ADDING TO DICTIONARIES
The E L Gazette has just let it be known that more than 6,000 new words have been added to the Cambridge Dictionary
Here's their latest blog entry: New words – About Words – Cambridge Dictionary blog
Their rivals do the same, for example, the new word entries from Oxford.
But how do they decide what goes into their dictionaries?
This is a piece from the Guardian looking at how new words are born from 2016:
As dictionary publishers never tire of reminding us, our language is growing. Not content with the million or so words they already have at their disposal, English speakers are adding new ones at the rate of around 1,000 a year. Recent dictionary debutants include blog, grok, crowdfunding, hackathon, airball, e-marketing, sudoku, twerk and Brexit.
But these represent just a sliver of the tip of the iceberg. According to Global Language Monitor, around 5,400 new words are created every year; it’s only the 1,000 or so deemed to be in sufficiently widespread use that make it into print. Who invents these words, and how? What rules govern their formation? And what determines whether they catch on?
Shakespeare is often held up as a master neologist, because at least 500 words (including critic, swagger, lonely and hint) first appear in his works – but we have no way of knowing whether he personally invented them or was just transcribing things he’d picked up elsewhere.
Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing program - and can helpfully 'correct' or suggest words for the writer. In a piece from a couple of years ago, it asks who decides what words are added to the dictionary? - both as a general question but also with an eye on its product.
The Oxford dictionaries are the most authoritative - and so we should ask how they decide if new words should enter the dictionary.
NO ACADEMY IN ENGLISH
The history of how the Oxford language was put together shows ... how to put a dictionary together! Here's a look from someone interested in languages (including French!): The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester – My French Quest
The point is that there is no 'official authority' when it comes to determining what is 'correct' in the English language: it's all about recording what is actually used by English speakers.
That's why the English doesn't language have an academy.
Here's a linguist's discussion on the fact that the English language does not have an official Academy
And here's a historical look at why the British said No Thanks to the Academy.
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