What’s on the How Languages Change poster
12 entries in 3 groups.
The mechanisms, all attested across every documented language.
- Sound change: Assimilation — sounds become more alike, Deletion — sounds are lost, Gr…
- Grammatical change: Grammaticalisation — words become grammar, 'going to' → 'gonna' a…
- Lexical change: Borrowing from contact, Coining for new things, Meaning drift, Obsole…
Every feature now considered correct was once an innovation somebody objected to. Shakespeare's grammar would fail a modern exam.
Questions about the How Languages Change poster
- What’s on the How Languages Change poster?
- 12 entries in 3 groups. The mechanisms, all attested across every documented language. Sound change: Assimilation — sounds become more alike, Deletion — sounds are lost, Gr…; Grammatical change: Grammaticalisation — words become grammar, 'going to' → 'gonna' a…; Lexical change: Borrowing from contact, Coining for new things, Meaning drift, Obsole…. Every feature now considered correct was once an innovation somebody objected to. Shakespeare's grammar would fail a modern exam.
- Who is the How Languages Change poster for?
- How Languages Change belongs to the Languages section rather than to a school year, because languages is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning how languages work can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the How Languages Change poster?
- Change is not decay. It is the only thing that distinguishes a living language from a dead one. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so How Languages Change belongs on the wall where that languages work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with How Languages Change?
- Bilingualism, Grammatical Case and Code-Switching sit alongside How Languages Change in the Languages section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.BilingualismGrammatical CaseCode-Switching
- Is the How Languages Change poster free to download and print?
- Yes. How Languages Change downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Languages section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the How Languages Change poster print at?
- How Languages Change is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of How Languages Change loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside How Languages Change on the same wall.
Browse every Languages poster, or start from the full catalogue.