LANGUISHING LANGUAGE

From My Perspective - - -

How and what one communicates in the 21st Century is vital. In the United States and much of the British Empire, English has been the prevailing language for communication. In a rapidly changing world and global focus, communication is usually relegated to those skilled in interpretation and translation. The United Nations is one example of the use of translators to accomplish communication between nations and people. The English language has seen some change in this technological world. Those who communicate have a series of abbreviations. In Government Agencies, abbreviations and acronyms are common. For weather issues, there is an agency identified as NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). For National Defense, there was an agency identified as NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command motto has been, “Deter, Detect, Defend.”).

The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as sub-entries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of exclamations, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc. And these figures don't take account of entries with senses for different word classes (such as noun and adjective). This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the Oxford English Dictionary, or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no longer in current use. If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.

The Oxford English Dictionary discusses: “How many words are there in the English language?” Their response is: “There is no single sensible answer to this question. It's impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it's so hard to decide what actually counts as a word. Is dog one word, or two (a noun meaning 'a kind of animal', and a verb meaning 'to follow persistently')? If we count it as two, then do we count inflections separately too (e.g. dogs = plural noun, dogs = present tense of the verb). Is dog-tired a word, or just two other words joined together? Is hot dog really two words, since it might also be written as hot-dog or even hotdog? It's also difficult to decide what counts as 'English'. What about medical and scientific terms? Latin words used in law, French words used in cooking, German words used in academic writing, Japanese words used in martial arts? Do you count Scots dialect? Teenage slang? Abbreviations?” One would hope that Vocabulary and its proper use would be an important part of one’s life and practice. It is somewhat grievous when those who should promote grammar and vocabulary choose to communicate making use of the vernacular and vulgar. The excuse given for such usage is that those using it are endeavoring to communicate with the younger generation. With that approach, the proper use of our language will continue to diminish and languish.

The Bible reminds one of the importance of words and how they are expressed. In Matthew 12:33-37, Jesus said: “…the tree is known by its fruit…How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks…I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." In Ephesians 4:29, the Apostle Paul instructed: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” The Message Paraphrase states this verse: “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” Proverbs 18:21 reminds us that: “The tongue has the power of life and death…” We have an obligation and privilege to communicate the only message of hope and eternal life. Let us be focused on how best we can accomplish that task. Let us guard against letting the language of the Gospel languish in the midst of the cultural shift in the world. Consider these things with me!