And Now...?

I've just finished reading the text "And Now...? from our script. It was very interesting, even funny to read. It discuss the same topic we've already handled in Welland's class; how English is changing and "feeding other languages". In Rebecca's classed we talked about "Chinglish" and "Indian English".This text provides information about "Singlish (Singapore English) South African English and so on.

It's a matter of fact that pure English will be spoken only by a minority in the near future. And the new variations of English are not only a dialect of English but are getting more and more accepted, also in Europe.

The reason for this, according to scholars, is the growing number of L2 speakers, so for whom English is a second language. They form and shape the new varieties of English.

A new form of English, which has just appeard, is Text English. That's the form of English when writing a text message. Example: 2 mny wds & ltrs? (Too many words and letters), I luv u (I love you) and so on. Melvin Bragg, the author of this text, states that a texting dictionary is already on the streets. (-:

Another funny paragraph of this text discussed new words in the dictionary, or words which are queuing up to be admitted next. Here my favorites:

Zorse: an animal that's a hybrid of a zebra and a horse
Gaydar: an intuitive sense that enables someone to identify whether another person is gay
Earworm: a song or tune that repeats over and over inside a person's head (wow, I had a hard time to remember "catchy tune" and now there is now use for it anymore, because "earworm" exists now (-:
Gayby: a baby born to a surrogate mother on behalf of a gay couple
Uber-nerd: a person with exceptionally poor social skills (i think we should use "Über-nerd" in German too, it's super!)