Languages are living entities!

Yes, indeed. Just think about it. They may change, adopt new forms, fade, or just disappear. This time though, the focus will be in the new vocabulary introduced in English language.

Some of them are basically for reasons of economy. No, no, no. Of course it’s not about economical terms. It is about words used for sake of abbreviation. How many of them do you recognize?

-          Lol (lough out loud)

-          Asap (as soon as possible)

-          Omg ( oh my god)

-          Pos (parent over shoulders)

-          Ttyl (talk to you later)

-          Brb (be right back)

-          Bb ( bye bye)

Others come from the world of technology. “Google it” or “e-mail it” are two examples about how language adopted new –in this case- verbs for the new needs appeared. And there a lot of them. Blogs, i-pads, MP3s, facebook, laptops, palmtops are words that were never used some years before.

There is much talk about how this new language may affect the one we already have acquired, and what the impact will be, due to this reduction on words in texting and computer technology. Many are worried that this phenomenon will influence not only the proper dictation of the words but will actually lead to a limited personal knowledge of language.

Linguists have the answer. Personal vocabulary will not be eliminated, if the students have the hours of language courses needed in their schools. They insist that it is not a matter of teachers or students, but about teaching hours to learn and practice language. Language on the other hand is limitless, and there will always exist new entries to fill in the blanks about things and ideas that have never been mentioned before.

Languages are living entities and this is how we should treat them. There is no threat behind the alteration of language. Languages just need time and space to adapt.

Sources El Pais, newspaper