language change over time

To get into the Christmas spirit, now that it actually is the correct month of December, I went to the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth for their Candlelight Stroll. In each of the old houses we heard stories from volunteers dressed up as people from the 18th century about their holiday traditions and family stories. It was interesting to hear how they spoke two hundred years ago in this area. I did not pick up on any specific differences that made it difficult to understand, but the speech was a little bit more formal and precise than our speech today. Maybe it was because the actors had rehearsed their material, but they did not use discourse markers nearly as much as we do today. Also, children spoke only when prompted by the adults present. When did that change? (Not that I'm complaining!)