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English to Pass one Million Word Mark on 29 April, 2009
Sify News ^ | 07.07.2008 | Sify News

Posted on 07/08/2008 5:01:38 AM PDT by Coffee200am

London: The English language is set to reach a very important landmark within the next year – its one millionth word.

A new English word is created every 98 minutes, and the current number of official words stands at 995,844.

With the way things are going, experts believe that the language will cross its one millionth word mark within the year, more specifically 29 April, 2009.

More news, analysis | More Science and Medicine news

"English is different to most other languages in that it absorbs words like no other language in history. Language boils up from the people and we see this by the assimilation of words from 'hip hop', 'Hollywood' and 'Bollywood'," the Scotsman quoted Paul Payack, founding president of the Global Language Monitor, which came up with the date, as saying.

"Our calculations now show there is a new word created every 98 minutes. You can never have too many words, it just means there are more possible ways to communicate. We should have the one millionth word on 29 April, 2009.

However, he added that only a fraction of the words were likely to be used.

"But despite having a million words at our disposal it is unlikely that we will ever use more than just a tiny fraction of them.

"The average persons vocabulary is fewer than 14,000 words out of these million that are available. A person who is linguistically gifted would only use 70,000 words."

The newest word that was added to the language to take it one step closer to its millionth mark was 'e-Vampire', a noun describing electric equipment that consumes energy while in standby mode.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: english; godsgravesglyphs; language
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To: Coffee200am
English is different to (???) most other languages...

Wouldn't "different from" be correct form?

21 posted on 07/08/2008 6:18:29 AM PDT by pa_dweller (South of the border - a phrase fast losing its meaning)
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To: Larry Lucido

“It’s the Moors, you idiot!”


22 posted on 07/08/2008 6:20:12 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
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To: SoothingDave

beat me to it dammit.


23 posted on 07/08/2008 7:25:42 AM PDT by Free Vulcan (No prisoners. No mercy. Fight back or STFU!!!)
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To: Coffee200am

FR has some of it’s own to offer . . .

magisterical
magcsterical

for bureaucratic political religious committee bound oversight bodies of larger religious denominations.

And of course a longish list of older FREEPERISMS

e.g.

FREEPER
FREEPING
FREEPATHON

etc.

Just doing our part! LOL.


24 posted on 07/08/2008 9:15:23 AM PDT by Quix (WE HAVE THE OIL NOW http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147)
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To: Coffee200am

You know, with a million words there ought to be a specific word for that particular form of a placename used to describe a person from that place. A “Mexican” is a person from Mexico. A “Canadian” is a person from Canada. Etc. So you are discussing a certain country, say Togo, and you want to know what to call someone from Togo. What word would complete this sentence:

“What is the (blank) for Togo?” meaning

“What is the name for a person from Togo?”


25 posted on 07/08/2008 11:16:21 AM PDT by rogue yam
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To: rogue yam
“What is the name for a person from Togo?”

Togoid?

Togoan?

Togoite?

Lance?

26 posted on 07/08/2008 11:21:52 AM PDT by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: nickcarraway; martin_fierro

I guess we’ve slipped the world the tongue.


27 posted on 07/08/2008 11:56:43 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: Coffee200am

As Steve Martin famously said - “Some people have a way with words and other people .... (long pause) ..... not have way ... I guess.”


28 posted on 07/08/2008 12:00:06 PM PDT by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: Larry Lucido

How about “yuth”


29 posted on 07/08/2008 12:48:59 PM PDT by Taffini (Mr. Pippin and Mr. Waffles do not approve)
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To: SunkenCiv; nickcarraway; mikrofon; Charles Henrickson; Slings and Arrows; Lady Jag
English to Pass one Million Word Mark on 29 April, 2009

That's SUPERSPLENDILLYICIOUS!!

30 posted on 07/08/2008 12:57:30 PM PDT by martin_fierro (WE'RE THERE!)
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To: martin_fierro

31 posted on 07/08/2008 1:59:52 PM PDT by Lady Jag ( I dreamed I surfed all day in my monthly donor wonder bra - https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate)
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To: Coffee200am

Back in ‘55 when we thought we were hot because we knew 20,000 words we were informed that English has two million words.


32 posted on 07/08/2008 2:02:19 PM PDT by RightWhale (I will veto each and every beer)
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To: Gondring
It might take a bit longer...George W. Bush will be out of office by then. ;-)

Even before he's President, the Mighty O created "inartful"

33 posted on 07/08/2008 4:14:59 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Society is well governed when the people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law)
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To: Oztrich Boy
Even before he's President, the Mighty O created "inartful"

I hope that's not an omen...W started using "misunderestimate" before he was elected to the Presidency.

34 posted on 07/08/2008 5:17:28 PM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: blam; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
English is just a tool of cultural imperialists, and the result is the extinction of thousands of rare languages. /sarc

Pages subtopic.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo ·
· History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


35 posted on 07/08/2008 10:25:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: SunkenCiv
English ... the result is the extinction of thousands of rare languages.

Lasto! Lasto!

36 posted on 07/09/2008 12:00:44 AM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Man râd na Imladris?)
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To: 668 - Neighbor of the Beast
Pity the spell check.

Everything costs more...

37 posted on 07/09/2008 5:30:25 AM PDT by bigheadfred (FREE EVAN VELA, freeevanvela.com)
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To: pa_dweller

For an article about words, this one was oddly underproofed.


38 posted on 07/09/2008 6:05:48 AM PDT by Xenalyte (~ ~ FREE LAZAMATAZ! ~ ~)
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To: pa_dweller

I think “different to” is proper British usage (remember the old saying about two countries — US and UK — divided by a common language!


39 posted on 07/09/2008 6:21:56 AM PDT by maryz
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To: RightWhale
we were informed that English has two million words

When I was in grad school (English) in the 70s, we learned in a linguistics course that best estimates placed English as having 600,000 to a million words. I did have a lexicography course -- word count in a language isn't all that straightforward, e.g., do you count "nonce words," those that show up for a year or two and disappear? do you count localisms? when does a word with two or more different strands of meaning count as two or more words? when does a foreign word begin to count as a native word?

40 posted on 07/09/2008 6:26:27 AM PDT by maryz
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