Saturday May 4, 2013

Ye knowe eek that in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem, and yet thei spake hem so,
And spedde as wel in love as men now do
(Chaucer, circa 1385)

On the American Dialect Society mailing list, I had asked:

I'm looking for writings on the future of the English language.  I own _Predicting New Words_.

Presumably, there's other material more recent than L. Sprague De Camp's 1938 essay "Language for Time Travelers."

And more useful than "The Internet/crystal radio/texting/___ is destroying our language!"

In response, Neal Whitman recommended http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/futurese.html

http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr has much more of linguistic and/or science-fictional interest.  Recommended for anyone writing sf.  (Probably also good for game designers; but I don't know enough about that process to say.)

For the near future, I recommend:  Allan Metcalf, _Predicting New Words: the secrets of their success_; Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

***From Twitter:
Ray Radlein ‏@Radlein 3m
RT @davewiner: RT @morningmoneyben: I hate how the media just covers the Derby as a horse race and ignores the substantive issues.