Archive for December, 2009

Twittonary

Posted on December 4th, 2009by Michelle
In English, Hints and Tips, Language acquisition, Technology, Words | Leave a Comment »

Yesterday I posted the news that ‘Twitter’ was made Word of the Year.

So I thought it may be interesting to show how far its reach extends now: there’s a Twittonary, or a Twitter Dictionary, providing “explanations of Twitter related words”.

The content of the dictionary is user-generated, and users can also vote on the entries and definitions submitted. A lot of the words seem to include some variety on the words twitter and tweet, such as beetweet and neweeter. The president of the Global Language Monitor claimed language would evolve based on words from Twitter – let’s hope we don’t develop a language based purely on those two words!

You probably know that a ‘tweet’ can be only 140 characters long, so the dictionary may be helpful to you in keeping your message short and sweet.

It could also help you develop language skills – try tweeting short sentences like “I’m going to the shop” to get you used to writing the language you’re learning.

Word of the Year: Twitter

Posted on December 3rd, 2009by Michelle
In English, Events, Words | 1 Comment »

Twitter birdThe end of the year is always a big time for awards – and the world of languages is no exception.

‘Unfriend’ was recently pronounced ‘Word of the Year 2009’ by the New Oxford American Dictionary, and now ‘Twitter’ has been named top by the Global Language Monitor (you may remember them from this post).

Twitter beat ‘Obama’ and ‘H1N1’ (the official name for swine flu), with ‘stimulus’ and ‘vampire’ rounding out the top 5.

Interestingly, the Global Language Moniter’s president commented on the wider implications of the word:

Mr. Payack guessed that “Twitter” took top billing in 2009 because of its effect on the way people communicate. “The impact that it’s having now is that spelling is changing,” he said. “It’s forcing people to think about what is a word, and how to present that word when you’re writing it down. Twitter will have an effect on language in years to come, if it remains as important as it is now.” (Source: Wall Street Journal)

Do you agree with Mr. Payack? Is Twittering affecting the way you use words?