Things change, languages change, is it good or bad? This article discusses the arrival of Instant Messaging speak in schools. Students today are using it more as a form of note taking and it’s creeping into some assignments as well. Generally, this article is positive in that the students know when IM speak is appropriate and when they need to use formal English. The question I have is should our language be evolving and are people simply resistant to change?
Language has always evolved to meet the needs of the people. English was the language of the streets in England while ‘the educated’ used Latin. Shakespeare started writing in English and we saw an evolution to Shakespearian English. Eventually this evolved again into Modern English as we know today. Could you imagine needing to talk in the long winded Shakespearian English today?
So maybe it is time for English to evolve again? Isn’t it better to be able to write briefly? ‘You’ and ‘u’ sound exactly the same, so why do we need to write the extra letters? ‘Be’ and ‘b’, ‘before’ and ‘b4’ even? Why can’t we write things how they sound, like Spanish? ‘Night’ and ‘nite’, ‘Thames’ and ‘Tems’? Do we really need to worry about the vowels? For an interesting look at how you read your language, check this out.
Where is our language heading? Wht wll b th rslt?