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Hello, everyone! I’m Florencia Rocío Casamayor (Com. A). I’m a translator and this year I’m taking this course to continue the teaching track. I also work at two private academies teaching kids and teens. Regarding the first question, I believe English is a living language because it is spoken by native speakers as well as non-native speakers. Moreover, a clear indication that English is a living language is that it undergoes constant change to accommodate the needs of its speakers. As regards the second question, languages change because of many reasons. Language may change because of a period of language variation. If there are two or more variants of a linguistic variable and most of the speech community ends up using one variant, that variant will prevail and language change will take place. Language may also change because of historical or social events that push the language to evolve in order to express new realities. Language also changes according to the region a speaker lives in, for example, Rioplatense Spanish is different from the Spanish spoken in Spain. Languages can also change when they come in contact with each other be it face-to-face or online. All in all, these are only some factors that may trigger language change. What do you think?

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Activity 1.1

Hi, everyone!
I´m Guadalupe Arias Sonzini.
This will be my fourth year studying in the faculty of languages to become an English teacher. I´ve chosen to study this at university because since I was little, I knew that I wanted to teach when I grew older.

I do believe that English is a living language because it is spoken by lots of people (natives and non natives) and because it is constantly changing and adapting to new situations from our ever-changing world.

Languages change due to many different factors: historical, cultural, social, geographical factors, among others.
Nowadays, in our globalized world different languages get in contact (through the internet, interational trade, people traveling) and thus "suffer" changes. For example, by borrowing words from other languages. Morover, if there are big changes in the world, such us technological progress, or a pandemic, that will lead to the creation of new words for things that had not existed before and need to be named.

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Hello everyone! My name is Josefina Cussa, I’ve been a student at the School of Languages since 2018. I’m two finals away from getting my degree as an English-Spanish translator and I’m currently taking a variety of courses from the teaching track. I really enjoyed Linguistics II, so I’m confident I’ll greatly enjoy this course.

Regarding the questions, I believe that English is a living language to a great extent. As Thorne (1997) explains, “change is at the heart of a living language”: English is alive because it is constantly being rethought and reformulated for the purposes of communication. The fact that English is a global language means that it is constantly in contact with many speakers whose mother tongue is other than English; these speakers use English in contexts such as trade, business, diplomacy, among others, and appropriate it to fit their communicative needs.

Languages change because people need them to. It’s not that people change language (even if it’s not a conscious decision that happens overnight) just because they want to. There are social circumstances that influence language change, such as globalization, migration, social change, geographical location, among others. Change, as I said before, does not happen overnight; it takes many years, if not decades, for it to happen. Particularly, changes in the structural subsystems of the language (morphology, syntax) take the longest to be introduced. Changes in the lexicon of a language happen way faster as speakers need to find new words to refer to new things, processes, events, etc. Contrary to popular belief, academies, such as RAE, do not change our language. They can’t tell us how we should speak; they simply codify languages with their own interests in mind. The real agents of change are the speakers of the language who adapt and transform it as they need to, not without reason and not necessarily while being aware of the part they are playing in it.

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Hello!
I'm Justina Casini. I started my journey in the School of Languages since 2019. Besides studying to be a teacher, I'm in the translation track. I'm looking forward to learning about the history of language.
Concerning the first question proposed, English remains as a living language since it is constantly under certain changes in order to meet the needs of native and non-native users. As Sarah Thorne (1997) states, "Language cannot exist on its own since it is a product of the people who speak and write it daily, and therefore it develops to meet their needs." Linguistic changes have provided women an opportunity to reflect their new roles in today's society. For example, the lexical item "businessperson" has been introduced in order to substitute "businessman" in which women are rendered invisible.
Regarding the second question, languages change because of certain triggers: historical factors, cultural transmission, social factors, geographical location, the use of different registers, and the development of English as a world language.

