US company Global Language Monitor (GLM) believes that the one millionth word will be added to the English language in mid-June.While there is agreement that a word becomes a word when it is used by one person and understood by another, grammarians and lexicographers stand divided when deciding which to include when calculating a total.
Obamamania, bankster and bloggerati are just some of the “brand new words” GLM has been tracking.
They estimate a new word is created every 98 minutes.“Most people know half the words – about 50,000 – easily. A reasonably educated person about 75,000 and a really cool, smart person well, maybe all of them but that is rather unusual.
And while the language grows, words will fall out of use by being replaced.
Experts predict words like “stab” or “throw”, have a language lifetime of about 800 to 1,000 years whereas the words “three”, “five”, “I” and “who” may last anything up to 20,000 years.
Read the entire article here.Also read: Save the WordsImage Source: kool_skatkat