Language Change
Language change is fascinating. When we look at how far English has come from the time of its incipience until now, it is indeed a great wonder that a language as insignificant as English is now the most widely used language throughout the world. The most special thing about language change is being able to go back to the roots of words and seeing how the cultural environment of each time period has influenced the language to become what it is today.
Based on the short excerpt which is from the book Island Dreamer by Robin Jones Gunn, we are able to see the huge contrast between the language in this passage and an ancient piece of text, for instance, Beowulf. First of all, one obvious phonological change can be observed in the word “feet.” The root word of the word “feet” is “foot”; “feet” is the plural form for foot. Based on the Online Etymological Dictionary, this word originates from the Old Saxon word, “fot” (n. pag.). The plural form for “fot” at that time, was “foti.” Then, based on the principal of anticipation, in which the root vowel in a word begins to resemble the vowel in the suffix, i-mutation took place and the word “foti” eventually lost its end vowel completely and evolved to become “feet.” The original root vowel therefore moved forward in terms of the part of the mouth where the sound is formed from the back to the front. The phenomenon of i-mutation has greatly influenced many words in the English vocabulary. One other word in this excerpt that shows visible results of i-mutation is the word “teeth.” It is through the changes of i-mutation that irregular plurals were formed.
The second type of change in language that will be observed is morphological change. Morphological changes took place perhaps most significantly during Middle English when Old English began to lose their grammatical endings and more and more strong verbs gave way by analogy to become weak verbs. Although the emergence of dental suffixes took place way back in Old English, many strong verbs in Middle English “lost their strength” and eventually became weak verbs – adopting the dental suffix as well. Unlike strong verbs that retained their past tense from by changing the root vowel, like “grew,” which can also be found in the excerpt, weak verbs simply add on the dental suffix –d or –t. One example of a weak verb from this passage which took on a dental suffix is the word “narrowed.” According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the verb “narrow” originates from the Old English word, “nearwian” (n. pag.). Through a series of changes from Old English until Middle English, the word “nearwian” eventually became “narrow,” and the past tense and past participle form of the word, like many other words simply added on the –d suffix to become “narrowed.” In the passage, “clenched,” “scattered,” “squinted,” “seemed,” “turned,” and “dropped” are some other examples of weak verbs as they all use dental suffixes in their past and past participle form.
The third type of language change which takes place throughout the course of the English language is lexical change. As the vocabulary grew, some words died out, many words were added, and some words changed in meaning. The word from this passage that can be used to illustrate changes in meaning of a single word is “hand.” While we instinctively associate “hand” with nothing more than a body part, we use this word much more than we realize. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, this word goes all the way back to Old English, “hond,” which meant power, control, or possession. The word was later on used to refer to a worker who “used his hands” as in “hired hand,” and was eventually also used to describe the cards a person held in his hand in a game of cards (n. pag.), as in, “he won because he had an exceptionally good hand.” This source goes on to explain several different meanings throughout the centuries:
First hand, second hand, etc. (mid-15c.) are from the notion of something being passed down from hand to hand. Out of hand (1590s) is opposite of in hand “under control” (c.1200). Hand over fist (1825) is suggestive of sailors and fishermen hauling in nets. Hand jive is from 1958. To win something hands down (1855) is from horse racing, from a jockey's gesture of letting the reins go loose in an easy victory… To hand it to (someone) “acknowledge someone’s ability” is slang from c.1906. Phrase on the one hand ... on the other hand is recorded from 1630s, a figurative use of the physical sense of hand in reference to position on one side or the other side of the body (as in the lefthand side), which goes back to Old English Hands up! as a command from a policeman, robber, etc., is from 1873. (n. pag.)
As can be observed, the usage of idiomatic expressions to describe certain situations can cause a single word to have multiple meanings. Another example of a common usage of “hand” not given in the Online Etymological Dictionary is to hand something over from one person to another. Interestingly enough, despite all the various ways of using the word “hand,” in this passage, the meaning goes back to the original Old English form of the word, referring to the power of the cool ocean water over hot volcano lava. This proves to show that although a word changes in meaning over time, it does not necessarily lose its original meaning. The word “hand” is one example of a word that has developed a greater depth of meaning as time progressed while still preserving its initial significance.
Finally, language changes in syntax. As English developed from Old English to Middle English to Modern English, the decay of inflectional endings led to a change in word order and also a necessity for modal verbs and phrases. One significant syntactic change that began in the recent past which continues to grow today is the concept of phrasal verbs. As language develops in the mouths of the speakers, new forms of describing different situations are constantly being created. In this passage, one example of a phrasal verb is “drop(ped) off.” While this can be seen as a noun, as in “Don’t go too close to the drop off!” it is also a particle phrasal verb that can be understood in more than one way. For instance, in this passage, “dropped off” is used to figuratively/metaphorically describe how the road along the side of the volcano was so close to the edge that it seemed to drop off several hundred feet. Another way of understanding this particle phrasal verb would be equivalent to making a delivery or leaving a person somewhere, as in “she dropped the package off at his door,” or “Mom just got back from dropping Jason off at school.” Another phrasal verb that can be found in this passage is “send out,” which, in contrast to “drop off,” is a prepositional phrasal verb as it requires an object.
Our language has come a long way to becoming what it is today and the English language in particular has a uniquely rich history that is etched into the structure and vocabulary of the language. By analyzing the different language changes and seeing how each of them have contributed to the fascinating, flexible, and vibrant language that English is, English speakers would have a greater appreciation for the language. Simply knowing how to speak a language is one thing, whereas being able to understand how different words came into being is a whole different ballpark that is intriguing, mysterious, and also fulfilling.
Works Cited
Gunn, Robin Jones. Island Dreamer. Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family, 1999. Print.
Harper, Douglas. Online Etymological Dictionary. 2012. Ed. Dan McCormack. Web. 28 April. 2013.