Drift (linguistics)

A drift in linguistics is the slow change in a language or a dialect , which can lead to the development of an independent language.

Drift is an important factor in language emergence . Although the language changes seem random at first, they often go in a certain direction. Examples are the sound shifts .

A linguistic change can also spread from a specific area and gradually become a characteristic phenomenon. For example, the word leek is currently becoming more widespread instead of the word leek . There is a tendency for the German language to take up more and more English words. The developing usage of language also knows a drift in the meaning of individual words in the direction of narrowing or expanding meaning .