Language counts

Acclaimed as the universal language, English, the language with well over 1 billion speakers worldwide, is now close to adding its one millionth word to its dictionary, according to experts.

Author Paul JJ Payack, founding president of the Global Language Monitor, estimates English will hit the vocabulary milestone on April 29, 2009. Currently, about 1.35 billion speakers count English as their first, second or auxiliary language. With 25 per cent of the world speaking English, there are a lot of sources for new words, according to Payack.

The latest addition found by the tracking service is ‘e-Vampire’. It is a noun referring to electric equipment that consumes energy while in standby mode.