Summary:
The English language has taken over the centuries has seen words introduced to the language, it has seen words replaced, or altered, and has seen words become obsolete. These changes have all been done to the language to modify it for society's needs in this age of technology and communication.
Over the previous two centuries English, as it began gradually shaped itself into English as we know it. This subtle, however highly notable distortion of the English language can be owed to several different reasons including the spread of the English Empire which spread English internationally allowing countries to adopt the language and alter it to their liking as well as the influence of media, television and movies.
The English Empire, which had control of many nations all over the world including India, Australia, West Indies, New Zealand and parts of Africa. The control over these nations meant England could impose their own language onto these countries, and they did so. The problem was that in places like India and Jamaica English was not spoken by those living the countries like it was spoken by their invaders. Each country altered the pronunciation, as well as added words to their own repertoire of the English language. In other countries like New Zealand and Australia which were colonized by England the settlers from England begun developing their own languages and borrowed a few words from the languages spoken by the natives that inhabited the countries. Singapore also has embraced English but has modified it creating a hybrid language were the language which consists of English words but is spoken in a Singaporean accent. This language is referred to as Singlish.
A major influence on the change in language in modern times has been movies. Hollywood in particular has had a pronounced impact around the world. Everywhere people are imitating their favorite characters from movies they see. The African American culture in particular has been globalized to the point were people are using their distinctive manner of speech without realizing were it came from or how.
Television and the media is also influential in changing the language. All over the world people tuning into foreign channels and programming are exposed to language and accents from different countries, and are adding new foreign words to their repertoire. The media also exposes to new terms and phrases. Political jargon in particular is broadcast by the media. People are now familiar with political euphemisms like 'friendly fire' and 'collateral damage' they also understand legal terminology, which they hear about whenever a court case is covered by the news words like 'allegation', 'perjury'. Economic terms have also been added to people's vocabularies in modern times 'budgetary policy', 'monetary' and 'aggregate demand are all understood nowdays whereas 30- 40 years ago no-one would have known what the terms referred to.
To recap, the journey the English language has taken over the centuries has seen words introduced to the language, it has seen words replaced, or altered, and has seen words become obsolete. These changes have all been done to the language to modify it for society's needs in this age of technology and communication. These days you can find words in the English language to adequately describe any emotion or circumstance, whereas a century ago this was not possible. The change in the language has certainly been for the better rather than the worse.
This is the complete article, containing 512 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
