Sometimes we giggle when someone mispronounces a word or get frustrated when someone has bad grammar, but why is that?

Language, according to its definition by several dictionaries, is the method of human communication, either spoken or written. It's simple, you might say—language is straightforward, but it is really not. Many people do not fully understand or cannot wrap their heads around the idea that language is a changing process, which is the point of my article this week.

Modern society is so concerned with preserving the correct form of English; it is not just the English-speaking world, but it is present across almost every major language on earth. The practice or idea that a form of a language or a language, in general, is superior to other forms is called language prescription.

Language prescription is around us every day; we are taught since grade school that there is a certain way to speak and to write. Sometimes we giggle when someone mispronounces a word or get frustrated when someone has bad grammar, but why is that? We are taught at home, at school, and in our communities that we are supposed to speak a certain way, or we are taught at school that in order to make our writing elegant we must add all these dots, colons and squiggly lines, etc. In other words, society is trying to standardize the language.

They are resisting change—they being teachers, parents, friends, basically everyone! Language prescription leads to efforts of standardization, hence why Spanish has a national academy dedicated to preserving the Spanish language. The French also have an academy to preserve French and fight against Franglais, which is a form of French that borrows many words and idioms from English. You see? There seems to be a fear of language evolving by the entire world.

You might ask, well, is there proof that language indeed changes? Yes! If you're talking about English. Old Modern English was totally different from today's English. Take a look at Shakespeare's plays—the language is totally different: the vocabulary, the grammar, etc. This entire dilemma with attempting to preserve language while making one form of language the superior form is only fairly recent; it all began in the times of the Enlightenment. L'Academie Francaise (French Academy) was founded in 1635 and The Real Academia Española was founded in 1713. If you really analyze, Shakespeare wrote most of his plays and work before the Enlightenment took to play in European culture. What if these academies or what if society was as paranoid about language as we are today, would we still speak Shakespearean English?

The standardization of a language is definitely not a terrible idea; it could help with unifying a community, but to what extent should we allow it? George Orwell gives an amazing example in "1984" of how standardized language could become, his example being Newspeak. Oh! You're exaggerating! Well, maybe. Newspeak is indeed a controlled language by a totalitarian government, but if you really see, doesn't that already exist within the academies? Yes, they're not controlling the language, but maybe it's because they do not have enough power to. What if they did?

In short, we see language as a non-changeable element. We see it as an outlet of formality and just formality, and we are scared of the downfall of language. It is difficult to escape because we are taught language prescription unconsciously at such a young age. The solution might be unknown and there might never be a solution to the growth of language prescription, but it does help to become aware of the problem.