LANGUAGE CHANGE

Many men sayn that in sweveninges Ther nys but fables and lesynges; But men may some swevenes sene Whiche hardely that false ne bene, But afterwarde ben apparaunt.

Chaucer, the Romance of the Rose
(c. 1370)

The translation:

Many men say that in dreams There is nothing but talk and lies; But men may see some dreams Which are scarcely false, But afterward come true.

Language change is both obvious and mysterious. The English of the late fourteenth century is quite unlike that of our time. Without special training, a speaker of Modern English would have great difficulty in understanding the opening lines to The Romance of the Rose cited above.

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE CHANGE
Language change is a change in a language which takes place over time. All living languages have changed and continue to change.English has undergone dramatic changes throughout three major periods of its history:

Old	Middle	Early Modern	Late Modern
450-1100 AD	1100-1500	1500-1800	1800-Present

Kinds of Language Change

Sound Change
a. Assimilation
    A situation in which one sound becomes more like another
OE        : /wulfas/ --> voiceless fricative
Mid. E     : /wulvas/ --> voiced
Modern    : wolf --> wolves

b. Dissimilation
    A situation in which two similar sounds become less like one another.
    fifth /fifθ/     -->     /fift/

c. Deletion
    A situation in which a sound is no longer pronounced.
    Middle    : nose /no:ze/
    Modern: nose /nouz/
e. Insertion
    A situation when a sound is added to the pronunciation of the word.
    Old    : athlete /ætθlit/
    Middle    : athlete /ætθəlit/

f. Monophthongization
    A change from diphthong (a complex vowel sound consisting of two vowel sounds) to a simple vowel sound (a monophthong)
    Rude, rule, new
g. Dipthongization
    Old    : hus /hu:s/
    Modern: house /haus/

h. Metathesis
    Change in the order of sound
    Old                Modern
    hros                horse
    frist                first
    thridde            third
    bridd                bird
i. Raising --> Lowering
    Middle    : noon /no:n/
    Modern    : noon /nu:n/

j. Backing and Fronting
    Early modern    : glass --> /a/
    Late Modern    :     --> /æ/

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