I haven't ate my lunch yet.

 

My husband and I were looking for an exit from the airport so we could catch a taxi, Lyft, or Uber. We stopped to rest a minute. Two airline attendants with their arms full of luggage, cups of soda, and brown paper bags, stood nearby. A custodian approached them, mumbled something to one of the attendants, and reached for her paper bag.

 The flight attendant turned around and held tightly to the bag. “No! I haven’t ate my lunch yet.”

 When did the attendant decide I haven’t ate was the preferred way to communicate? She spoke with such spontaneity that we knew “haven’t ate” was her customary way of speaking.

 Is the English language decaying?As we simplify our verbs in absurd ways that make little sense when we stop to think, are we causing our language to become more fragmented? Is English decadent? Is English decaying, i. e., falling apart? We no longer follow rules of grammar when we communicate.

 Another description of what is happening to our language is change. No one can deny our language is changing. Sometimes transformation is slow, sometimes it is fast, but it always takes time.

 Here’s the question. Are we transforming our language in a positive or negative way? Is it falling apart or are we merely rearranging it? Do we speak according to rules, or do the rules explain our speech? With the passing of time, language becomes simpler. It seems ironic that as mankind becomes more capable of inventing complicated scientific systems, we find ourselves losing the nuances of our way of speaking and writing.

 Whatever the situation is, we would be wise not to throw ourselves into the current of change so fast that we sound uneducated.