More Global Language Monitor silliness

[Wilson Gray]

"French, which was the language of diplomacy in the 19th century but
went into decline in the 20th, is said to contain just 100,000 words."

All of them for "snow."

-Wilson


On 2/4/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: More Global Language Monitor silliness
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 1/29/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > As if their inane annual word lists weren't bad enough, now the Global
> > Language Monitor has hoodwinked a New York Times reporter into buying
> > a whole truckload of nonsense...
> >
> > -----
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/realestate/29cov.html
> [snip]
>
> And now Mr. Payack has pulled his snow job on the Times of London...
>
> -----
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2025248,00.html
> The Sunday Times        February 05, 2006
>
> Chinglish – it's a word in a million
> John Harlow, in Los Angeles
>
> CHAMPIONS of the English language are about to mark a momentous point
> in its 1,500-year history — the creation of its one millionth word.
>
> The growing use of Chinglish (Chinese-English) and dozens of other
> ethnic hybrids has pushed the number of words in the language to
> 986,120, according to Paul Payack, a Harvard-educated linguist
> monitoring its growth.
>
> Chinglish terms include "drinktea", meaning closed, derived from the
> Mandarin Chinese for resting; and its opposite, "torunbusiness",
> meaning open, from the Mandarin word for operating.
>
> While some are amusing to the British ear, others are abrasive. Public
> toilets for disabled people in Beijing are marked "deformedman" and in
> Hong Kong "kweerboy" denotes a homosexual.
>
> The Chinese government has vowed to sweep Chinglish from road and shop
> signs before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but is fighting an uphill
> battle.
>
> Payack, who works for Global Language Monitor, a San Diego-based
> consultancy, said 20,000 new English words were registered on the
> company's databases last year — twice as many as a few years ago. Up
> to 20% were in Chinglish.
>
> According to Payack, the one millionth word is likely to be formed
> this summer, confirming the domination of English in the global
> linguistic order.
>
> French, which was the language of diplomacy in the 19th century but
> went into decline in the 20th, is said to contain just 100,000 words.
>
> "Global English is no longer just dominated by either British English
> or American, but is running free and developing uniquely regional
> forms," said Payack.
>
> Chinglish and up to 60 cousins such as Spanglish (Spanish-English),
> Japlish (Japanese-English) and Hinglish (Hindi-English) owe their rise
> largely to the internet.
>
> Thanks to its influence a language that evolved in Anglo-Saxon England
> now reaches billions of homes in the developing world, where it is
> radically transformed for local taste while remaining recognisably
> English.
>
> New words are also spread — although rarely created — by celebrity
> "transmitters" such as Madonna and Snoop Dogg, who is credited with a
> form of rap-speak known as "shizzle".
>
> "The creators of new words usually remain anonymous, except for
> President George Bush's Bushisms such as 'misunderestimate'," said
> Payack. "Those are special."
>
> Payack's databases are compiled by computers combing through sources
> such as newspapers, television programmes and internet blogs.
> Shakespeare is also scrutinised.
>
> Payack claims to have identifed a "tipping point" in 1994, when the
> trickle of new English words became a flood. Mosaic, the first
> user-friendly web browser, was invented around the same time.
>
> Although it excludes proper names, Payack's database includes
> text-message words, which are evolving as consumers start buying
> reading matter over their mobile phones. "This is changing their
> language too," said Payack.
>
> He believes that English has triumphed because it is open to change.
> French is less so: its purity is watched over by the Académie
> Française, a literary body that defines the French language. Between
> 1997 and 2002 there was a 24% drop in the use of French in European
> Union documents. English increased by 32%.
>
> Professor David Crystal, the author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of
> the English Language, said the statistics spoke for themselves. "In
> the 1960s, 250m people spoke English, but now it's closer to 2
> billion, or one in three people in the world.
>
> "That English became the first truly global language in the 1990s is
> beyond dispute, but there is debate about where it goes from here.
>
> "Does it splinter into a loosely connected family of English
> languages, which become mutually incomprehensible again, like old
> Latin, or do we develop a standard global English that can be
> understood by all? We don't know what will happen."
>
> In his latest book, Words, Words, Words, Crystal, who is honorary
> professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor, argues
> that the British routinely underestimate their own linguistic
> abilities. "I computer-analysed The Sun newspaper and discovered it
> used about 5,000 different words," he said. "People underestimate its
> sophistication because of its slangy headlines. And a British
> broadsheet uses about 8,000 different words — about the same as the
> original King James Bible.
>
> "The average Briton uses about 40,000 words, although not all every
> day, and can understand another 20,000. The richness and flexibility
> of English ensures we shall never be at a loss for words."
> -----
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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