Murtiana, the dynamics of English language change from the old era
THE DYNAMICS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE CHANGE FROM THE OLD ERA TO THE DIGITAL AGE
Rahmila Murtiana IAIN Antasari Banjarmasin email: [email protected]
Abstract: This article attempts to discuss why and how English has changed, tracing from particular features such as spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and meaning from Old English era until Modern English, how the people‟s attitude toward the changes, and whether these changes ruin or contribute to the development of English as a global language. As a final remark, this article will also offer a few suggestions on how the phenomenon of language change should be treated particularly on the relation with English language teaching and learning.
Key words: language change, form, meaning, attitude
Abstrak: Artikel ini mencoba membahas mengapa dan bagaimana bahasa Inggris mengalami perubahan baik dari segi ejaan, kosa kata, tata bahasa, maupun makna, sejak dari zaman Inggris kuno hingga zaman modern. Pembahasan juga mencakup bagaimana sikap orang-orang terhadap perubahan yang terjadi pada bahasa Inggris, dan apakah perubahan tersebut merusak atau memberikan kontribusi terhadap perkembangan bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa global. Pada bagian akhir artikel akan dipaparkan sedikit saran bagaimana sebaiknya menghadapi fenomena perubahan tersebut terutama dalam kaitannya dengan pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahasa Inggris.
Kata kunci: perubahan bahasa, bentuk, makna, sikap
“Language does change, and it is just as impossible to I mad noght for no disours, preserve the tongue that Shakespeare spoke as it is to Ne for no seggers, no harpours, stop cultural change” (David Crystal) Bot for the luf of symple men,
that strange Inglis can not ken Language change is a phenomenon in which language features such as phonetic, lexis, In the above lines, although Mannyng syntax, and semantic vary as a result of the believed that his language was simple and changing needs. As a language used by easy to understand, it is very likely that the many people throughout the world, English people now will have problem in has undergone a series of fascinating comprehending the meaning completely. If changes since the era of Old English until those lines are compared with a headline now. The English expressions which found in the internet: Txts n emails mk ppl hundred years ago were considered simple stupid coz they R worse than smking pot & and colloquial might seem strange to today‟s lead 2 a st8 of 'infomania', perhaps not many generation. Below is an example from a people could get the message as well. These work of Robert Mannyng written in the 14th are just two examples of how language could century as quoted by Aitchison (2001): be very different in terms of spelling, In symple speche as I couthe, vocabulary, sentence construction, and even That is lightest in mannes mouthe. meaning.
104 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 2 No. 1, July 2012, pp. 104-115
Despite the fact that language change is language is believed to be “emergent a natural and inevitable phenomenon, not all physical properties associated with the people are happy with it. Some linguists as specific structure of the brain well as journalists are concerned and even (http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/la1.sh claim that the change tends to move toward tml). In practice, more people seem to negative directions, making language consist espouse the first theory. of flaws and ruining the standard (Anderson As Meredith (1998) argued, “language & Trudgill, 1990; Finnegan, Besnier, Blair, change is not a superficial decision or & Collins, 1992; Freeborn, 1992). Aitchison event,” but rather as a way to survive in the (2001) has presented examples of complaints changing world, and it is often as “the direct about language change since 1960 to 1999, results of political, economic and cultural which mostly came from authors and editors. imperialism.” This can be seen from how Among the complaints are “the growing English develops from its native country unintelligibility of spoken English”, “the England and spreads to the whole world. grammar is becoming coarser”, “the First, it was because of colonialism, but then standard of speech and pronunciation has the people in the world just voluntarily adapt declined, and “a lot of maudlins and the language. In a similar manner, Mahoney misusages.” The following section will (2008) has agreed that language changes as a discuss the underlying reasons as well as the result of social, economic, and political process of language change. pressure. She added that the unique way that individuals speak may also cause the language to change. Her argument is based WHY AND HOW LANGUAGE on the fact that no two individuals use a CHANGES? language in exactly the same way. The vocabulary and expressions people use Language may change slowly or rapidly. depend on their age, education level, place to Some scholars refer to it as language live, social status and other factors. Through evolution, and the cause of language social