Technological Influences on the changes in the English Language

Technological Influences on the Changes in the English Language

Early Technological Innovations

  • The development of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 had a profound influence on language standardisation, as English printed in London became an accepted standard.
  • Early telegraphy in the 19th century inspired an economy in message length and language due to cost, leading to use of abbreviations and non-standard grammar.
  • The telephone invention in the late 19th century impacted social connections and business interactions, adding informal flow to communication.

Influence of Television and Radio

  • Widespread use of radio and television from the 20th century allowed for the spread of accents, dialects, and vocabulary across significant geographical areas.
  • Broadcasting helped standardise language and pronunciation, known as Received Pronunciation, presenting it as a sociolect associated with the educated class.
  • The globalisation of media networks led to the spread of American English styles and vocabulary.

Digitisation and the Internet

  • The advent of the Internet has had transformative impacts on language. The worldwide web has brought people together from disparate geographical locations, leading to the cross-pollination of language influences.
  • Email communication’s efficiency led to the evolution of a distinct ‘email register’, marked by informality, brevity, and the use of acronyms such as ‘OMG’, ‘TTYL’, and ‘BTW’.
  • The creation and use of emojis, or digital icons, provide an additional level of expressivity in online communication.

Influence of Social Media

  • Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have encouraged the proliferation of internet slang, abbreviations, hashtags, and memes.
  • Text messaging, especially in the age of smartphones, has led to the innovative use of language and a range of registers, including the use of text speak.
  • Internet memes and ‘viral’ culture have seen the rapid spread of words, phrases and linguistic trends based on popularity and shared understanding among Internet users.

Future Technological Influence

  • The influence of artificial intelligence and machine learning on language is increasing, with AI-powered systems contributing to linguistic shifts and development.
  • The rise of voice recognition technology like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant suggests a shift towards oral communication in digital contexts.
  • The increasing use of virtual reality and augmented reality platforms might shape the development and use of English language further in coming years, including potential for new vocabulary and linguistic structures.

The technological advances of the past and present inevitably steer the direction of the English language, becoming both a cause and a mirror of linguistic change on different levels – lexical, grammatical, and sociolectal.