The Social Trigger and Language Evolution

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Sally Kohn is a socio linguist, which means she studies how social triggers and underlying linguistic tendencies interact. She says class plays a huge role in shaping language; during the Middle English periodclass was seminal in forming modern English that we speak today. The lower class spoke English and the upper class spoke French because of unregulated language change without upward pressure on keeping it standard or codifying it. That's really what formed the modern English of today.

Language changes, and that's not a bad thing! This week, Adam is joined by sociolinguist Valerie Fridland to uncover how language is much more malleable than we're led to believe, and how the resistance against new slang often disguises an attempt to limit the influence of marginalized communities. Pick up Valerie's book at factuallypod.com/books

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