I was reading a book earlier today, suprising I know. New York times called it a classic, and that got me thinking….

We’ve all read, or attempted to read a classic book from the 1800’s or some such era. We all have made fun of the silly and archaic speech styles used at that time. Dost thou hence intend to line to thine friend about thine doings? 

Language, speech patterns in particular have changed alot in 100-200 years. Reading seventeenth century literature hurts our brains, and requires extra focus to comprehend, yet those of us who enjoy reading can blow through entire modern day scifi and fantasy books, or whatever fancies your ship. However, to the people of that period, the language was an everyday thing, just like ours is today. What would they think of how we talk, and write in this day and age? How much trouble would they have understanding us? How different will our language be in another century or two?

When I think of the way language is changing I don’t see a decline into primitiveness, rather I see a dive into simplicity. One can say something much faster and precise today compared to our founding fathers. How much more skilled will our children be at communication? If they even use it, they may discover telepathy by then. If speech remains though, what will it sound like? 

The thing that comes to mind the most is lolspeech. It’s called something else professionally, but it doesn’t come to mind at the moment. However, lolspeech is more of a degredation of the same words, the future will actually change words, condense them into the most precise form of communication possible. Atleast, that is my belief and hope. It may be similiar to lolspeech in that it uses letters to represent ideas, and furthur simplifies the language. 

So that is my question to you, what do you think language will sound like in a centuries time? Do you think we will degrade to cavemen style and come full circle? or will we simple become so efficient at communicating that we need not even say a word?

Nathanael Crane.