Language evolves as a result of ignorance and apathy as much as from deliberate and intelligent pushing at the limits. However, cleverly testing the limits is often well accepted by the older generation while ignorance and apathy are usually not considered acceptable. So when I say that the older generation is always complaining about the changes taking place in language it is precisely those changes due to ignorance and apathy to which I am referring.
Somewhere along the line somebody was too ignorant and apathetic to learn how to properly use the many noun case inflections of old Germanic, and as a consequence of that ignorance and apathy modern English no longer has to bother with things like the distinction between a-stem masculine accusative singular nouns vs. i-stem and u-stem accusative nouns (let alone the nominative, genitive, dative, ablative, instrumental, and locative case endings on nouns. And let's not even talk about noun gender!). It was that same lazy, apathetic bloke that left us with only one word for "the" instead of the German "der", "die", "das", "dem", "den", "des" (Or on the Romance side of PIE, the Spanish "el", "los" "la", "las", "lo"
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Curse that lazy, apathetic, ignorant fool who gave us a simpler, more streamlined language! Curse him to hell, I say! For, pardee, ye han ofte tyme herd telle how that a frere ravyshed was to helle.
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