The times and the English language are changing. Woot!

By Aleza Freeman

It happens every so often. Merriam-Webster or the Oxford English Dictionary announce the addition of new words to the English canon. My husband groans. I giggle.

He thinks it's a sign of a society in decline -- the dumbing down of the human race. I think it's reflective of today's culture as language adapts to the current times -- a form of linguistic evolution.

And yet, our marriage seems to work.

Some recent additions to the dictionary

• Woot: A shout of joy or victory.

• Retweet: To share someone else's message on twitter.

• Jeggings: Leggings designed to resemble jeans.

• Sexting: Sending sexually explicit photos, images, text messages, or emails via cell phone or mobile device.

• Cyberbullying: Using the internet to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner.

• Bromance: A close friendship between men that is non-sexual.

Use the above words in a conversation with your parents or grandparents and I'm willing to bet you'll be met with a blank stare. Use them in an IM with your teenage niece and you may actually gain some "Cool Aunt or Uncle" points.

Speaking of points, my opponent in a recent game of Words With Friends successfully used the word "sext" to earn 54 points. I was quite perturbed that "sext" was considered a word. Mostly because she was beating me.

The Flux, the whole flux and nothing but the flux

The English language is in a constant state of flux. Just look at 13th Century Old English and 14th Century Middle English. It's like trying to read Japanese (unless, of course, you speak Japanese, in which case it's nothing like that).

Have you ever tried to read Geoffrey Chaucher's "The Canterbury Tales"? It's doable, but it's tough! Here's an excerpt:

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour.

Ummmm, what?

It's difficult to decipher. And yes, it's English. I even took an entire college literature course devoted to reading Chaucer's work.

It's all about the conTEXT

How would Chaucer feel now, or even your mom, trying to interpret the changing lexicon. Take a quick look at Urban Dictionary or even a text dialogue between two teens:

A: HRU
B: AAK
A: D46?
B: TTLY

Any idea what these text abbreviation mean? Neither did I. Let me enlighten you:

A: How are you?
B: Alive and kicking.
A: Down for sex?
B: Totally.

For a comprehensive compilation of texting abbreviations, visit Hubber rpchapman's hub Learning Texting Abbreviations.

Key to English

Newscientist.com writes that a time capsule buried in 1938 in New York City included a printed "key to English" that describes 20th-century American English in order to help discoverers 5000 years in the future understand the language.

Here we are just under 75 years later, and language has already changed dramatically. It's safe to say that in 6938, the English language as we know it will most definitely be a foreign language.

Hubpoints

The implications of this have been debated widely by scientists, linguists and even Hubbers:

• Quicksand argues that dramatic changes are detrimental and put the English language in jeopardy in his hub The Future of the English Language.
• Habee takes a prolific look at changing language in her write up The History of the English language.
• Blbhhdcn writes about some of the oddities of the English language.
• Solban writes about some of the reasons why the English language is important.

As a writer I enjoy the growing lexicon. It's an opportunity to embrace new words and expand my writing horizon.

I know some people worry that these changes are making society stupid, but I would argue there has always been a portion of society that's simply that: Stupid. Or, as our teen friends might ask, "AYSOS*?"

*Are you stupid or something?