How Language Changes—Sound Change

A human language is always changing slowly into another one. This is partly because it is natural for sounds to morph into different ones over time. Sounds often change to become more akin to ones before or after them. Sounds at the ends of words tend to wear away. Vowels shift around in the mouth. In English, the last two processes are why made is pronounced as it is: the e dropped off and an “ah” sound changed to an “ay” sound. Sound change also creates languages where a syllable’s tone determines its meaning, as in Chinese.