How does language change?

A historical linguist discusses some of the ways that language can change over time, with examples from English and related languages.

Related videos:

[mysterioso]

I've devoured an incredible amount of your videos over the last few days and I just want to say thank you. Your channel, in my mind, is a great example of the best that internet videos have to offer; bite-sized (usually, anyway) chunks of highly specialized information that would otherwise be hard to find for the average person. I found your videos through your recent discussion of Ullr but have found videos like this where you talk about language in a more broad sense infinitely more fascinating. Thank you for all of your work! I plan on picking up a copy of your translation of the Poetic Edda soon :D

[Helvetorment]

I love those general linguistics videos. Thank you for sharing all this information.
;-)

[ByzCathGAA]

My major in college was Linguistic-Anthropology. However, I changed it due to pressure from my family. Watching your videos remind me of the joy I had in my linguistics courses. [I miss those classes]. Such a joy to watch, every video (even though Scandinavian was not my linguistics focus).

[haze-the-alt]

The usage of "like" in the social groups I take part in results from a demarcation between a direct quote or a summary. If I said "My boss said [x]" it indicates I am quoting my boss verbatim. If I said "My boss was like [x]" my friends would know I'm summarizing or even embellishing the scenario. Thus, "said" is more of synonym to "like" rather than a one to one.

Love your videos, you probably know this ^ already but I still found it interesting to add. :)

[Fishhnchips]

I just found you a couple days ago and love your videos! "language never really reaches a state of perfect logic"

[BrianFaure]

This video is EXACTLY what I was looking for, thanks a bunch.

[Turalcar]

11:13 What about irregularization? E.g. "sneak/snuck/sneaked" is relatively recent. "yeet/yote/yeeted" is entirely new. "think/thought/thunk" is also sometimes used.

[douglasbark]

I am loving all these videos Dr. Crawford. Thank you so much for making them!

[StormKidification]

That subtle book plug was funny as hell!

[henrylarson]

I am planning on going to CU and want to study linguistics, I hope I get to see you there!!!

[leagillact-o-graphy]

😝😝😝 Hearing an established university professor in a suit say: “I was like” looked and sounded so funny!

[TheKvin]

Very happy to hear about the new tidings! New job, new book, I wish you the best of luck with them, you're awesome <3

[南都隆幸-tt]

I really like this presentation. Thank you, Doctor Crawford.

[kainech]

Thank you for your videos. I could not afford a monthly Patreon, but I did buy your book and recommended it to others. You're doing us a service by making this publicly available.

[zombiesblvd]

Id say I wish you were still teaching here in SoCal but I wouldn't wanna wish such a thing on such a brilliant teacher. Im using the method you taught for writing Skaldic poetry on an assignment tomorrow. Thanks a ton!

[virioguidostipa]

Your channel is extremely interesting. Thanks!

[Nikelaos_Khristianos]

Latin also had an interesting feature which the modern English word "absent" still retains. A related Latin cognate "absunt" essentially had an opposite, if you like to think about it this way, which was "adsunt", literally "here are" to mean "they are present". There's also a singular variation being "abest" and "adest", what's quite neat is you can see the words "sunt" and "est", equivalent of "are" and "is". Latin can be very mathematical, but English only retained "absent" and now has "present" to be the formal opposite of "absent".

[sebaspignataro]

All this stuff is awesomely interesting. Particulary the thing with the regularization, I can imagine that and compare it with a similar process in castilian, specially when kids learn the irregular form of verbs conjugation for the first time. Thank you Dr. as usual!

[garethmaccoll]

Another great video, thanks. No offense to my Middle Welsh professor but your explanation of these phenomena finally made them perfectly clear to me, whereas before my understanding was slightly patchy. I'm almost certain the umlaut phenomenon is the same thing as what my professor termed 'vowel elevation' when discussing Welsh plural forms. Fascinating stuff. Thanks again

[shamsuddinbuttable]

In fact, this is very useful and very insightful!