Destruction or Immortality?

It all began in the late 17^th century with the Age of Reason, when our language found itself caught in massive political turmoil inside the walls of Britain. Not only had the king fled to Oxford College, but civil war was crumbling the walls of an empire. One strong enough to impose a language that merged cultures, created neologisms, burrowed lexicography from Latin, and at the same time standardized its usage with dictionaries.

John Locke wrote an essay titled “Human Understanding”, in which he introduces the idea that with a better use of language the end of disputes would be reachable. In other words, he believed that if they all agreed upon the definition of words it would only mean one thing: peace. I won’t dare to say I disagree with his rational idealism because after all isn’t racial discrimination, one issue most countries hope to eliminate, based mainly on the usage of insulting words? We give it our own definition. Rap songs written and sung by African American’s are bombarded with the word “nigga”, usually meaningless in between themselves, but when used by others to describe them it is extremely racist and insulting. BANNED. I will agree that language is a “master of life”, as expressed by Locke, and at the same time should not be a “vicious abundance of phrases” (John Locke, The Adventure of English).

While Newton was changing the meaning of words according to his studies, Jonathan Swift expressed concern about the rapid change of our language. He questioned a writer’s ability to write with creativity and enthusiasm while knowing that in a couple of centuries the future generations to follow won’t be able to understand it. They were starting to clip vowels and abbreviate words such as “pos” for positive and “mob” for Latin vulgus. Instead he found “purity” when it came to Greek and Latin. His theory stated that these two languages had survived because they hadn’t changed. But is this true in 2013? Is Latin popular amongst my generation? I will have to agree to disagree with Mr. Swift.  English on the other hand, has been changing faster than we can control it, and as far as I know it is the number one language in the whole world. Sure enough it is a newborn compared to others, but will its constant malleable usage destroy it or make it immortal?

The Adventure of English. Dir. Nigel Wattis. Perf. Amanda Root and David Gwillim. LWT, 2003. Youtube. 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.