English Language Nears 1M Words

Yep, really. A jury of German language experts picked it

(NEWSER) - Germans are better off because of America's pottymouth, at least according to a group of language experts who have named the biggest English contribution to the German language in 2011: "shitstorm." Yep, the "Anglicism of the Year" is a word that the experts say "fills a gap in the German vocabulary that has become apparent through changes in the culture of public debate." After all, Germans would previously have had to turn to more toothless terms like kritik (criticism) to express their emotions. More»

'Win the future,' 'new normal' also on list of hated words and phrases

(NEWSER) - The compilers of the 37th "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse, and General Uselessness" say it's amazing that "amazing" didn't make their annual list earlier. With more than 1,500 nominations from around the world, the overused superlative topped this year's list , followed by "baby bump," "shared sacrifice," "occupy," and "blowback," the AP reports. Wrote one "amazing" nominator, "Hair is not 'amazing.' Shoes are not 'amazing.' I saw Martha Stewart use the word 'amazing' six times in the first five minutes of her television show. Help!" More»

Stop saying 'adorkable,' please: Julie Gerstein

(NEWSER) - If the newly popular phrase "adorkable" makes you cringe (thanks, Zooey Deschanel), you're not alone. It tops Julie Gerstein's list on The Frisky of 17 words and phrases that need to be retired as we head into 2012:

• Redonkulous: Use the actual word—ridiculous—because "redonkulous sounds like the name of a clown rapper."
• Nom nom nom: You'll sound more like an adult if you just say, "That's delicious!"
• Seriously: We all overuse it. The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Seems to be the natural order for human 'proto' language: scientists

(NEWSER) - Human beings' very first "proto" language may have sounded more like Yoda-speak than the English we use today. Researchers believe all language derived from one spoken some 50,000 years ago in east Africa. Now scientists are making a case that the first language followed a "subject-object-verb" order, as in "I you like," favored by the little Jedi warrior. The researchers—co-directors of the Santa Fe Program for the Evolution of the Human Language—reached their conclusion after creating and studying a family tree linking all languages, reports MSNBC . Clear patterns of word orders became apparent, and all were traced back to the subject-object-verb, or SOV, order, rather than the subject-verb-object of English and several other languages. More»

Two British adventurers may have climbed it first

(NEWSER) - A long-frozen roll of film may solve one of Mount Everest's most enduring mysteries. England has long been caught in the romance of two British adventurers who scaled the mountain with a team in 1924 and were last seen a few hundred yards from the peak. Did George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine reach the summit, three decades before Everest was officially climbed? To the trepidation of some history lovers, an upcoming expedition may soon find out, the BBC reports. More»