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Hello, everybody!
I'm Valentina Romero and I have been studying at the School of Languages since 2019. I'm actually from San Luis but I live in Córdoba since I started to attend university. Like some of my classmates, I am also taking some translation subjects.

I also agree with my classmates, English is a living language. The adaptability of the English language to meet people's needs shows not only its vitality but also its flexibility to change according to the English users. Especially the English language has been undergoing changes for native speakers and for non-native speakers. For instance, English as a Lingua Franca is adopted just for non-native speakers to communicate in certain fields, such as business or science.

Languages change due to historical, cultural, social or geographical factors. An example of a social factor that triggers language changes is the use of slanguage by teenagers. This particular use of the language influences the use of words only known and used by teens, such as "dodgy", which means "unreliable".

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Hi! My name is Aylen Mayorga, and I’m from Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz. I’m currently taking most subjects of the last year of the translation track and taking only this one from the teaching track. I took this decision, since I’ve heard really nice things about this subject and was recommended to me many times! So, I’m excited.

As the majority of the contributions I’ve read, I also believe English is a living language, mainly because as one may very well notice, the English that we speak today is very different from its earliest form of Old English, that is, we have concrete proof that the English language has not remained the same with the passing of time. As my classmates have mentioned, English is one of the most spoken languages in the world, spoken by several people, native and non-native. The English language is “alive” because is constantly changing in order to fulfill the communicative needs of its respective speakers and reflect the society in which they live in. This stand can be linked to the question of why do languages change, since they change because they are a reflection of society and at the same time, as the author mentioned, language is “a product” of that same society, both of them are constantly changing, and as far as I’m concerned, they both serve each other.

As mentioned by the author and my classmates, a few of the factors that influence or alter words and structures within a language are social, historical, cultural and geographic factors. One of the cases that caught my attention the most was one related to social attitudes. In order to show how a language can change according to the demands of society the author takes the example of the recurrent questioning of the use of sexist language. Finally, I think that as we study English, and because of the constant exposure that we have to this language, it is relatively easier for us to notice it undergo change, since we are constantly analyzing it and seeing from an inside but also from an outside perspective.

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Hello everyone! I apologize for my delay in the contribution to this padlet. My name is Agustina Carandino and I started the School of Languages to become a translator, but then I decided to become a teacher. I give private lessons in the afternoon while in the morning I attend the university trying to finish my career haha.

Regarding the first question, I agree with all of you that say English is a living language as, taking Sara Thorne definition, it is widely spoken and constantly developing to fit the needs of speech communities.
Secondly, languages change because of multiple factors as you have mentioned (historical, cultural, scientifical, geographical, differences in age/ registers, etc.) but first of all becuse the reality changes over time and with its change a new language is needed to describe it, for example, if whe think about the role of women in the workforce some words have been introduced to reprecent them such as officer instead of policemen, firefighter instead of fireman, etc.

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Hello everyone! I apologize for my delay in contributing to this padlet. My name is Federica Buckmeier, and I've been a student at the Faculty of Languages since 2020. I'm from Córdoba Capital.
Here are my answers to the questions:

Is English a living language? Why/Why not?

Yes, English is a living language. A living language is a language that is still evolving and changing over time, and English certainly fits that definition. Over the years, English has borrowed words from other languages, created new words, and changed its grammar and pronunciation. English is spoken by millions of people around the world, and it continues to adapt and evolve as it is used in new contexts and by new generations.

Why do languages change?

Languages change for a variety of reasons, including cultural and social factors, technological advancements, and contact with other languages. Some of the most common reasons for language change include:
Borrowing words from other languages, simplifying grammar, sound changes, social and cultural factors, among others.

Overall, language change is a natural process that occurs as languages adapt to new environments and are used in new ways over time. A language that does not evolve is a death tongue.

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Axel Haefeli, I'm studying to be a teacher. I'm 22 years old.

English is a living language because there are over 500 million English native speakers worldwide.

