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Brits place blame on emojis for ruining English language

Lisa Miles
An article on the E&T Magazine website states that a study has found that most British adults believe the English language is in decline, with many believing that emojis should take some of the blame.


Personally, I think the English language constantly 'evolves' over time....


I remember the furore when texting became the norm and many people started using 'text speak' in their everyday communitication. However, over the past few years, with autocorrect and predictive text becoming much more sophisticated, it's actually much harder and more time consuming to type 'text speak' into your phone nowadays.


There will always be those that aren't able to spell as well as others, and emojis will always have an appropriate place in communication, but I don't think we need to worry too much about the decline of the English language...


Or do we? wink
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    Alasdair Anderson:

    I agree with you both that the language is dynamic.However for centuries there was a brake put on the change by the continued use of Elizabethan/Jacobean English through the use of the King James Bible in churches and the study of Shakespeare in schools (both of which I am old enough to have experienced in church/school). However with the use of modern translations of the bible and the move away from studying Shakespeare, the language is evolving faster now than previously so the change is becoming noticeable within an individuals lifetime.

    If you really want to know how quickly language can change, try comparing English from the time of the Norman Conquest (e.g. the Domesday Book, about 1086 I think) to English from Chaucer such as the Canterbury Tales (about 1385) and they appear to be two different languages (and are considered as such, being Old English or Anglo Saxon for the former and Middle English for the latter), even though they are only three hundred years apart. As a comparison, go back three hundred years from today and you can read the language with little difficulty. Try Robinson Crusoe, published 299 years ago next week!


    Apologies - just checked and the Domesday book was Latin. Try Beowulf, published about 50 years earlier.....


    Alasdair




    Chaucer's Middle English was representative of English at the time in comparison to the highfalutin style of Shakespeare's plays which the common folk at the time would have had more difficulty comprehending than most kids of today. Shakespeare may well have pushed the pen but I don't believe he thought up the plays although he could have written the poems which are in a completely different style.


    English is a Germanic Romance hybrid language but before the Norman Conquest it was pure Germanic. Although English is officially a west Germanic language it is technically a north Germanic language as a result of Viking influence. It's closest living relative (factoring out dialects) is Norwegian.


    American English is actually closer to British English of the 18th century than modern British English is as a result of changes which took place in Britain during the early 19th century.  


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    Alasdair Anderson:

    I agree with you both that the language is dynamic.However for centuries there was a brake put on the change by the continued use of Elizabethan/Jacobean English through the use of the King James Bible in churches and the study of Shakespeare in schools (both of which I am old enough to have experienced in church/school). However with the use of modern translations of the bible and the move away from studying Shakespeare, the language is evolving faster now than previously so the change is becoming noticeable within an individuals lifetime.

    If you really want to know how quickly language can change, try comparing English from the time of the Norman Conquest (e.g. the Domesday Book, about 1086 I think) to English from Chaucer such as the Canterbury Tales (about 1385) and they appear to be two different languages (and are considered as such, being Old English or Anglo Saxon for the former and Middle English for the latter), even though they are only three hundred years apart. As a comparison, go back three hundred years from today and you can read the language with little difficulty. Try Robinson Crusoe, published 299 years ago next week!


    Apologies - just checked and the Domesday book was Latin. Try Beowulf, published about 50 years earlier.....


    Alasdair




    Chaucer's Middle English was representative of English at the time in comparison to the highfalutin style of Shakespeare's plays which the common folk at the time would have had more difficulty comprehending than most kids of today. Shakespeare may well have pushed the pen but I don't believe he thought up the plays although he could have written the poems which are in a completely different style.


    English is a Germanic Romance hybrid language but before the Norman Conquest it was pure Germanic. Although English is officially a west Germanic language it is technically a north Germanic language as a result of Viking influence. It's closest living relative (factoring out dialects) is Norwegian.


    American English is actually closer to British English of the 18th century than modern British English is as a result of changes which took place in Britain during the early 19th century.  


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