriving concept.
Language tends to change because new words are created and brought into a constant developing society, culture, and language itself. New words are created for multiple reasons: technology, culture, human interaction, law, and location and class systems. Coining is a rarer of all forms that create language. This tends to be because of business and commercial advertising. An aspirin is considered now a generic term for a pain killing medicine. But is once was a trademark for a pain killing medicine. Although these types of words a quite rare to be inputted in a language they do happen, most of the time it is because of great marketing, are products that have become a daily necessity. Borrowing is another way that words develop and thrive in a language. English is constantly borrowing words from other languages to name animals, technology, cities, landscapes and terms from religions and philosophy. In Middle English times, French words began flooding the English language because of how the feudal system was set up. As there became a stronger ruling class with a French influence, the monarchy needs to bring new words and meanings to the Anglo-Saxon class. When new systems develop or come into new lands new words are created. The technique in word creation that I enjoy the most is conversion, also known as functional shift. This is when a word changes in grammatical function be changing the context. As we discussed in class, the word “paper” is a great example. Paper is a noun, which is the object of piece, sheet or a leaf. It can also be considered a verb, where a person can “paper” something, where an object is aligned with paper. Finally, paper can be considered an adjective, which is describing something to be flimsy or frail. As my own example of all three of these strategies to coin a new word is the word “Google.” Currently Google is a trademark name for the most popular search engine in the word, therefore is was created because of a technology breakthrough. But as the search engine became more popular, the term “google” has became a verb defined as to search the Internet for information on a person, organization, or object.
Compounding is when two or more words are put together to create a totally new word. Occasionally the stress of the words is changes depending on how the words are translated, which again changes the word for the language. The most confusing part of compound words is how to spell them. There are words that are completely joined (ie: mailman), words that are separated by a hyphen (ie: editor-in-chief), and words that a still considered compound words but are still separated (ie: ice cream.) This type of word formation process brings multiple words to the English language. Derivation is another process that brings several words to English. This is when you add an affix, whether it is a suffix, or prefix, any affix slightly alters the meaning of the word. For example: the word “hit” is considered a verb, but when the suffix –er is added on, the word becomes “hitter” which is a noun. Blending is when you take the first part of one word and the second part of another which creates an entire new word. A very common example is a “spork” which a utensil with both spoon and fork qualities. Another word formation process that feeds off of words already in the English language is clipping. This is the shortening of words that end up possibly changing meaning, tone, and occasionally the formality. “Fan” vs. “fanatic” is a great example. A fan is considered a person who really enjoys an object, team, celebrity etc. A fanatic is a person who can be aligned with the definition of stalker or obsessed. The final one that I find most entertaining is acronyms. These words can be formed by taking the initials of the first word in a name or sentence and combining them to create an entire new word. For example: The word “scuba” was originally the acronym for self contained underwater breathing apparatus. But now it is considered a word on its own. Now it is acceptable to create compound words with scuba or use it as an affix to create more words.
As a whole, I enjoyed this project and class very much. I learned a great deal about language and its origins. I will never read a Harry Potter spell or name again. This project was definitely a challenge because language has become such a normal or daily concept for humans that it is quite easy to overlook the complexities and intricacies it entails. Even when thinking about how a children learning language begin to fully comprehend words and their meanings at such a young age is quite incredible. In conclusion to this project, I now fully realize that language is constantly changing at a rapid pace as time and events bring new words into society. Whether we, as speakers, notice these changes and use them is going to be the going question.
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