English Potato Chips

With over 600,000 words, English has more words than any language in human history. English has changed quietly but steadily since the establishment of its roots in the fifth century. In fact, English has changed significantly as the English of 404 years would be very difficult to understand the English speaker of 1404, let alone that of 2004.

An Anglophone in 404 you might say, for example, "Is he Axode Hu Daer a°eode Nama Waere hello to the Comon," which means: "Once again he asked, what could be the name of the people they are derived (http:/ / www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/1122). "Anglophone 1404 might say," We stowpe and watch the VP-Sheps skyn, And keepe is our song and ways of talking, as the poet Thomas Hoccleve, when he complained that artisans could sing while working, but not as himself committed. ( http://www.r3.org/life/index.html )

But the change of language is not a bad deal. If the English resisted change, we would not have words to use to refer to these technological advances like the Internet or cell phones or CDs. While the speakers needs change, so will the English language.

The complete and exhaustive vocabulary of English has evolved from many sources. New words can come from any profession, product, or hobby. New inventions and new activities require new words to identify them. Each decade thus adds a plethora of new words in our language. The following sampling of new words can be found in Webster's College Dictionary. Can you match each set of words to their good decade of origin?

a. 1990 spam, beatnik, Aerospace

b. 1980 MB, hippie, Space Shuttle

C. floppy 1970s, President, Space Cadet

d. 1960 desktop publishing, Mall rats, virtual reality

e. 1950 website, personal trainer, V-chip

Now take a look at some of other ways in which the English language acquires new words. Over the last three centuries, in particular, English has continuously absorbed foreign words in a sort of osmosis vernacular, while today's words from most world languages are evident in our English vocabulary. Try to match the following words are currently in English with their country of origin.

a. German Poodle

b. French salad

C. Spain: potato

d. Italy: Carnival

e. Arabic: sugar

A few words imitate the sounds they emit, as flop, pop and splash. This approach is called soundreproduction onomatopoeia. Can you think of words like more?

In addition, other words can be created from the first letters of a string of words that describe a particular object or process. These words are known as acronyms. Some acronyms in English are better known than are the series of words from which they originate. See if you can fill in these blanks. (I hope you're doing better than me on that one!)

a. Laser: L._____ A._____ by S._____ E._____ of R._____

b. Diving S_____-C_____ U_____ B_____ A_____

C. Sonar: SO_____ NA_____ and R_____.

The blending of existing words has helped countless expressions of our English lexicon (or language). The news media is particularly good (or bad, depending on its assessment of these new words) to combine words to form new words. Some examples are: Infotainment combines information and entertainment. Shockumentary is a combination of shock and documentaries. There is also irratainment (Jerry Springer comes to mind) that combines IRRI.