interaction, new words and sayings evolution has been analyzed differently. A are picked up and integrated into everyday group of theorists believes that language is speech. an adaptation, that is, language needs to Furthermore, Mahoney as quoted from develop or evolve in order for humans to David Lightfood, a linguist at National adapt with others. One of the supporters of Science Foundation, has explained that the this theory is a psycholinguist, Stephen agents of language change are children as Pinker. In his book The Language Instinct: the new generation. Therefore, although How the Mind Creates Language (2000), he language is passed down through has suggested that language is produced as a generations so that parents and children can combination of innate ability (that is, communicate with each other, in the process language is instinctively controlled by a part of learning a language, children often of the brain called cerebral cortex) and a internalize it differently and develop a pressure from outside (one of which is social different variation of language (Mahoney, interaction with community). In other words, 2008). The language gap between previous language may evolve through natural generation and today‟s generation often selection. The human cognitive ability also brings about a continuous debate on whether plays an important role in the improvement language has become deteriorated or become of language. Another group such as one improved. represented by Stephen Jay Gould and Noam Ellis (2008) suggested that language Chomsky believes that language is not a changes as a result of usage. He gave an product of natural selection or adaptation; example of phonological change which is rather, as Chomsky famously argued, caused by the frequent usage of particular
105 Murtiana, the dynamics of English language change from the old era words. High frequency of usage resulted in who wondered why the language used by the automaticity which leads to creative broadcaster seemed to have deviated from construction such as in the example of the standardized English. His response was gimme, which is the sound reduction of give that language was not a static system, and me. The frequent usage also underpins what that changes either in grammar or Ellis labeled as grammatical erosion. The pronunciation were not something new so more frequent certain words are used, the that we should feel annoyed; instead, the more likely they will get shortened or even changes recur and it had already started omitted. For example, of, the. a, an, in, to, is, hundred years ago (Crystal, 1992). was, I, you , he, be, it, to, for, with, by, on, at, that, which are the most frequently-used words in English, are often dropped by the ENGLISH LANGUAGE speakers. The most frequent words also tend DEVELOPMENT FROM HISTORICAL to be ambiguous in homophony and PERSPECTIVE polysemy, such as to, too, two; their, they‟re, there; I, eye, aye, (Ellis, 2008, p. Traced from the language family in the 234), so it is common to find their incorrect world, English is classified by the scholars usage. as a part of one large group of language Regarding how language changes, family called Indo-European. That is why, Aitchison (2001) has outlined three similar forms and meaning between English possibilities: first, slow decay; second, slow and other languages in the group can be evolution to a more efficient state; and third, easily traced, such as the words father, language remains in a substantially similar mother, friend, which are similar with state from the point of view of progress or German words vater, mutter, freund (Yule, decay. Slow decay happens when certain 2006, p. 184). Interestingly, those words are feature of language is losing, such as the also similar with Spanish and Italian madre case of European languages which gradually and padre, which are in other branch of lose their old word endings. Slow evolution Indo-European. This proves that languages to a more efficient state or survival of the might have come from the same ancestor fittest occurs when existing language adapts (known as proto-language), but then they to the needs of time, so old terms are diverge, develop and vary as people spread discarded and replaced by new terms which in the world. are often in a much simpler and regular Historically, English language form. In the third case, language is viewed development has taken place since thousand as being advance or decline from opposing years ago. One of the causes is language forces, so different opinions exist. contact which results from migration, in A number of people view language which the inhabitants of the world move change negatively; whereas others view it from one place to another, establish their positively, including the prominent linguist own community and develop new David Crystal. Crystal has written numerous expressions in communicating with each papers and articles regarding language other (Finnegan et al., 1992; Leith, 2003). change. Based on his experience as a The following figure outlines the broadcaster at BBC, he had received development of English language from the unfavorable comments from the listeners ancient time to the modern time.
