Over the years of history, vocabulary and grammar have changed. Harkening back to the 1600's, for instance, vocabulary was peppered with 'thee's' and 'thou's'; '-eth's' such as 'loveth' and 'cometh'; 'shalt' instead of 'shall' and were the then norm of standard language.
Written works of that time reflected the oral communication. Peruse some excerpts from the King James Version Bible's preface. "For whereas it was the expectation of many, who wished not well unto our Scion..." or "Then not to suffer this to fall to the ground...nay, to go forward." Reading along further, "their eye doth behold You with comfort..." and "every day increaseth and taketh strength" is very delicious literary style and wordage.
Shakespeare lived in the mid-1500's to early 1600's. His language was similar but likely difficult for present day deciphering. An easier specimen noted from Romeo and Juliet, would be "Wherefore art thou..." or "Gregory: But thou aren't quickly moved to strike."; from Mac Beth, "Duncan-"so well thy words become thee as thy wounds" and from the "First Witch" "Where hast thou been, sister?" This is such a fascinating display of archaic language; by today's standards, that is.
Moving on to Mother's generation, 'gay' meant "happy and carefree"; that compared to what it refers to today. The word 'awesome' no longer describes God and His unique handiwork but is bandied about by teenagers to describe, for example, how they may feel about a peer's green hair! Such morph-ing of words comes in and out of fashion with one generation to the next.
In more recent history, the age of computers has expropriated a lorry load of vocabulary from traditional usage. A 'virus' used to be a human sickness; a byte (bite) once meant to take a chunk of food with one's teeth; a cursor (er) was likely one who cursed a lot; "the net" was what one fished with while "the web" was a spider's home. All those to name a few.
Colonization has left an indelible language mark upon their conquests. English got "spread" to a new country or location, the locals added their 'flavor'; infusing some of their own foreign words, accents and pronunciations into the concoction.
Even within the geography of a country where English is the national language, eg. USA, there are variations thereof. This usually depends on which part of the country one hales from be it a southern drawl, Brooklyn or New England accents, or from western USA. These divisions can often be further divided into districts or even down to specific villages.
Other times, due to increase in travel and residing in other areas from one's own birthplace, it may be difficult to distinguish where exactly a person may have originated. The traveler having picked up an assortment of vocabulary, grammar, accents and pronunciations from the meanderings flavors his own unique command of English.
The social aspect lends zest to the variety equation. Different classes of people will often use differing vocabulary and grammar. To say, "I ain't got no..." may well be looked upon with disdain in preference for, "I haven't got any...".
Accent and pronunciation often reflect social position with upper class folks speaking the "better variety". Think of, was it Eliza, the Cockney lady, in My Fair Lady being trained to parrot, "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain." with a more "standard", acceptable norm.
In conclusion, the varieties of English have ebbed and flowed since whenever English was birthed. Although English is generally thought to be a "stabilized" language it does continue to change in many varied ways to suit the users in various times and sundry places to aid and abet what language is all about in the first place...communication.
~ERC-2010~
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