English getting its millionth word Wednesday?
(CNN) -- English contains more words than any other language on the planet and will add its millionth word early Wednesday, according to the Global Language Monitor, a Web site that uses a math formula to estimate how often words are created.
The site estimates the millionth word will be added Wednesday at 5:22 a.m. Its live ticker counted 999,985 English words as of early Tuesday evening.
The "Million Word March," however, has made the man who runs this word-counting project somewhat of a pariah in the linguistic community. Some linguists say it's impossible to count the number of words in a language because languages are always changing, and because defining what counts as a word is a fruitless endeavor.
Paul J.J. Payack, president and chief word analyst for the Global Language Monitor, says, however, that the million-word estimation isn't as important as the idea behind his project, which is to show that
English has become a complex, global language.
"It's a people's language," he said.
Other languages, like French, Payack said, put big walls around their vocabularies. English brings others in.
"English has the tradition of swallowing new words whole," he said. "Other languages translate."
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English getting its millionth word Wednesday? - CNN.com
The English Language WordClock: 1,000,001
Austin, Texas June 10, 2009 -
The Global Language Monitor today announced that Web 2.0 has bested
Jai Ho,
N00b and
Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word or phrase.
These are the fifteen finalists for the one millionth English word, all of which have met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution, and depth of citations.
1,000,000: Web 2.0 ? The next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you.
999,999: Jai Ho! ? The Hindi phrase signifying the joy of victory, used as an exclamation, sometimes rendered as ?It is accomplished?. Achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winning film, ?Slumdog Millionaire?.
999,998: N00b ? From the Gamer Community, a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term.
999,997: Slumdog ? a formerly disparaging, now often endearing, comment upon those residing in the slums of India.
999,996: Cloud Computing ? The ?cloud? has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage.
999,995: Carbon Neutral ? One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem Climate Change.
999,994: Slow Food ? Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores).
999,993: Octomom ? The media phenomenon relating to the travails of the mother of the octuplets.
999,992: Greenwashing ? Re-branding an old, often inferior, product as environmentally friendly.
999,991: Sexting ? Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content.
999,990: Shovel Ready ? Projects are ready to begin immediately upon the release of federal stimulus funds.
999,989: Defriend ? Social networking terminology for cutting the connection with a formal friend.
999,988: Chengguan ? Urban management officers, a cross between mayors, sheriff, and city managers.
999,987: Recessionista ? Fashion conscious who use the global economic restructuring to their financial benefit.
999,986: Zombie Banks ? Banks that would be dead if not for government intervention and cash infusion.
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The Global Language Monitor
Unfortunately it was never outlawed in the United States...
