[Lexicog] News time

[John Roberts]

It is not often that lexicographers feature on the BBC news website but 
there is a posting there today where they do. The OUP have researched what 
are the most common nouns in the English language. The most common is 
"time". This is partly because of the scores of expressions in English 
featuring time. But it is mainly because English speakers like to talk about 
time a lot.

TOP 10 NOUNS
1 Time
2 Person
3 Year
4 Way
5 Day
6 Thing
7 Man
8 World
9 Life
10 Hand

But I found the most interesting comment was this:

"The thing that struck me when I put together this list was that 90% of the 
top 100 words were one syllable, and that a large proportion were actually 
from Old English, meaning the basic words we use all the time in basic 
sentences are from before the Norman Conquest," he said. "We always put the 
focus on new words, changing language and words from other countries, but in 
reality the basic language we use has been the same for hundreds and 
hundreds of years."

This means that at a fundamental level the English language hasn't changed 
much for over 2000 years.

John Roberts 



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