Web 2.0 tools:brand new stuff

Web 2.0 is Officially the Millionth Phrase in English Language

English language was first time recorded nearly 1,500 years ago and now it registered its millionth word. On June 10, 2009, at 10.22AM the English dictionary was enriched with the phrase Web 2.0 that expresses the next generation of Internet services. It is worth mentioning that a word must be used at least 25,000 times within the national borders and outside the country in order to be officially accepted.

Global Language Monitor (GLM) is an Austin, Texas-based company that cooperatively documents, studies and tracks trends in language usage around the globe in print publications, online news resources, blogs and social media, paying special attention to the English language. It officially recognized Web 2.0 as the millionth word in English language, with 1,000,001st being Financial Tsunami that describes a sudden financial restructuring.

The company selected 15 words in order to complete its calculation that English language would reach the mark of 1,000,000 words. Although the 15 selected words achieved the mark of 25,000 citations worldwide, Web 2.0 was the one chosen to be the millionth word.

John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, mentioned that for a long time linguists and lexicographers explained that it is impossible to accurately evaluate the size of English language.

"We find it curious that Web 2.0, a term that was coined in 1999 and has been in broad use since 2004, is being regarded as a new entrant to the language," he said. Web 2.0, which started as a tech jargon, gained its popularity mainly in the last six months. It managed to surpass such words phrases as Jai Ho! and slumdog, which became popular after the film Slumdog Millionaire hit the cinemas worldwide. The exclamation Jai Ho! used widely in India means victory or accomplishment, and slumdog is an offensive term that describes children living in the slums.

The chief word analyst at Global Language Monitor, Paul JJ Payack, said that English language has become so popular around the world that it generates about 14.7 new words each day, which means one new word in every 98 minutes.

Powered by www.infoniac.com