@laziness rule

The laziness rule is a general principle of the theory of evolution of languages. It states — "people are lazy and they will try to say things that are hard to say in an easier way, unless the easier way is more trouble than it is worth".

Simple example. In very old times the English word February was said with two "r", but nowadays nearly everybody says Febry. This is a very natural think and happens to all languages when they evolve. The process, if left to itself, will naturally take these stages —

(1) Everybody says February

(2) Most people say February and a few young people say Febry, even though the grown-ups laugh at them.

(3) Roughly half say February and roughly half say Febry. The old peeps say that the language is running downhill and prognosticate thre prompt end of civilization.

(4) A few old geezers say February and everybody else says Febry, some of them because they don't want to sound like an old geezer.

(5) No one remembers that once upon a time Febry was considered lazy.

Notice that at no point anyone changed their own way of saying things. The two-ar-people just died out.

There are ways to stop this natural process of evolution. Mainly they involve making kids in schools sing "Febrery is good, Febry is bad". If the brainwashing process is sucessful, usually the result will be that kids will say Ferbrery within earshoit of the teacher and say Febry whent hey talk to each other.

It is widely suspected that about 3000 years ago in India someone noticed that this process was happening and that's why they started researching into how language works, in order to make grammars that would help to stop the change.