Causes Of Language Change

Question 0

Change due to ease of articulation - what is this?

Answer 0

Ways that worlds change to make then easier to say.

Question 1

How does language change take place?

Answer 1

Very slowly, because of this it is very difficult to tell when language change occurs

Question 2

What does change due to ease of articulation explain?

Answer 2

Why there are many phonological changes within our language

Question 3

What are the two types of change due to ease of articulation?

Answer 3

Omission

Assimilation

Question 4

What is ease of articulation - omission?

Answer 4

When sounds disappear from words.
E.g:
The |b| sound from words like “lamb”
Words have also been shortened such as “telephone” has become “phone” (these longer words may disappear from our language one day)

Question 5

What is ease of articulation - assimilation?

Answer 5

Where the pronunciation of one phoneme is affected by the phoneme next to it.
E.g. “Sandwich” is often pronounced “samwich” - this demonstrated both assimilation and omission.

Question 6

What is regularisation?

Answer 6

When language changes in order to be more consistent.

For example odd words may be changed so that they fit in with an existing rule or pattern within our language.

Question 7

What is regularisation also known as?

Answer 7

Analogy

Question 8

What parts of language can regularisation affect?

Answer 8

All areas of language.

Including grammar, phonology, Lexus and spelling

Question 9

Example of regularisation

Answer 9

“Pea”

• originally “pease”
• this and “peas” then because the plural word and “pea” was brought in for singular.
• this matches the rule that things ending in a are only plural.

Question 10

Where else do we see regularisation happen?

Answer 10

When children acquire language as they apply regular rules to irregular verbs

Question 11

What is change due to social influences?

Answer 11

When change relates to reasons within society

Question 12

Two ways of social influences

Answer 12

Create a need to express new meaning - new inventions need new words
- old words fall out of use

Desire for novelty, to be fashionable or different
- common in slang

Question 13

What is language change due to influence of other languages?

Answer 13

Contact with other languages brings in new words

Can be due to many reasons: immigration and military invasion to films and TV shows