Just as the oral version of telling stories has evolved over thousands of years since Homo sapiens came along, the invention of the alphabet and the development of written words have since evolved into written short stories and novels. Like the evolution of organisms, gradually, over thousands of years, human communication and the transmission of stories (and now knowledge) have continued to evolve.
“Who need be afraid of the merge?
Undrape… you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded,
I see through broadcloth and gingham whether or no,
And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless… and can never be shaken away.” (Whitman 26)
Throughout the history of literature, popular writings have helped to shape and form the structures and syntax of the modern languages that we know today. Modern languages are constantly changing and evolving as a result of spoken or colloquial phrases being used in popular literature. Through literature, these terms are spread and become familiar to the general population of speakers, and this can cause such drastic changes in the structure of a language that it may become unrecognizable after only a few centuries. The two best and most dramatic examples of literature that has caused an evolution of the language in which it was written are the works of Shakespeare and Dante's Commedia. Both Shakespeare and Dante, through their literature, dramatically changed the English and Itali
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