How Language Changes—Many Directions

The first language has become 6,000 because processes of language change can take place in many directions, explainable rather than predictable. In each offshoot group, the original language will change in different ways, until new languages have emerged. Latin split in this way into the Romance languages, as sound changes, grammaticalizations, and meaning changes proceeded differently in each area the Romans brought Latin. This kind of family tree development is a worldwide phenomenon.