Languages change over time. While it is usually small shifts that occur without most people even noticing, those all add up to the point where it eventually becomes unintelligible.

Even within one person’s lifetime, things will change in some fairly significant ways. This is why older generations often comment on how the youngest generations speak, and usually not in a positive way.

While those youngsters think they are cool today, they will undoubtedly be lamenting the way their grandchildren or great-grandchildren talk sometime in the next 50 years.

If you go back even further, say to the 1800s, the differences will be even more dramatic. While 225 years is a long time to any individual, it isn’t much time at all when it comes to the shift in culture and language.

So, reading a book from the 1800s or listening to someone speak like they did at the time would be pretty easy for the most part, but it would be very clear that that way of speaking comes from a long time ago.

If you take another step back, to the 15th century, for example, things would likely get quite difficult. While some of the words might sound familiar, many of them would have changed so much that the average person would not understand their meaning at all.

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, English went through what is called the Great Vowel Shift. It is explained by the Encyclopedia Britannica in the following way:

“a chain of causally related upward shifts in the vertical position of the tongue – from low to middle and from middle to high – during the articulation of long vowels.”

In a blog post about the topic, linguist Asya Pereltsvaig said:

“During the Great Vowel Shift, the two highest long vowels became diphthongs, and the other five underwent an increase in tongue height with one of them coming to the front.”

For the English majors out there, it was illustrated in this way:

“Thus, /i:/ became /aj/ (as in child and rise) and /u:/ became /aw/ (as in loud and mouth). Also, /e:/ became /i:/ (as in three and feet) and /o:/ became /u:/ (as in good and goose). Furthermore, lower version of /e:/ became /e:/ and later /i:/ (as in speak or beam) and the lower version of /o:/ became /o:/ and later /ow/ (as in holy and stone). Finally, /a:/ became /æ:/ and later /ej/ (as in name).”

If you aren’t sure what that means exactly, then you can assume that you would have even more trouble  understanding what people were saying during that time.

If you had a time machine accident and ended up back during those times permanently, you might have an easier time picking up the way people spoke than you would if you were trying to learn an entirely new language, but that isn’t saying much.

Looking forward, one might wonder how the English language will continue to evolve, and whether what we say and write today will even make sense to potential readers 500 years in the future.

Thought that was fascinating? Here’s another story you might like: Why You’ll Never See A Great White Shark In An Aquarium