{ history influencing language }

Saw my Russian grandma today and had a short but sweet conversation about language. She loves talking about how her mother, my great-grandmother, was a philologist and adored language (not to mention spoke over five fluently). No big shoes to fill here, right?

Grandma Vera poignantly pointed out that history has always been the most influential factor on language. Feel free to draw your own conclusions and opinions about the validness of that statement, but the woman does have a point, and it's a fascinating one at that.

"Think about how language was affected 10-15 years ago by the common use of the computer. Now we're always saying, 'Fax me, text me, blog me, shmog me,' and everyone is using their blueberry...BlackBerry...bread-berry..."

Yep, bread-berry. I told her she'd better buy the rights to that before RIM does...or worse, Steve Jobs.