Saturday, February 8, 2014

How does migration influence language change?

As groups of people move from one place to another, their
language will change in response to other groups of people they encounter in their
travels. Place or object names used by the original inhabitants may be added to the
language, frequently with mispronunciations due to difficulties with sounds of the new
language. New words may be created to label newly shared concepts or activities or in
response to completely new situations or phenomenon that need to be described.
Expressions used by one group may be adopted or adapted and incorporated into the
language of the migrating new inhabitants. All these changes in language evolve over
time, supported by the contact between peoples and encouraged by the need to learn to
coexist.

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