the evolution of language

Language, much like any other 'thing' in life, evolves. Some go through what I call 'hard' evolution, while the majority experience 'soft' evolution.

For instance, Hummus is a hard evolution across all languages. It just moved as it is from Arabic to all languages around the world. From here on out it will go through a soft evolution in each of the languages. For most languages, the ones that do not pronounce the Arabic letter 'ح', it is already being pronounced as an H, which in Arabic is 'هـ'. Who knows how Hummus will be pronounced 20 years from now in each different language?

Another example of hard evolution is Quinoa or Sushi. These words just become, as they are, part of any other language. They do not go through a soft evolution. They invade a language as they are, then, as all words do, go through a soft evolution.

The majority of languages though go through a soft evolution. For instance Process in English is pronounced and written as 'Processo' in Portuguese. Or Shalom in Hebrew is Salam in Arabic. These words- the majority- evolved ever so slightly as they traveled geographically from one community to a closer neighbouring one.

Soft evolution of language requires generations. It is how language has always evolved. Whereas Hard evolution is due to several major factors: 1) Technology: a culture that invents something new names it as it deems fit (computer/spacetime/fax...). 2) Exclusivity: if something is native to a culture, only they would have a name for it, therefore this name is generally adopted when discovered by other cultures. 3) Modern Times: nowadays, with the advancement of technology and the age of information, the whole world is connected. There is no need for soft evolution whenever a new word appears on the scene (so to speak). It is instantly known across the globe and therefore has a direct hard evolution.