Our English Language in 500 Years

Our English language should come with a massive, luminous, advisory sign saying “under construction”. If we were to reminisce all the way back to 1450 AD, we would discover the nascent stages of our present day period of Modern English. However, when studying Shakespeare’s works, which come from the 1500’s, a translation of many of his lines is necessary for most ordinary people to comprehend all he is implying. Therefore, one can only imagine the vast amount of change that will occur to our language. I predict that within the next five centuries, we will have acquired a language desiring to be efficient, creating a less valued art of literature, and resulting in a decrease in the common vocabulary.

The highest rate of efficiency is strived for in all aspects of our current society. Our machines, human labor, learning, and businesses are continuously searching for that perfect formula that will result in one hundred percent efficiency. Therefore, what would happen if we could communicate with perfect effectiveness? What if every word we speak, portrays the precise meaning that we intend? Our conversations would be quicker and more productive if we used less filler words or expletives, elaborate descriptions, and redundant synonyms or phrases. In order to reach a language described previously, the articles “a” and “the” would be unnecessary. We would use only one of the multitudinous amount of synonyms for a single word, and when we explained an item or situation, we would describe it once and move on with the point of the story. A significant decrease in the use and incorporation of minutiae will be easily noted. Speaking in this way, using less energy to communicate the same idea and message, will result in shorter conversatio...

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...normally referred to happy, sad, and mad rather than auspicious, despondent, and irascible.

I could have bluntly written this essay in half the words and have gotten the same message across. Granted, I would not have displayed this information with as much emphasis and exaggeration. My arguments on the state of our language in five hundred years for striving for efficiency, devaluing art and literature, obtaining an artless vocabulary would have been less reinforced, but the gist would have been the same. Nonetheless, twice as many papers could have been graded in the same amount of time, students would have had extra time to spend on other tasks, and quite frankly, this class would be valued as more of a history class than one meant to expand one’s internal dictionary. However, in our current stage of language use, being verbose and magniloquent is valued greatly.