A group of young adults engaging in conversation, wearing casual yellow and brown.

Language change spreads through people, not dictionaries

A new form counts as change when a subgroup starts using it and other speakers adopt it until it becomes normal. Change starts as social variation.

Language Change: Why society steers the way we speak

Non-binary pronouns 'they them' displayed with letter tiles on a pink backdrop.

Prestige can pull pronunciation around

Speakers may move toward features with social prestige or away from ones with negative prestige. Those trends can even reverse later.

Language Change: Why society steers the way we speak

DeepSwipeHomeApp StoreGoogle Play