Language Evolution: A History of Change

Posted on Mar 10, 2025 in English Studies

1. Sound Change: Prothesis

   One other type of sound change worth noting, though not found in English, occurs in the development of other languages. It involves the addition of a sound to the beginning of a word and is called prothesis. It is a common feature in the evolution of some forms from Latin to Spanish, as in these examples:

   • schola → escuela (“school”)
   • spiritus → espı́ritu (“spirit”)

   Spanish speakers learning English as a second language sometimes use a prothetic vowel, making words like strange and story sound like “estrange” and “estory.”

2. Syntactic Changes

   Modern English predominantly uses Subject-Verb-Object order, but other orders existed historically. For example:

   • Subject following the verb: ferde he (“he traveled”)
   • Object before the verb: he hine geseah (“he saw him”)
   • Object at the beginning: him man ne sealde (“no man gave [any] to him”)
   • and ne sealdest þū me næfre ān ticcen

3. Semantic Changes

   Many words have fallen out of use. Since we no longer carry swords, the word foin (“the thrust of a sword”) is rare. The Old English word were (“man”) is now mostly found in werewolf. Archaic expressions like lo, verily, or egad, and names like Bertha, Egbert, and Percival sound medieval.

4. Broadening of Meaning

   Holiday, once a religious feast (holy day), now means any break from work. Food, from foda (animal fodder), now refers to anything eaten. Lovely (from luflic, “loving”) and rather (from hræd, “quick”) have acquired more complex meanings.

5. Narrowing of Meaning

   Hound, from Old English hund (any dog), now refers to specific breeds. Meat, from mete (any food), now denotes specific food types. Narrowing can also create negative meanings, as with vulgar (formerly “ordinary”) and naughty (formerly “having nothing”).

6. Diachronic and Synchronic Variation

   Each generation adapts the previous generation’s language, leading to inevitable change and variation. Children recreate language, sometimes precisely, sometimes approximately, and sometimes with a desire to be different.

7. Study Questions

   1. What are cognates?

      Cognates are words in different languages that are similar in form and meaning.

   2. Pair these historically related languages: Bengali, Breton, Czech, English, French, Kurdish, Pashto, Portuguese, Swedish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Welsh.

      Bengali & Urdu; Breton & Welsh; Czech & Ukrainian; English & Swedish; French & Portuguese; Kurdish & Pashto.