106 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 2 No. 1, July 2012, pp. 104-115
Figure 1. The main influences on the development of English language (Source: http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/index.html)
During 500 BC – 43 BC, England was have an apple” as “There is an apple with inhabited by the Celts, who used Celtic me”, showing that „have‟ is not commonly language, which is totally different form used for possession and replaced by today‟s English. When the Romans invaded preposition instead (Meredith, 1998). and ruled England for about 400 years from In the 5th century, the Anglo Saxon 43 BC – 450 AD, they inherited Latin tribes from Germany came to England. The words, and Celtic language was no longer Anglo Saxon settlement had added certain used except by the people in Ireland and features into Old English language. Some Scotland, with six sub-language groups words survived until today with some slight surviving: Cornish, Welsh, Breton, Irish differences. For example, today‟s words Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx man, wife, child, eat, and drink originated (Meredith, 1998). Several distinct features from the Old English mann, wif, cild, etan, of Celtic language are found in grammatical and drincan (Yule, 2006, p. 187). Here, the structure. For instance, in today‟s English slight changes in both spelling and the word order is normally subject – verb – pronunciation are noticeable. The Danish object, whereas Celtic language took the invasion in 789 AD brought destruction to order of verb – subject – object, so the Anglo Saxon civilization. A great number of sentence “the woman came” would be “Deth Anglo Saxon words were lost. King Alfred an venen” or “came the woman” (Meredith, the Great was the one who tried to preserve 1998). In addition, Celtic language tends to the Anglo Saxon literary heritage. Some use passive voice instead of active, such as words which still survived were cyning "I teach" (dysgaf) is expressed as "is taught” (king), cwene(queen), erl(earl), ladi (lady), (dysgir) and “I do/make" (déanaim) as “is and lord (Mastin, 2011). Other Anglo-Saxon done” (déantar). Another difference can be vocabulary which also survives into modern seen from how the sentence “I have a cat” is English is everyday words such as earth, constructed as “there is a cat to me,” or “I house, food, sing, night and sleep.
107 Murtiana, the dynamics of English language change from the old era
At the beginning of the Middle Age (c. pronounced like shape, me like may, mine as 1066 AD), the Norman conquest meen, mate as maat, out as oot, and house as transformed England both culturally and hoose. In terms of spelling, Middle English linguistically. French was used widely mostly used the words ending with “e” such among the Norman noblemen, and Latin was as ende, ferne, straunge, and the ”e‟ had to used as the language of science and be pronounced as well (Mastin, 2011). This education, while English had no official can be noticed in the works of Chaucer, the status and was treated like a third language most prominent poet during the Middle Age, as it was only used by the low class who had played an important role in Englishmen. Fortunately, inter-marriage promoting English so that it became widely with native English nobility and everyday used in society. exchange between masters and servants had The era between Middle English and encouraged bilingualism. Many words Early Modern period was known as the adapted from French have added more Great Vowel Shift, in which long vowel specific forms of today‟s English, parti- sounds were made higher and further cularly for the terms used in government and forward in the mouth. The change in law such as judgment, court, parliament, pronunciation caused a change in spelling so verdicts, evidence, defendant, solicitor, that it reflected the sound of the words, such juror, or jury (Finnegan et al., 1992, p. 283). as stan became stone, derk became dark, and Some other words adapted from French are herte became heart (Mastin, 2011). related to fashion and lifestyle such as Early Modern period in the 16th century, mansion, boot, beauty, mirror, jewel, known as Elizabethan era, was marked by appetite, banquet. Another significant English Renaissance and international trade. change brought by French was the plural English language even gained more ending “s”, which replaced the Old English popularity than the previous period, and form of “en‟ ending such as in housen or again some changes occurred. During this shoen, so now they become houses and era, there were a lot of borrowings from shoes. The „en‟ ending which still exists Latin and Greek, which were considered as today is in the words of children and oxen the language of education and science, so (Mastin, 2011). words such as genius, species, radius, During 1337–1450, England and French specimen, apparatus, paralysis, and focus were involved in The Hundred Year War, started to be used. Many loanwords were leading to a higher status of English derived as a result of international trade, language, as French was regarded as the such as armada, barricade from Spanish, language of the enemy. The used-to-be low balcony, macaroni, piano, from Italian, class English people gained a better noodle, muffin, kindergarten from German, economic and social status, and language breeze, tank, marmalade from Portuguese, division between the noblemen and the yacht, cruise, dock, lottery, from Dutch, tea, commoners was no longer observed. Middle