@erin10288: A good one to think about! Distinct languages develop as people spread throughout different places and populations become isolated from each other. Over time, small changes in a language will develop, allowing different groups or people (in different areas) to develop their own distinct languages, cultures and lifestyles. Lots of languages have similar words in common (for example ‘dog’ in Danish is ‘hund’, which is similar to ‘hound’ in English – these words – hound and hund – grew from the same base word a long time ago). Interestingly, pop culture – like TV shows shown in English in other countries, have infiltrated their language, so things like ‘OK’ are common in languages outside of English.
Hope that helps! Do you speak any languages other than English?
Hi @erin10288, language is such a strange thing. Do you remember learning English as a young child? Just seems to happen automatically. How about trying to learn a new language when you’re older, much harder then isn’t it. From what I’ve found, the origin of language and languages is something that people have differing ideas on, which can sometimes depend on which part of science you come from.
I find fascinating is how English was just be ‘invented’ from people from many different languages and differing parts of society. Now it’s possibly one of the World’s most spoken languages.
How languages change is a fascinating study. Scientists who study it are called etymologists. Many of our languages trace back to a language called Sanskrit. Written Sanskrit looks like Thai writing. There are “rules” that describe how languages change over time – which sounds are hard to say and so get changed, inflections get lost (in Latin for instance, you would say agricola (farmer) for the subject of a sentence, and agricolam if it was the direct object – all too hard so people stop doing it) and only very common words (think in English I am, I was, I will be and you were) are “irregular”
@erin10288: A good one to think about! Distinct languages develop as people spread throughout different places and populations become isolated from each other. Over time, small changes in a language will develop, allowing different groups or people (in different areas) to develop their own distinct languages, cultures and lifestyles. Lots of languages have similar words in common (for example ‘dog’ in Danish is ‘hund’, which is similar to ‘hound’ in English – these words – hound and hund – grew from the same base word a long time ago). Interestingly, pop culture – like TV shows shown in English in other countries, have infiltrated their language, so things like ‘OK’ are common in languages outside of English.
Hope that helps! Do you speak any languages other than English?
1
Don’t dogs even bark differently depending on the country Mia?
0
Hi @erin10288, language is such a strange thing. Do you remember learning English as a young child? Just seems to happen automatically. How about trying to learn a new language when you’re older, much harder then isn’t it. From what I’ve found, the origin of language and languages is something that people have differing ideas on, which can sometimes depend on which part of science you come from.
I find fascinating is how English was just be ‘invented’ from people from many different languages and differing parts of society. Now it’s possibly one of the World’s most spoken languages.
1
How languages change is a fascinating study. Scientists who study it are called etymologists. Many of our languages trace back to a language called Sanskrit. Written Sanskrit looks like Thai writing. There are “rules” that describe how languages change over time – which sounds are hard to say and so get changed, inflections get lost (in Latin for instance, you would say agricola (farmer) for the subject of a sentence, and agricolam if it was the direct object – all too hard so people stop doing it) and only very common words (think in English I am, I was, I will be and you were) are “irregular”
0