Laura Vegas Cruz

EEII, Group 320

Language Change and Variation
TASK 12
WHAT HAVE I LEARNT?
In this course, we have studied so many interesting points which have help us to
increase our knowledge about English. Principally, we have studied history of English
since Old English and its change over time. I strongly think that this study has allowed
us to understand current English in a better way because changes which have been
produced in this language come from the development of this society. Thanks to
language, we can learn a lot of facts about its historical context, which also allows us to
understand the current society of England. On the other hand, I think that this deep
study about the three great periods of English language can be very useful for our future
if we want to specialise in linguistics.
First of all, I have found so interesting why English is not a phonetic language, such as
Italian or Spanish because it is a fact which a lot of people ask me when I say that I am
studying this degree. So many people which start studying English think that it is a very
complex language because they say that “it is read differently to its written form” and it
is fantastic to be able to answer this question. This topic has been very common in
conversations about English phonology because it is one of the most difficult parts of
this language. However, having studied Great Vowel Shift allows us to know why
English has a great amount of sounds because it has been one of the biggest changes in
this language. Therefore, thanks to this course, we can know the evolution of vowel
system in English.
Nevertheless, people also say that “Spanish is much easier to learn than English because
it is a phonetic language”. But actually, there is no language which could be cent
percent phonetic because every variation has different ways of pronouncing it and there
are some letters which have been developed and they are not always pronounced the
same way or there is no distinction between them. Now, I know different answers to
these common questions about a language.
To sum up, I have learnt very interesting things about English linguistic changes which
will be very useful for my future. I think this course has been very stimulating to
students who want to specialize in linguistics and it has managed to have a different
perspective about languages and their history, formation and variations. In addition, this
course has helped me to understand better the current English due to the study of the
different changes which can suffer a language.