Oh, that younger generation

I don't always get to see language changing right before my eyes, but I have noticed that the generation of millennials and a lot of (maybe majority of) generation Y have decided to add s to the words of motion such as backwards and forwards, and somewheres and nowheres.  Today I overheard someone say, "It came out of nowheres."  I didn't even have to look up to know the relative age of the person speaking.  When I did, sure enough, it was one of those people in the cusp of generation Y and front end of millennials.  It's one of their trademarks on the English language.

No one my age would say nowheres, only nowhere and would not add s to any of the words mentioned above.  In fact, those words were taught in school as having the stigma of non-standard speech.  But the sands of time have poured through the hourglass and a new generation just now filling the ranks of the workforce have decided to make a change.  Of course, none of them orchestrated the change, and none of them is really trying to make the change.  It happened when they were in 8th grade and high school.  It was their mode of communication to be different from the adults.  It became habit.  It stuck.  Now they continue to speak the same way.  They weren't educated out of it.

And that's how change happens most of the time.  From about 450 ACE until now, changes have filled the English language.  And the language we speak marks us all.