What are the Generations and Languages?

GENERATIONS AND LANGUAGES

Being a computer student, you must have learned about computers? Generations and languages, but today we will talk about the languages that went through time.

Language is constantly changing; sometimes it’s good, sometimes not! But we still have seen that languages are changing across social groups and spaces. It varies across time as well. Generation by generation, languages evolve, pronunciations change, new words pop up, the meaning of the old words shifts, and morphology advances.

In this article, we will discuss what generations and languages are, how human language evolves generation after generation, and what happens when languages change. So let’s begin!

WHAT ARE THE GENERATIONS AND LANGUAGES?

Human language is the best and unique way to communicate with all other animals. Unlike other species, even our ancestors, “Great Apes,” have nothing like human language. They use a so-called language called sign language to communicate with each other. The language evolves eventually, generation by generation, and forms human language. The similarities between language evolution and biological evolution make it helpful in tracing the recent human history and studying how culture evolved among groups of people with similar languages. Machine language, assembly language, high-level language, and very high-level language are the four generations of languages.

Language allows people to interact with each other and express thoughts in sentences that include subjects, verbs, and objects. Human language has a unique property, which is compositionality. It gives human language an endless capacity to create new sentences by combining and recombining different sets of words. For example, only 25 other words can generate more than 15,000 distinct sentences.

In addition, another distinct property is being referential, which means that language is used to exchange information about people and objects and actions and locations.

So, when a generation uses a language to communicate, the next-generation changes according to the cultural values that evolve. The difference is quite normal and even healthy. Languages refuse to stay in play, so language evolution is constant. The question is how they evolve; how can someone alter their native language? So let’s have a look at it!

HOW AND WHY DO LANGUAGES EVOLVE?

A language is maintained and transmitted by speaking and writing, which is a means to evolve the language. Languages are preserved and transmitted by acts of speaking and writing, and this is also how languages evolve. The children’s linguistic experiences are summarized by the mental grammar that is formed by the utterances of one generation. The next generation, in its turn, is subject to a new wave of utterances based on this grammar.

The process continues, and that’s how the language evolves. Furthermore, a language changes when the speakers interact with a new population, and that is how social group adopt their distinctive norms—understanding generational differences for competitive success. So as we have discussed how language evolves, let’s talk about why? Here are a few reasons why language evolution occurs:

Language learning

Language evolves as it is passed on from one generation to the next. Each individual recreates the language based on how they received language from their parents or any other member of the speech community and then perceived it in their way. The experience of every individual is unique, and the language replication become imperfect; that’s why the result is different for different individual. The language learning process causes systematic drift, generation by generation. Fifth-generation languages are used mainly in artificial intelligence research. Read this to know what is the role of a language interpreter. One statement in a high-level programming language will, on average, extend into multiple machine language instructions.

Social differences

Language is an essential aspect of society, and social groups adopt distinctive norms of dress, adornment, gesture, and so forth. A language becomes distinctive through vocabulary, morphology, pronunciation, syntax contractions, and more.

Language contact

People often migrate from one place to another for so many reasons, which brings the speakers of one language in contact with that of another language. Some people become bilingual in their childhood, while others learn a second language in adulthood. When one language comes in contact with the other one, it often borrows words, construction, sound, etc.

Natural language processes

Assimilation, syncope, dissimilation, and apocopate are some basic processes produced due to casual and rapid speech. The repetition thus makes it conventionalized. Therefore, a slower and more careful speech is delivered—the word’s meaning changes due to the conventionalization of processes such as metaphor or metonymy.

Language evolution becomes a significant reason for the language gap between generations, but why? Let’s cover this quickly!

LANGUAGE GAP BETWEEN GENERATIONS

Have you heard some adult saying, “We don’t even speak the same language,” to a teenager? You might find it funny, but actually, it is way more than that. It clearly shows how fast the generation gap is growing. Texting and other messaging applications are just a part of who they are and how they connect because they grew up with cell phones/mobile phones – even with the growth of digital technology. While some may claim that modern forms of communication have come full circle, from cave drawings to emojis, there is no disputing that today’s communication possibilities are diverse.

There is no doubt or wonder that language gaps exist between generations. Every generation develops its dialect and has a unique identity. People generate a unique vocabulary of the dialect, and gradually language variants evolve. People can communicate vocally and nonverbally — with spoken and body language – in face-to-face conversations. Although language skills such as shorthand lessons were taught in many high schools over 20 years ago, pupils now seldom see or hear of such forms. Throughout history, the transitions from each stage of life have remained consistent.

The language gap brings us a parallel gap between generations, and it’s become difficult to communicate. The language generation gap is visible clearly throughout society, which creates complications in day-to-day communication at home, school, or the workplace. When a new generation defines itself as something unique and different from the old one, they adopt a new language and slang and allow the generation to develop separate division from the previous one.

While fourth-generation programming language is intended to create specific programs, fifth-generations programming languages are designed to allow the computer to solve a problem without the intervention of a programmer. However, fourth-generation language (4GLs) seem to sever connections with the prior generation because they are nonprocedural. Some researchers state that 4GLs are a subset of domain-specific languages.

Machine language is called low-level language because it is closely related to machines. Machine language and the internal architecture of the computer system on which symbolic programming languages are employed are inextricably linked. C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, and JavaScript are some examples. Any computer programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an upgrade over third-generation programming languages is referred to as a fourth-generation programming language (4GL) (3GL). A generation gap is defined as the different thoughts and worldviews held by different generational cohorts.

We have already discussed the reasons and causes of language evolution, but what are the results of language changes?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN LANGUAGE CHANGES?

Splitting up of population causes language change and the first thing that occurs as a result of the change is dialect divergence. Well, a dialect divergence is something that we see between American and British English, similar to the French of France and Quebec and the difference between New World and Old World Spanish and Portuguese. The emergence of separate languages, which began 500 years earlier in the Germanic languages, is seen over a more extended period in the contemporary Romance languages. Both of these families are a member of the Indo-European language family.

The basic idea behind language classifications is that dialects are mutually intelligible. In contrast, languages are not, so political considerations can affect whether a particular speech variety is considered to be a language or a dialect. Even though nearly all Hispanics say it is essential that future generations of Hispanics speak Spanish, Spanish proficiency and use are lower in later generations, while English use is higher. Generation Y has a way of interaction that differs from previous generations.

Other than that, language is something constantly changing to reflect our lives, cultures, and experiences. Language is a culture; change in language cause change in our cultures and, ultimately, our lives. Change is good and healthy, and when it comes to language change, it brings us new and innovative ideas, technologies, and inventions. We get to know about things we never know.

Parents and children may also misunderstand one another because of cultural differences in expectations for parent and child behavior and family relationships. Nonverbal communication and cultural differences: Issues for face-to-face communication over the internet.

Sometimes the new words combine two old words; for instance, the blog fuses the words web and log. It’s not just the words that change; how we use them shifts as well. The old words get new meanings when shifting occurs. The shift from foolish to shy is an example of a world shift.

Have to notice any change in the language you speak? The internet has a lot of recent word shifts; mouse, web, and surf are a few examples. You should check, it is an enjoyable activity.