From what I gather, languages don't necessarily get simpler over time, but they do tend to get simpler as the number of speakers increases, particularly if the

From what I gather, languages don't necessarily get simpler over time, but they do tend to get simpler as the number of speakers increases, particularly if the speakers learn it as a second language. Russians tend to drop articles in English, Indonesians don't really distinguish between "he" and "she", many learners forget the -s in third person singular verbs ("he make"), irregular forms get regularised ("teacher teached me"). Some of the most complicated languages are spoken by small groups in Africa or Papua Guinea, with features such as an evidential aspect (different verb endings depending on whether you saw something with your own eyes, heard about it, concluded it, etc.) [1], or Mother-in-law-speech, where the language you use changes when you speak to your in-laws [2]. Pidgins tend to be very simple and regular, by contrast. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidentiality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidentiality [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidance_speech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidance_speech