The main causes of language change are generally supposed to be technological advances, the spread of the media and its influence, changing patterns in youth culture, education, movement of peoples, blah blah blah, but what about the influence of technology and its limitations? In an article in today's Observer, Euan Ferguson looks at the ways in which his mobile's predictive text dictionary affects his messages and the wider impact this might have on how we use language. It's an interesting idea, that language change is being driven by almost random forces as well as those well-documented trends above.
E-Julie's Language Legend blog has run some good pieces on this topic, so here are the links to her articles: gobbledegook & kiss/lips
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