The Internet brings an English revolution

"In no area of the culture is the collision more intense than over the English language, for the web has changed English more radically than any invention since paper, and much faster," writes columnist Ben Macintyre in a piece on the linguistic revolution English is currently experiencing. "The web has revived the possibilities of word-coinage in a way not seen since Shakespearean times, when the language was gradually assuming its modern structure but was not yet codified into dictionaries ... Thanks to the internet, we are witnessing the second great age of the neologism, a fantastic outpouring of words and phrases to describe new ideas or reshape old ideas in novel forms of language. Today, a word does not need the slow spread of verbal usage or literature to gain acceptance. If a word works, the internet can breathe instant life into it."

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