Words not immune to viral infection

Crises and unexpected events inevitably lead to dives into history and the Covid-19 contagion cannot be an exception. The most (in)famous pandemic to sweep the world was undoubtedly bubonic plague, or Black Death, in the 14th century, that decimated populations across continents. One of its least acknowledged after-effects, however, was the ascent of English as the main language of Britain. As swathes of its Latinand French-spouting elites fell to the plague, the hardier English-speaking peasantry gained a rare fillip. Eventually, in 1362, King Edward III’s government came out with the Statute of Pleading, ensuring that thenceforth all pleas would be heard in English, making that language the primary one in the land rather than Norman French.

So, had the plague not revived English, many Indians today might have been speaking a different non-Indian-origin language altogether.

Covid-19 may not have quite the same effect either on populations or language, but new linguistic connotations are evolving. The word ‘positive’, for instance, has acquired an ominously negative overtone, as it is inevitably prefaced by the word ‘test’ these days. And, from being a positive (in the conventional sense) phenomenon, the word viral has regressed to its original allusion of a contagion. More words will definitely mutate and become infected in coming days.