CULTURE-US: Text Me the Webisode About Avian Flu…

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Mark Weisenmiller

TAMPA, Florida, Nov 14 2007 (IPS) - As the winter holiday season approaches and brand-new dictionary editions hit U.S. bookshelves, researchers and lexicographers have been immersed in a lively debate over which new words should make the cut.

In for 2007? Avian flu, waterboarding, Bollywood, RPG (as in rocket-propelled grenade), dwarf planet, foodist, and the popular Japanese numerical puzzle sudoku.

On the chopping block for lack of use? Brain worker, fax modem and ice-cream parlor.

Then there is the "better luck next year" category, or words left under consideration for the 2008 editions, such as wireless network, blogosphere and text (used as a verb).

"We tend to be cautious because so many [new words] are flashes in the pan. The criterion is what we think our readers are going to need to look up. We make sure the word has been around awhile, but at the same time, we&#39re interested in word development," explained Joe Pickett, executive editor for the dictionary section of Houghton-Mifflin Publishers.

"The most commonly used phrases and words have to be represented," noted Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster Publishers. "If a word is likely to be encountered often, it gets in. If we see a lot of evidence – that is, printed evidence, over many years – of a word, then that word gets into the dictionary."

The process weaves together linguistics and etymology – the study of the origins of words.

The earliest known dictionary was written by the Babylonians in the sixth century B.C., and Japan and China also used dictionaries hundreds of years before the West.

Early English dictionaries featured many words from other languages, especially Latin, and this polyglot trend has continued. Pickett says the Arabic word "hudud" has recently been added to Houghton-Mifflin&#39s database, and the Japanese soy bean dish "edamame" is under consideration.

"We get new words from other languages constantly," said Prof. Dennis Baron, who teaches English and Linguistics at the University of Illinois. "There&#39s tonnes of outlets where we get new words. Science and technology is one of them."

Indeed, "vlog" (video blog) and DVR (digital video recorder) have just received the official blessing of dictionary editors, while malware (maliciously invasive software) and webisode (a TV show that debuts on the internet) are on the watch list for next year.

Sokolowski says that many technological terms, such as blog and Google, "got into the dictionary much quicker than usual because they were accepted by the general public quicker than usual."

Grant Barrett, co-host of "A Way with Words," a public radio show about language, says U.S. editors also face the challenge of wading through Australian English, British English, Canadian English, etc.

"It&#39s a lot of reading and also knowing the English language," he told IPS.

Barrett should know: he is the vice president of communications and technology for the American Dialect Society and author of "The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang" (2004) and "The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English" (2006).

"People want to know that their own words are in the dictionary because they want to know that people (i.e., dictionary editors) are paying attention," said Barrett.

One word whose time has probably not yet come is "bunny hug", which, according to Barrett, "means a &#39hoodie,&#39 which is a hooded sweatshirt. The word&#39s origins are from Saskatchewan."

In his book "Language Made Plain", the English novelist, and former English teacher, Anthony Burgess wrote: "American English was once regarded as an amiable aberration from the East Midland norm, a &#39colonial&#39 dialect of English. Now we have to recognise that there is an American language, capable of immense variety within itself, but possessing enough general characteristics to be described summarily."

That tome was first published in 1964 and, more than 40 years later, U.S. English has virtually covered the Earth due to advances in communications technology, particularly the Internet.

Some linguists theorise that California is the primary cauldron of new U.S. English words for the simple reason that the state is, as the old saying goes "where the future happens first."

"In part I would agree because the movie business comes out of there and movies have a large impact on language, but I&#39m kind of pessimistic about that (theory) because linguistic developments happen all over and for a variety of reasons. For instance, a lot of words come out of Washington, and the fast pace of big cities generates many words," countered Pickett.

"What&#39s interesting about California is that it is the home state for entertainment and technology and that it is, like many places, the home of numerous languages and people of numerous cultures. So it becomes a laboratory for how we speak," said Baron.

Hollywood has certainly coined innumerable new words. In Burgess&#39s best-known book, "A Clockwork Orange" (1962), he created a fictional slang spoken by teenagers who terrorise the populace of a virtually lawless society set in the future. Some of the slang in the book – like "droogs", meaning "friends" – was derived from Russian, a language that fascinated Burgess.

Burgess called his new dialect "Nadsat." The title of the novel, according to the author, came from the old cockney expression "as queer as a clockwork orange".

When U.S. filmmaker Stanley Kubrick made a movie based on the book, he included much of the terminology in the film&#39s screenplay. First released in 1971, it became an instantaneous and controversial worldwide success and thanks to the universality of movies, Burgess&#39 fictional teenage slang was made internationally popular.