Changing Language - timelines and wordlists

We've now looked at a number of ways new words are formed, why words come into English from other languages and also why some words develop new meanings over time. The Language Timeline on the British Library Learning website gives a short overview of the variety of influences on English vocabulary with lots of examples through our history. You can also follow the link to their new interactive time line which shows our language changing through a huge variety of texts held by the Library. This will be especially useful when preparing for exams as you can see actual texts from 1600 onwards.

If you look under 'Activities' you can get to other very useful word lists - for example 20th Century loanwords which gives a detailed list of borrowings both cultural and social under topic headings.


To help you think about your own input to language change, explore the Cutting Edge section to find examples of slang, jargon and fashionable buzzwords - which may even be outdated by the time you read this!

Recent Language Change

Last term we began to explore some of the recent changes in English, with traditional dialects fading and 'newcomers' such as Estuary English and the youth dialect 'Jafaican' becoming significant and the subject of academic research.

There are also many recent changes in vocabulary with new words and changed meanings for existing words. It is useful to consider four aspects when we study changes:
1 Reasons for language change
2 Examples
3 Processes
4 Attitudes to language change

To help you when you come to revision it is a good idea to build your own list of examples of new words, which you can arrange under topic headings such as technology or fashion, or according to the way the new words have been formed.

Keep aware of the sometimes heated debates about language change in the media as well as the calmer responses from academics such as David Crystal and Jean Aitchison. Radio programmes can be helpful if you can get Listen Again or a new series - check out Fry's English Delight and Word of Mouth. The Word of Mouth discussion board often has some lively expression of opinions about language change and can be useful for examples.