New Languages

It appears that when new languages spin-off from older ones, there is an initial introductory burst of alterations to vocabulary. Then, the language tends to settle and accumulate gradual changes over a long period of time. This discrete evolutionary pattern occurs when a social group tries to forge a separate identity.
 
Study co-author Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading in England, says that the latest study grew out of an earlier finding in which he and colleagues determined that about 20 percent of genetic changes among species occur when they first split off, whereas the rest happen gradually.
 
The team focused on three of the world's major language families in its study: Bantu (Swahili, Zulu, Ngumba, for example), Indo-European (English, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit) and Austronesian (South Pacific and Indian Ocean languages such as Taglaog or Seediq). The researchers determined that 10 percent to 33 percent of divergence between languages stemmed from key vocabulary changes at the time of language splitting.
 
He offers a few examples of these sorts of events, such as the sudden emergence of American English when Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828. More recently, he says, black American English could fit the bill as an emerging idiom.
 
"It's plausible to think of black American English as having diverged from standard English as a way of establishing a distinct identity," he says. "I think everybody's impression is those differences [between the two languages] are greater than one would expect for people who live in the same area."

Term Spotting

Term spotting is the systematic, pro-active, reliable and regular process of detecting, tracing, analyzing, interpreting and mapping of new terms that are used in the media or on the web and that are catalysts, inspirations, or early indicators for future developments.
 
"By tracking the terminology of tomorrow, decision makers can anticipate likely changes before they have become a mass phenomenon. They can detect new and promising ideas, technology shifts, or latent risks and fears earlier and improve their understanding of likely changes in their environment." - Martin J. Eppler
 
Term spotting tools - which are still in their early stage - focus on identifying potentially influential neologisms (new terms) and relevant innovations in the vocabulary of an industry, consumer group, or technological area.

Future Society Terms

Terms from the Radar Screen

Internet Resources


 
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