First, it’s probably safe to say that our language will continue to not only evolve, but also continue to mix and meld with other languages. We’ve all heard the term “Spanglish” which is the slang word for the end product of someone attempting to speak one or the other, but then certain terms are replaced when the correct word is not known. Naturally, this is most commonly spoken in high school classrooms.

We think of this informal process of mixing languages as fun and games even though, realistically, other languages being smelt together with English is very likely. There are over 80 countries which have English listed as one of if not the only official language. Like most, English is not set in stone. New dialects and slang will continue to sprout and eventually “bridge the gap” between our English and other languages it comes in contact with.

Of course, no drastic changes are bound to appear for a while. Still, we will be able to see slight changes among the English language in our lifetimes. Each generation brings new words (Or old words with different meanings) to the table, which keeps us on our toes. One example of this we have all experienced can be found when taking a look at one of our most common forms of communication here in the states: text messaging. “LOL” is no longer an awkward sounding nonsense word; instead we see this is “Laughing Out Loud.” Others such as “BRB” for Be Right Back, “SMH” for Shaking My Head, and “OMW” which stands for On My Way, are all commonly used in texts between virtually anybody.

An example of the evolution of English can be seen in the spellings of words in Anglo-Saxon, also called Old English.  The following passage from the epic poem Beowulf is an example:

Hwæt! wē Gār-Dena in ġeār-dagum,
þēod-cyninga, þrym ġefrūnon

The words hwæt, dagum and cyninga translate to the Modern English words what, day and king, except that certain letters of course changed.  In fact, there are letters that disappeared entirely from English.  Two such letters in the passage above are æ (ash) and þ (thorn), but others include ð (eth) and ƿ (wynn).  Over time, these letters were replaced with other letters.  For example, “th” represents all interdental sounds in English.

Another notable change in English occurred in verb conjugations.  Until the 1600s, the second-person singular pronoun was thou, with the verb conjugation –(e)st, as in thou knowest.  Then, the pronoun and its conjugation were dropped from English and replaced by you, although it still appears in religious texts and in the works of Shakespeare.

English has evolved since it first arose.  It is classified as a Germanic language, and of course maintains a number of Germanic root words, like gold.  But the language also acquired words like happy from Norse, words like nation from Latin, words like hyperbole from Greek, and words like algebra from Arabic.  During the 20th century, the language added Bolshevik from Russian and mahatma from Sanskrit, in addition to the names of numerous kinds of foods from different cultures.

The English language spoken today is Late Modern English. Over the years English has evolved very much so in its vocabulary. Many words have been added to the language because of the Industrial Revolution and as technology has developed. Also, since the British Empire had so many colonies spread throughout the world the language adopted many words from other foreign languages.

It is particularly interesting when looking at how many different varieties of English there are. Some variations include Australian English, Canadian English, South African English and American English.

Although it may be difficult to clearly identify different variations. At the end of the day, it is all English, each with its own unique twist.