typhoon from China, and almanac, algebra English language had distinct feature, from Arabic. In terms of sentence particularly in pronunciation. All consonants construction, word order had used subject- were pronounced, for example the letter “k” verb-object patterns. Interestingly, to be was in the word knight had to be pronounced still commonly used as the auxiliary rather clearly, unlike today‟s pronunciation where than have, so the today‟s construction I have the “k” is not pronounced. Another example come was strangely written as I am come. is the word child was pronounced as t∫ild, The old verb ending “-en” was gradually different from today‟s t∫aild (Mahoney, replaced by “-eth” such as 2008). In addition, the long vowel was in loveth, doth, and hath. pronounced like Latin-derived Romance Shakespeare, as the most phenomenal languages of Europe, so sheep was figure in English literature, had contributed a
108 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 2 No. 1, July 2012, pp. 104-115 great number of English words. In his for the new products and machines that works, he often experimented with part of developed during this time such as engine, speech and deviated the grammatical rules, train, combustion, electricity, telephone, for example making noun into verb such as telegraph, and camera. in “he pageants us,” “dog them at the From the 18th century to the 20th heels,” “the good Brutus ghosted,” “Lord century, Britain had gained its position as Angelo dukes it well,” and “uncle me no the world power with many colonies all over uncle.” However, his extraordinary gift in the world. The users of English language playing with the language resulted in grew significantly and English has become numerous invented terms are still used today the language spoken not only by its native such as barefaced, critical, leapfrog, monu- users but also non-native users who live mental, homicide, countless, premeditated, outside Britain. The English colonies also dislocate, and famous phrases such as love is made a great influence to the language by blind, vanish into thin air, or flesh and blood adding loanwords to the English language. (Mastin, 2011). Therefore, words such as kangaroo and During the 17th and 18th century, boomerang, whose origin is Australia, or English dictionary started to exist, consisting bungalow, jungle, cot, and candy, which are of grammar, pronunciation and spelling Indian words, are adapted into English. guides. The most famous one was written America as one of the colonies even by Samuel Johnson. His Dictionary of developed its own terms, making American English Language was considered the most English tend to be different from British eminent English dictionary before the more English, not only in lexis but also in comprehensive one, Oxford English semantics. Americans use fall for autumn, Dictionary, was published. The Industrial hog for pig, trash for rubbish, and guess for Revolution during the late 18th and the early think. In terms of semantic, American words 19th century had boosted the emergence of lot and lumber mean differently from the new words that never existed before in British meaning (Mastin, 2011). English language. These words were used
OUT-OF-DATE VS. UP-TO-DATE ENGLISH
Ye knowe ek, that in forme speche is chaunge, Withinne a thousand yer, and words tho That hadden prys now wonder nyce and straunge Us thenketh em, and yet they spake hem so, And spedde as wel in love as men now do (Chaucer, Troylus and Criseyde)
Chaucer, the greatest poet in the Middle a decay. The linguists who intend to retain Age had been aware that the language and reconstruct the pure form of language people spoke during his time was very might come from the view that changes that different from the previous era. Today‟s have taken place over thousand years cause generation would also find how Chaucer‟s language to be separated and mutilated. If language is strange to their ears. language had never changed, people in the Today, as language continues to develop world might have spoken the same language and diverges, a number of old words may no and no need to get confused with each other longer be used, and new words emerge. (Anderson & Trudgill, 1990). However, it Some words are even „mutilated‟, a term can not be denied that humans continue to used by linguists who feel unhappy of the make progress, and so does language as a seemingly ruined language and view them as part of their life. New jargons and technical
109 Murtiana, the dynamics of English language change from the old era terms are required to suit the ongoing gobstoppers, miniskirt and mods and development of education, science, and rockers; enjoy dim sum, cappucino, chicken technology, not to mention the lifestyle as in tikka masala and pizzerias; talk of chavs, foods, toys, and gadgets. mingers and weirdos; and are addicted to At lexical and semantic levels, some old tellies, websites, cybercafes and compact words survive until now, some are no longer discs(http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/soun used, and many new words appear. For ds/). Neologisms (new word or expression in example, nice used to mean ignorant, vulgar a language) also occurs by combining words, used to mean ordinary, and sophisticated so now compound terms such as fashionista, used to mean adulterated, artificial, falsified frenemy, metrosexual, sonfuzzle, bro- (Leith, 2003, p. 74). In one of his works, mance, sexting, flexitarian, gastropub, Shakespeare used attorney as a