Every person is unique. We all look different, think different, feel different and speak different. Every person has at least one friend. They treat that person differently to say, a stranger walking past them on the street. When you talk to that friend, occasionally a bit of slang is thrown in and maybe over time you switch words around that disobey the basic rules of English language and literature to make speaking or conveying information a little easier or maybe even they just felt like it. This could be a one off thing or if it repeated enough between people it could be considered Idiomatic. I would go so far as to hypothesis that ” the way we text says a lot about our personalities” and that “the way we communicate says a lot about our time”. And that together these two things have improved the way we communicate in 2020.
Idiomatic language is essentially personalised language. In the words of the Cambridge English dictionary, it is a style of expression in writing, speech, or music that is typical of a particular period, person, or group. Today, the change in the English idiom is being driven largely by us, the youth and texting, tweeting and social media but some text idioms have crept into common day to day conversation even with older people (eg the contraction LOL – laugh out loud). It is most likely used more often in text conversation for it is easier to de-crypt. I have been texting for a while now, and I feel that I have two text languages, one formal and one highly informal. My formal language is obeying the standard rules of English (grammar, structure, punctuation, verb usage etc) however my informal texting language shifts and changes constantly depending on my mood with the one exception where I say what I want to say when I say no matter what the situation or structure. I have a friend very similar to this he is very formal around family and peers but when around friend online he switches words and changes letters like typing “oak” instead of ‘ok’ or “Yaes” instead of ‘yes’. This could be for comedic reasons or he just loves to butcher english grammar. He uses this mostly when typing short sentences or one word answers. Doing it this way makes sure that the reader can interpret the word easier however if it is surrounded by other words than it gets much harder to understand. My grandfather and father however ALWAYS text in full, grammatically correct sentences with correct punctuation and spelling. This could partially be due to his courier in newspaper editing.
Idioms can also be expressions that have a meaning different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words in the expression. Because English contains many idioms, non-native English speakers have difficulties making sense of idioms and idiomatic expressions. Phrases like “pins and needles” – who would know that that means being nervous or “piece of cake” means easy; unless you are exposed to an English speaker, every day. Text conversations also use a lot of slang, not just contractions and acronyms. Slang is a type of language that is informal and playful and what’s “in” changes over time. The slang of the past is different than the slang of today, but some slang has carried over into the present. Slang also varies by region and culture which can make it difficult texting to friends from overseas
Shakespeare changed the English language too. He invented around 1770 words (tho the exact number is heavily debated) that are still in common use today ( http://www.pathguy.com/shakeswo.html ). He contracted words (the dawn as opposed to dawning), joined words (faint-hearted, fancy-free), added prefixes and suffixes (hot-blooded, ill-tempered). He took the idioms of the Elizabethan age and made them cool. Shakespeare wrote in the idiom of his day, “break the ice”, “brevity is the soul of wit” and “love is blind” are all great answers.
To understand the root of idioms then you must understand the root of the english language itself and the similarities between its founding languages. Whilst the english language incorporated 70% of latin words and was made from many many other languages like French, German and Spanish the idioms do not always translate the same into them. The phrase “Two birds with one stone” is one such example. In Portuguese (Matar dois coelhos de uma cajadada só) it means “Kill two rabbits with one blow”, in German (Zwei Flieger mit einer Klappe schlagen) it means “Two flies with one clap” and my personal favourite Indonesian (Sekali merengkuh dayung dua tiga pulau terlampaui) Overcome two or three islands with one paddle/stroke (for more examples, visit https://leaftranslations.com/ultimate-guide-translating-idioms/).
Changing Idioms demonstrate the ongoing evolution of english language. Language that is grammatically incorrect one day can become the idiom the next day and obsolete in the future. This can be compared to the introduction of the apostrophe to shorten words in the English around the 1500’s. Another example of evolving idioms is the declining use of genitive and accusative forms in english and the disappearance of the dative form. Words like “whose” and “his” are among the few remaining examples of genitive language cases. Similarly “whom” and “him” are among the few remaining examples of the accusative case whereas thou and thee have disappeared. How long will today’s idioms survive or will they fall by the side of the evolutionary road. Here’s a nice quote… “That’s the beautiful thing about language. It is always changing and always developing. When a language stops changing for either an individual or as a whole society, that’s a bad sign for that language. One of the hallmarks of a living, robust language is that it is always changing. That means that the forms, the grammar, the words, the vocabulary, the phrases, the tone, they’re going to keep changing over time in spoken language, in text messaging, in whatever the next version of social media is that we’re going to have. There will be new things to learn, new forms of language to play with, and new ways to express ourselves”.