language

[claymore]

If we manage to survive for another thousand years or so, will the English language be the same as it is now or will it have changed significantly.?

[Quizmonster]

Click here for a web-page with Chapter 1 of the Old English poem Beowulf. That's from about 1,000years ago, so you can compare it with modern English. Who knows? Maybe the next 1,000 years will bring just as dramatic changes.

[Quizmonster]

Ah! They have returned us to the introduction, so you'll have to click on 'The Text' in the list to the left of the page and possibly the Chapter number to get to the actual page I was trying to guide you to. Good luck!

[B00]

I'm scared we'll all be talking like this....

innit

[Whickerman]

That's happening already B00.

Words like aks (ask), innit, etc and that really ridiculous faux jamaican accent will leave their mark. Sad that.

[B00]

Aye, terrible isn't it Whickerman? How's you anyway?

I can never understand why kids use that Jamaican accent, half of them would be hard pressed to point the damned place out on a map never mind visiting it to pick up the lingo!

[Whickerman]

Hi B00 - great now thanks - you?

I suppose our Irish accents seem strange to some, but at least they aren't put on to impress mates (or are they...?)
IMHO that accent is the single most silly thing to happen to youth culture in years.

[EngTeach]

I knew the Chavs would fit in over here. LOL Then they could practice the fake jamaican accent with all the "Jafakins" we have here. My school is rampant with it. Most of the real Jamaicans are quite articulate and hate that broken talk. Why do the young emulate (sp) the worst things like prison dress, gangsta life and the uneducated way of speech???

[jake-the-peg]

But language always move about the place, there's the current slang you all seem to hate but our grand-parents detested words lke "cool" or even "OK" which are now so embedded you scarecely think about them.

We lose words and punctuation too - "Thou" "thee" "ye" all gone "whom" is now on the endangered list as is the semi-colon.

Oh let's not forget changes in meaning too "man" really did mean person and there are legal documents of the 17th century refering to a "man" where it was a woman. Now we only use man in a gender neutral sence when we're trying to be grandiose "one small step for man" etc.

Language changes rapidly, one generations slang is rapidly lost with all but the odd word or phrase hanging on and over the period of a thousand years it's like "What are you saying? 'cause I don't even know!"

[horsestache1]

In a 1000 years will we still actually speak / write to each other, or will we just communicate via some advanced e-mail/net type thing. Maybe with pictures and shapes, almost going backwards to hyrogliphics (sp)!!!!