verb, infomercial, dramedy, and many others, are meaning carry out by a substitute, as seen in common (Mastin, 2011). All this proves how this lines: “their encounters, though not richly-growing English vocabulary is today. personal, hath been royally attorneyed with New words continue to be invented, and interchange of gifts” (Shakespeare, The they often cannot be found in the latest Winter Tale). In the past, aggravate only dictionary. meant to make more serious, but now it also In terms of grammatical construction, means irritate (Anderson & Trudgill, 1990; some may claim that English becomes Freeborn, 1992). In some groups of worse. However, the sentence from society, bad and wicked are now both Shakespeare “Goes the king hence today?” different varieties of good (Mastin, 2011). compared with the modern standard This extension in word meaning should not grammar “Is the king going out today?” make people become worried or bothered, (Finnegan et al., 1992, p. 232) brings the because in fact, it can enrich English evidence that grammatical forms have language. It is true that when new meaning improved. In addition, today‟s noun phrase appears for the first time, not many people can be formed with more word strings in would accept it easily and comfortably. front of the head word such as never to be However, what is considered non standard, forgotten experience, and there is an uncommon, and corrupted in one time may increasing number of phrasal verbs such as become acceptable in a different era run across or put up with. From these (Anderson & Trudgill, 1990; Burridge, features, Freeborn claimed that “English has 2002). become a much more analytic language” The alteration in vocabulary is logical (1992, p. 198). because human lifestyle itself changes across generation. For example, old generation is familiar with icebox, record player, studious LANGUAGE CHANGE AND SOCIO- young man, while youngsters now would use CULTURAL CONTEXT the terms fridge, stereo, nerd. Similarly, new generation may use words such as tank tops, As social creatures, humans prefer to be six- packs, sitcoms, which in the past might accepted as the same with the community not even exist (Finnegan et al., 1992, p. they live with. In their daily interaction, it is 231). The language changes even faster very likely that people would imitate their during the recent century, so the words fellow‟s language. Aitchison (2003) has which used to be very common in the mentioned that language changes might previous decade such as walkman and OHP, happen “from above‟, or conscious seem to be out-of-date now, as today‟s imitation, and „from below” or subconscious generation, are more familiar with MP3, imitation, which both come from human iPod, or LCD. It is in this century that desire to associate with others. Thus, when people get doodlebugs, gasmask, for instance, there is an increasing trend of
110 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 2 No. 1, July 2012, pp. 104-115 dropping the t at the end of the words such can figure out the meaning easily since they as in hot, what, football, or a bit more are familiar with the context. People will (Aitchison, 2003, p. 164) or how „house‟ is vary their language depending on the pronounced heouse, no becomes neow and situation and the person they interact with. kids becomes kuds (Mackinnon, 2002, p. The better they know their interlocutor, the 340), it cannot simply be judged as a less formal language they will use (Burridge, careless, sloppy pronunciation. It is likely 2002). that they occur because of the social Another illustration of how word influence. meaning depends on the social context is in The fact that English is used and the utterance “The bakkie had to stop at a adapted differently in many parts of the red robot.” During his visit to South Africa, world should also be taken into David Crystal was surprised to learn that consideration. Even in the native countries robot means traffic light and bakkie means such as England and the U.S., there is a truck (Crystal, 2010). Those who have different perspective on the use of hopefully never been to South Africa or never learn or “I‟ve got to” (Trask, 2000) or in the from a South African-English dictionary expression “Did you buy your car yet?” and might turn into confusion when they “Have you bought your car yet”, not to encounter such expressions. mention English varieties in Asia or Africa It is evident that as a global language, (Kirkpatrick, 2007, p. 58). English has undergone a lot of adaptation It is also important to consider other and influence at the place it is used and by aspects behind language alteration, such as the people who use it. In the countries the social context where it is applied, or where English is used as second or foreign whether it is used for oral or written, casual language, local terms will influence the use or formal setting. Some people might feel of English. On the other hand, non-native annoyed with the expression such as “I ain‟t speakers who live in an English speaking seen him”,” We done it yesterday,” or country will also enrich the English word double negative construction in “I ain‟t got repertoire. One instance is the growing none” or “I don‟t want none” (Anderson & spread of Islam which makes terms such a Trudgill, 1990, p. 167) because they only halal and hijab seem to have been accepted view the language construction from the as English words. Another instance can be prescriptive grammar. However, if people found in food names. have understood