All languages are in a state of flux. In other words, they are constantly changing and evolving. 1 In 2019, it was estimated that approximately 1.5 billion people speak English around the world and of that number, about 380 million speakers are native, or first language speakers, while more than 1 billion speak it as a second or foreign language.
So, why and how is English changing, and is this a positive or negative thing?
One obvious reason is globalisation and the fact that, these days, business and trade are conducted between people from all over the world – from Brazil to Nigeria to Japan – so the language spoken is very often English. 2 It’s a kind of adapted English which can be understood by everyone from different cultures when they need to communicate in one language.
3 They see it as a corruption of the language. But, in today’s fast-changing world, can we really say there is a ‘correct’ English with a standard form? 4 And one thing we can be sure of is that technology, the internet and teenagers are really changing how languages develop. ‘When young people communicate with others of their own age, they establish new words or expressions that will probably be quite different from an older generation,’ explains Helen Robinson, a linguist studying the effects of the internet on English. ‘This doesn’t mean that internet language or using emojis or abbreviations like lol is wrong, it’s simply a different way of communicating, which is also creative.’
5 In Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines, English is spoken as a second language. Around 600 million people speak English in this way, meaning that they are bilingual. In the Philippines, Tagalog (the country’s main language) and English merge to create a variety called Taglish. This can be difficult to understand if you aren’t a local!
And what about the use of slang or less formal language which also has an effect on changes to a language? 6 This is because social media helps to spread popular words and expressions more quickly. Current teen applications, such as Instagram, show us that a word like fire can mean cool or amazing , or an abbreviation like fit refers to an outfit or clothes . He wore a fire fit at the concert is just as acceptable as He looked great in those clothes . There is no stopping language evolving, for better or for worse!