Evolution of the English Language

Last week I wrote an entry about pop culture destroying literature and I got to thinking about the unappreciated and beautiful language the classics were written in. This got me thinking; why did the English language have to evolve?

I did some research on the topic, beginning with the Anglo-Saxons.
The Anglo-Saxons’ language was already a blend of dialects from West Germanic tribes. Add some dialects from the Norse, Frisian and the Dutch and you start to see the English language form. Now skipping all the history lessons of basically everyone invading England and leaving their make on the English language, you begin to form what is now known as Old English.

This is where it begins to get tricky and hard to follow, so stick with me while I try to explain the old English to modern English transition.
From what I can tell Old English pronounced P, b, t, d, m, n, l, and r as we do today but rarely use letters like k, q, v, x, and z, then you have non-modern letters like thorn (þ) and eth (ð).

In the period between 1150 and 1475, there were three major dialects of Middle English; Northern (Northumberland), Midlands (Mercia) and Southern (Wessex).
From what I can work out, Modern English was like a major merger between the three dialects.

This began the basics of what we call the Modern English language.
One of the biggest reasons behind the evolution of language is pronunciation. Words were pronounced vastly different in a lot of cases to their modern pronunciation.
Over the years it continued to evolve with influences from Latin, Greek, French, etc. Later on during conflicts with the French, the English dropped the letter u in words ending –our.
Though the English picked this practice back up later, the Americans never did (this is why Americans can't spell).

The 19th Century is where I would have liked the evolution of the English language to stop, but unfortunately it continues.
Now the English language has come to a point of dropping letters for ‘IM English’. I hope this won't be the next evolution in English, but it looks like it is moving that way.

I am not sure how spelling will survive txt spk.
Despite a national pronunciation in the US promoted by the media, regional dialects persist.
I am fascinated by the way English is spoken elsewhere. In India, for example. Somehow language evolves and no one can stop it.

But it is interesting to see how the U.S. want to be different to the rest of the world and spell words like colour differently, or using alternate spelling at times like tidbit/titbit. Also removing words like fortnight.

Small tidbit: In Old English, Y was pronounced like TH, thus Ye Olde Inn was pronounced like The Old Inn. Though it did depended on it's context. When used in a sentence such as ‘Hear ye, hear ye’ it was pronounced with a ‘y’.

The reason for the incorrect spelling of ‘the’ originally was because the character used for ‘th’ was ‘þ’. Medieval presses did not use that character and substituted it with ‘y’
I'm a total geek, I love that stuff.