Languages may change due to several factors. Among them, for instance, is language contact situations in which two, or more, languages get in contact and influence each other or only one of them is influenced. By doing so, their vocabulary may be enriched or new phonemes might be added.

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Hi, everyone! I'm Carolina Pedraza. It's a pleasure to share this subject's journey with you! I started studying at the School of Languages in 2012 and finished the translation path. I've been working in a translation agency since 2020 (first as PM, now as Team Lead) and as a freelance translator for two agencies. I'm going for the Licenciatura now!

Regarding the first question, "Is English a living language? Why/ Why not?", I believe that English like all other languages is a living language. There is ample evidence of the transformation of the English language over the centuries. Moreover, there is not only one variety or way of speaking English but there are many across regions and across social groups. This is an indicator that language change is inevitable and a common feature of all languages and I believe that we should not fight language change but embrace it as it reflects the evolution of humanity through language.

As for the second question, "Why do languages change?", language change is related to every language's feature of being a conventionalized system of communication. Such conventions are highly unconscious but still agreed upon by the linguistic community. Some factors, inside or outside the language system, may have an impact on such agreements and therefore on language change. Some factors outside the language system could be language contact situations arising from massive migration, globalization, war, and political conflicts - these are examples of historical and cultural factors. Social factors such as the age, background education, gender, place of birth, etc. of the people constituting a social group of speakers of the language can also trigger language change. Finally, from inside the language it is quite natural for phonological change to occur.

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Hi, everyone! My name is Facundo Cazon.
I live in Córdoba since 2020, but actually I am from Jujuy. This is my fourth year studying in the School of Languages, and I am both in the teaching and the translation track.
Regarding the first question, I consider that English is indeed a living language. First, it is spoken by native speakers, which means that people are still learning as their mother tongue. In addition to that, English is also under constant change and is subject to processes of adaptation to the ever-changing world of its speakers. As regards the second question, there are several reasons which can lead to changes in languages to happen. Some of these factors which can be mentioned are historical, cultural, social, and geographical factors.

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Hello, everyone! I'm finally catching up with the virtual classroom activities (sorry for the delay!). My name is Romina Giménez, I'm 31 years old and when I started in the School of Languages, I wanted to become a translator but I quickly realised that I liked teaching more, so here I am.

I've read all your contributions to this padlet and I agree, English is a living language because it is spoken worldwide by native and non-native speakers, and is constantly changing to adapt to their speakers need in this globalised world. As regards the second question, languages change for many reasons, including historical, social, cultural, geografical factors. One of the examples that Sara Thorne mentions in the text that really called my attention is the social change that was introduced by our questioning about gender roles and the language that reproduces sexist representations of male and female stereotypical attitudes and expectations in society. The need of diferent terms to refer to males, females (and all in between) gave birth to the use of more inclusive terminology, as "chairperson" instead of "chairman". To see how a "simple" change can bring recongition to several groups of people is really interesting and reflects the power that language can have.

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Act. 1.1
Hi, everyone! My name is Lourdes Luna, I've been studying in the faculty of languages since 2016. I am both in the teaching and the translation track.
As regards the first question, I believe that English is a living language because it is spoken and recognized worlwide, and also it is constantly changing to fit the need of their speech community.
As we have seen so far, languages definitely change due to different factors: cultural, social, historical, geographical, etc. And these changes bring about some consequences, such as borrowings, new lexical items, morphological changes, etc.

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Hello everyone! My name is Ailén Baigorria and I've been doing the teaching track in the faculty of languages since 2018. I'm currently working as a teacher in a language school.
As regards the first question, and after all we've seen so far in the subject, I believe that English is a living language. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that English has become a lingua franca and it is spoken in all the world by both native and non-native speakers. As a consequence, English is constantly changing to adapt to the needs of its speakers.

As for the second question, languages do change and they change because of several reasons such as geographical location, cultural and social factors, historical background, etc. We've seen so far that all these factors contribute to language changing, for instance geographical factors can influence the phonological subsystem of the language as well as the vocabulary one.