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Suppose you could time-travel a thousand years into the future. Do you think you’d understand English speakers living right where you do now? Linguists have different opinions about this.
Keep in mind that a thousand years ago, the language of England was Old English. It was also called Anglo-Saxon. Here’s a sample from one of the earliest pieces of writing in Old English. It’s from a long poem called Beowulf: “Nu ic, Beowulf, pec... secg betsta, je for sunu wylle freogan on ferhpe.” What does it say? “Now, Beowulf, thee of heroes best, I shall heartily love as mine own, my son.”
Clearly, English has changed a lot in the past thousand years. It has also changed in the past hundred years. Languages are always changing. That’s because people are always changing. Some changes are as simple as new words being made up for new things. E-mail is a good example of that. Other changes are as huge as going from Old English to Middle English to modern English.
