How does language change?

Language is something that changes; the only languages that do not change are dead ones, such as Latin. The changes that take place in English are gradual. Most of them are barely noticeable from one year to the next, but they are taking place just the same. Words change their meanings over the year; new words are invented or taken over from other languages; old words sometimes die out. The sounds of speech gradually alter. You may. notice that your grandparents pronounce some words differently from you, and if you watch old black-and-white British films on television you will probably notice differences in the language. Over a very long period -- hundreds of years -- these small changes add up to very big ones.
   If we look back to the earliest written English, long ago before the days of King Alfred the Great, we find what seems at first sight a foreign language, so much has English changed in the
course of twelve centuries.