Breaking News: English Officially Has 1 Million Words!
This announcement was made on June 10, 2009. It raised a few questions over at WhiteSmoke, and we decided to investigate.
English Word No. 1 Million: Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (noun) : the second generation of the World Wide Web in which content is user-generated and dynamic, and software is offered that mimics desktop programs.
(Definition according to Dictionary.com)
People are connecting with others through Web 2.0, in ways we never could have imagined before the internet grew to the level it is at today.
“Officially”? Who makes stuff like this official?!
The announcement was made public by a company called Global Language Monitor (GLM), an American internet-monitoring firm.
GLM tracks the frequency of “new” terms that appear on the internet, and once a new term has appeared at least 25,000 times on the internet (in blogs, articles, advertisements, etc.), it is considered by GLM to have attained official "word" status, and inclusion in today's English language.
It's sort of like a popularity contest for new words. New words come into play all the time - on the playground, in songs, in advertising campaigns, on the streets, etc. GLM figures out which words should be properly incorporated into the English language, through a system that many consider controversial (see Criticism by Linguists below).
How can the number of words in a language grow?
English is a highly dynamic language, used worldwide by an ever-growing community of speakers. Products like WhiteSmoke contribute to this growth, by assisting native and foreign speakers alike to write and use English more frequently, and properly.
What this boils down to is simple: the more people use a language, the more that language grows. With the help of the internet, a never-ending cycle of communication is in perpetual motion. And right now, you are a part of it, just by reading this article!
3 WAYS A LANGUAGE CAN GROW:
1) SLANG
Most slang terms start out in spoken communication only, and are not considered "proper" enough to be included in formal writing (i.e. business correspondence, school papers, or e-mails to people with whom you aren't familiar).
Over the years, many slang words have progressed from inclusion in spoken English, into proper written English. Most spellcheckers will highlight new slang terms as incorrect, based on the premise that not enough people will recognize them. GLM's efforts may result in spellcheckers updating their databases more frequently - thus incorporating slang into our language at a faster rate.
“Cool” is possibly the most popular example of a slang term that has gained so much recognition that it is listed under the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary’s definition for the word “cool.”
2) TECHNOLOGY
As new things are invented, new words are born.
Words like computer, television and radio are only as old as the objects they reference. Concepts like SMS messaging and social-networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter) – are two examples of technological terms that did not exist a few years ago, at least not to the same extent we use them today.
3) CULTURE / WORLD EVENTS
Every so often, a word will come into use that refers to a very specific time or place – even an event. The term "9/11" is a popular example.
Before the morning of September 11, 2001, "9/11" did not exist as a term, the way it exists today. It makes a specific reference to a specific event, that most people around the world will recognize.
Criticism Among Linguists
Many linguists, grammaticians, and those merely interested in the topic, had problems with the claim made by GLM for English’s 1,000,000th word.
Criticism # 1: Dictionaries are still considered to be the proper authority on how many words a language contains, not companies such as GLM. Merriam-Webster’s dictionaries are popularly cited as the most accurate, up-to-date accounts of the English language.
Web 2.0 might still have some time to go until it is accepted into dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster’s.
Criticism # 2: Many believe it is simply not possible to quantify the English language to such a precise level. We happen to agree, here at WhiteSmoke.
Language is an art – not a science. Therefore, traditional counting rules do not as easily apply. Words float in and out of our vocabulary constantly, throughout the course of time. The English language of Shakespearean England bares little resemblance to the language as it is currently used in today's global community.
Who is to say which words are considered real "words", and which are old-fashioned or "dead"? Should outdated words be eliminated from the word count? Should the decline in word usage be tracked as well? These are questions companies like GLM might wish to consider. Or, perhaps they should leave it to the dictionary publishers.
What Our Words Say About Us
We found a terrific quote by the Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, to explain how intertwined language and culture are:
‘A nation needs a dictionary for much more than finding the meaning and pronunciation of words. The best dictionaries are a record of a nation’s history and culture.’
When a word makes it into a dictionary, this means that the word has attained so much recognition that it is formally recognized as part of that nation’s language.
The slang, the technology, and the culture of a community are all embedded into its language. English is a globally-recognized language, and is therefore an excellent record of the world's slang, the world's technological advances, and the world's culture.
The more English is used around the world, the more globalized our language's vocabulary will become - which brings us all one step closer to world peace :)
What Do You Think?
Do you have an opinion on anything we've mentioned in this potentially controversial post?
Maybe you agree with the critical "linguists" - language is not something you can "count" with numbers. Or, maybe you think that GLM's method is a great way to record the way our language is evolving into the 21st century.
Have any new slang terms you'd like to see more often on the internet? Post them to WhiteSmoke's blog, and increase the GLM-count of your words today!
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