In the English language alone, there are lists miles long of words that have evolved to have different meanings. If someone from one hundred years ago, for example, were to hear the word “sick” in the context of something being “awesome” or “great”, they would be completely confused. The following words are only a few of the hundreds of words in the English language that have evolved in everyday conversations to mean something completely different, or have taken on new meanings in addition to what they meant in the past: “cool”, “sweet”, “tight”, “rad”, “cellular”, “computer”, “twitter”, “satellite”, “awesome”, “google”, and “fair” just to name a few.

As the above examples indicate, many parts of speech are affected by language evolution. These changes come about for a variety of reasons, but probably the most prominent factor is the changing technological world.

When told to “Google” something, what would someone from 1911 actually do?

Of course, not only do languages in their entirety evolve constantly with time, but different regions that speak the same language (such as Australian English vs. British English vs. United States English) gradually become different too. The same language can grow apart in two ways, the first of which is developing different words to express the same meaning and the second is developing different associations with the same word.

Luckily, translators and interpreters have several options. The first of which is to identify which fields they will be working in and keep themselves updated in both languages on those fields. This can be done through both reading and listening to the news in all languages that they work in. The second option is to converse on a regular basis with native speakers of both languages and try to identify the colloquialisms, slang and new words used. Additionally, there are numerous sources online that offer slang explanations that can help anyone stay updated. Read more.

See: SBWire