Why would anyone want to stop language change? I mean, I guess I can see why some people would want to solely to preserve the way they themselves speak (sorta like the way older people have their opinions on what we younger people call "music" a-now-days). I find the fact that people here in 2010 use almost entirely different vocabulary than people 30,40,50 years ago to be fascinating! And it's not a new phenomena like some people might think; language has been changing ever since people invented language! You don't see people going around saying "thou" and "hark", etc, do you? Society is an ever changing monster and if the language doesn't change with it, then it will cease to exist because people eventually move onto a different means of communication that better fits their needs (which is one factor that kills so many indigenous languages of small population because they get exposed to, say English, which fits the modern world better than their language therefore they abandon their native tongue for the more useful one). So the next time you think that our language has taken a turn for the worse remember this; people from generations before you would say the same thing about YOU. Just appreciate the changes and except that nothing can prevent it ( as it should be) and that there really is no "correct" way for speaking so long as the speaker is understood by other native speakers i.e. there ain't nuttin' wrong wit dee suthern accents cuz wut dey sayin' is completely understandable to the other speakers around them, even if outsiders have a hard time with it, so who's to say it's wrong?
Even though I am living here in Japan and therefore should be taking advantage of studying Japanese linguistics, I find myself wanting to study more and more about English. Perhaps it's because it's my native tongue but don't know much about it other than how to speak it, but ever since I took my first Sociolinguistics class last winter term (which focused a lot on American dialects and what-not) I have been captivated with all the different accents in America. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not completely wasting my opportunity here in Japan. In fact, I'm extremely interested in Japanese Sociolinguistics and have even found a book that compares Japanese and American Linguistics/Social behaviors (which go hand in hand). And of course just my everyday living here and being in contact with native speakers is a study all it's own! I'll being going on a trip down to the Kansai area of Japan (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, etc) where the dialect there is unlike any other in Japan. In fact, it's so interesting that most comedians are from that region (therefore I can't understand most of the comedians on TV). But I'll be able to hear it first hand in about a months time and I am stoked!
Sorry to nerd out on you. I could go on and on for days about this stuff, so if it interests you too, lets chat privately! :D
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| Noam Chomsky |
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Jamie
