Tower and Town, August 2026 (view the full edition)Perspective On LanguageImagine you own a classic car. You drive it whenever you can, but eventually you buy another classic, the first becoming unused, uncared for, rusty and broken. However, if you don’t stop using it, it will continue to work, and you can still drive it. This is like the English language, where some words become unused and forgotten, but if they are used more, they will return. In the past, the English language has gone through various changes, from old English to modern English, and everything in between. During the old English era, the United Kingdom was invaded numerous times, each invader bringing their own languages and words, making up the English language as we know it today. Take a word like shivelight. There is a high probability you don’t know what that means. That’s because this word has been left in the depths of time, uncared for and forgotten like that classic car. Shivelight are the rays of sunshine that pierce through the canopy of a wood. A useful word depicting something so beautiful, yet entirely unused. I personally think that words like this should be renewed and brought back into the use that they so rightfully deserve. Now, the question arises: what’s next for language change? Seeing as man words relating to nature have been left behind, I expect that more will unfortunately follow, such as mildew, pasture and copse. However, I hope that these words would be preserved as stated in the famous ‘crumbling castle’ metaphor: At some point, the castle was perfect and beautiful. Over time, people stopped living in and using the castle, and work had to be put in to preserve its original perfection. If we don’t put work to preserve the castle, over time it will crumble into a ruin. I feel that if we can put in enough work to preserve a castle, we can put in enough work to preserve some words. Oliver Thomas (Year 8) |