that some expressions are only a matter of variation and dialect that build up among certain community, they ENGLISH IN THE DIGITAL ERA would not complain and regard it as a sign of language decay. The most influential factor of language It is true that language change also change today is the sophisticated causes few problems, such as confusion and communication technology, particularly the misunderstanding in communication, internet and mobile phone. David Crystal especially among people who use different has mentioned in one of his articles that the regional dialects, or among different internet has brought a linguistic revolution generations. For example, the utterance (Crystal, 2001). Similarly, Mastin (2011) “After all those ditzy bimbo I thought I‟d be also argued that the digital age has brought a wuss to pass up this stonking part, even if English into a linguistic peak in terms of it is an indie flick” (Trask, 2000, p. 89) will word acquisition. The Internet has produced certainly make some people, particularly the numerous set of neologisms such as the elderly, frustrated. They would think that terms online, download, hacker, spam, English has disfigured and mutilated. In emoticon, blogosphere, podcast, and a whole contrast, the young generation who use it range of acronyms, contractions and
111 Murtiana, the dynamics of English language change from the old era shorthands used in email and social as “:-)” for a smile and “<3” for heart or networking. The digital era also has allowed love. “verbification” of nouns as used to be Some people are fascinated about this applied by Shakespeare, which modern new phenomenon; some others are worried language purists often disapprove. So, now it that it would deviate from the standard is common to say just email me, to text, or language. Back in the 18th century, people googling. used to have similar concern over English The dominant users of the digital language change. The admiration toward technology are undeniably young people. Latin led an attempt to use the correct form The language they used has been labelled of language according to the rules "teen-talk", or more specifically "textisms", (Aitchison, 2001). Today, what worries "textese", "textspeak" in the case of SMS, some people, especially the elder generation, "netspeak", "netlingo", and "weblish” in the is that the language change may ruin the case of computer-based communication standard language and affect literacy. As the (Farina & Liddy, 2011). The common abbreviations often contain ambiguous and features of textisms are nonstandard undechiperable sentences (Farina & Lyddy, spelling, nonstandard capitalization and 2011), they may also lead to confusion and punctuation, abbreviation, and the use of misunderstanding. emoticons. Crystal called it as the most In his article “I h8 txt msgs: How extraordinary variations in the chronicle of texting is wrecking our language”, published English language (Crystal, 2006). in Daily Mail on September 24, 2007, the The nature of mobile phone which journalist John Humphrys (2007) expressed limits the texters to type long messages has his concern and disappointment on how the led the use of abbreviation. So, in texting the 6th edition of Oxford English Dictionary has short form such as “cu l8r” or “RUOK” is made several changes on the way certain more commonly found than “see you later” words are written, which Humphrey or “are you okay?” The types of shortening complained as the “victim of fashion.” include initialism, that is, by using only the Those who are on Humphrey‟s (2007) beginning letters such as BTW for by the side would prefer to see the language written way, OMG for oh my God, TTLY for talk to neatly, following the standard. This includes you later, and the omission of vowels so the Dr. Bernard Lamb, an Emeritus reader of words like people, texting, and homework Genetics at Imperial College London, who would become ppl, txtg, and hmwrk. Another proposed that Standard English or Queen‟s feature is the combination of letter and English is the one which must be used. He number homophone, also called logograms showed the evidence how today‟s generation or syllabogram, for example NE1 for has moved away from the correct standard anyone, and G8T for great. Nonstandard English in the job applications sent by the spelling and accent stylization are also found graduates which contain errors in their CVs in the language of text messaging, such as and cover letters, despite their good sum for some, skool for school, dat for that, university background. Furthermore, Lamb and thanx for thanks (Farina & Lyddy, mentioned that deviations from the Queen's 2011). They even become shortened as thx English may include errors in grammar, and plz. Typographic symbols are also parts spelling, punctuation and word choice. If of textism. It is a single or multiple someone says: "Me and him gets on great”, characters used to represent the whole word or "Me an' Jim is runnin' late”, it is (Bieswanger, 2008 as cited in Farina & considered a deviation (Lamb, 2010). Lyddy, 2011), for example x to represent It is understandable, then, if there has kiss, and zzzz to represent sleep or tiredness. been an intention “to reconstruct the full, Meanwhile, emoticons are used to represent pure form of an original stage from the feelings, emotion, or facial expression, such variously disfigured and mutilated forms
112 Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 2 No. 1, July 2012, pp. 104-115 which are attested in the individual change ruin or contribute to the development languages” (Curtius as cited in Yule, 2006, of English as a global language? The p. 192), since the existing language seems to judgment that English is ruining often comes deviate. The habit of using abbreviation or out from comparing the Standard British sloppy language will possibly lead the English with varieties of English which exist people into the ignorance of using the today. If the non-standard English is what language appropriately, such as when linguists or journalists refer to as decay and communicating with a teacher or a must be refined, it appears to be a supervisor or in other formal writings. In misleading attitude. In terms of academic case of children, it may influence their setting, it is relevant and necessary to use the literacy. Standard English. However, in terms of However, some research revealed that daily language, the use of non-standard textism does not hamper literacy. In studies English is acceptable, and there is no need to by Coventry University during 2006-2007, claim that English becomes deteriorated as pre-teenage children who were better at long as people can successfully interact with spelling and writing were found to use the each other. Moreover, judging that English most texting abbreviations (Crystal, 2008). used by certain community as low or impure Textism even correlates positively with word would only lead to the thought that one‟s reading, vocabulary and phonological language is superior than the other awareness in children, and some aspects of (Mackinnon, 2002). The distinct feature of language performance in young adults. This recent language which roots from digital may reflect skilled use of metalinguistic technology should even be viewed positively knowledge, which allows the texters to as it may actually enrich the English switch between differing language systems language. (Farina & Lyddy, 2011). The fact that language is dynamic In addition, Crystal is convinced that should be treated wisely by its users by 90% of language used in texting is written in being aware of appropriate situation in normal, standard English. He also believes which particular language feature should be that textism adds dimension and new applied. In the context of English teaching dynamics to the English language, and and learning, it is the role of the teacher to suggests that it encourages creativity and expose the students to different varieties of wordplay. The creative ingenuity of some English, spoken and written, formal and texters, such as AGM which stands for Ahm informal. Teachers should also be able to Gannin Yem, meaning „I‟m going home‟, make the students aware about appropriate even featured dialectal variation (Gregory, and inappropriate English, so they know 2011). This might be observed as well how to use the language appropriately in among the texters in Indonesia who use their particular context. For example, in a formal distinct form of English as the influence of forum, even if it is only in an email or a the local language. facebook group discussion, it might not be favorable if the shortening such as „u‟ is used in addressing other people. CONCLUSION Ultimately, language differences between one generation to another and The contested views of language change varieties of English that exist in the world continue as the English language keeps today prove that English will continue to evolving, involving phonetic, lexical, evolve. It is the nature of human language, grammatical, and semantic levels. The and, thus, cannot simply be judged as decay. question remains: “Is it possible to Colloquial and invented terms used by distinguish bad and good changes?” youngsters or media, social dialects caused (Aitchison, 2001). Moreover, does language by nativisation, and initialisms boosted by
113 Murtiana, the dynamics of English language change from the old era textism, perhaps, display that English has Crystal, D. (2008). Txtng: the gr8 db8. Oxford: deviated from its pure, standard forms. Oxford University Press. However, language change in the world has Crystal, D. (2010). The future of Englishes: created a variety of communities, living with going local. In R. Facchinetti, D. their own identity, culture, values, and ideas. Crystal, and B. Seidlhofer (eds), From English has developed in order to meet the International to local English-and back demands of the modern world. Therefore, again (pp.17-25). Bern: Lang. Retrieved “rather than worrying about variation and on April 22, 2012 from change, we should rejoice in the cultural and http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articl linguistic diversity they represent” es/English139.pdf (Kirkpatrick, 2007, p. 53). Elllis, N. C. (2008). The dynamics of second language emergence: Cycles of language use, language change, and REFERENCES language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 92(2), pp. 232-249. Aitchison, J. (2001). Language change: Farina, F., & Lyddy, F. (2011). The Progress or decay? (3rd ed.). language of text messaging: Linguistic Cambridge: Cambridge University ruin or resource? The Irish Psychologist, Press. 37(6), pp.145-149. Aitchison, J. (2003). Language change. In Finnegan, E., Besnier, N., Blair, D., & Linguistics (pp. 159 -170). London: Collins, P. (1992). Language: Its Hodder Headline. Retrieved September structure and use. Marrickville, NSW: 7, 2008 from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
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