"If English Is a Global Language, Who Makes the Rules?" asked if native English-speakers will lose control of the language.  In "Language as a Blunt Tool of the Digital Age", Anand Giridharadsa says not only is that already happening, but the rise of English as the global language has other consequences.

Image by Renato Costa under Creative Commons license.

The American Dialect Society. a group that studies the use of English in North America, chose "tweet" as 2009's Word of the Year.  In the Most Creative category, "Dracula sneeze" (sneezing into the crook of your arm thereby covering the bottom of your face) took the top award.   Other winning words were "hike the Appalachian trail" (Most Euphemistic), "Fail!" (Most Useful), and "death panel" (Most Outrageous).

To hear why some words were nominated, click here.

Photo by Josefrén under Creative Commons license.

All languages evolve. Ten years ago we didn't "friend" people, we had friends. We searched, we didn't "Google". Phones were phones, they weren't "smart".

When non-native speakers use English for business and online, they often use the language differently.  Will that eventually influence the way the rest of us use English?

Jack Lynch makes an interesting prediction in his book "The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English, From Shakespeare to 'South Park'":

"All the signs point to a fundamentally reconfigured world, in which what we now think of as the English-speaking world will eventually lose its effective control of the English language."

Do you think this will happen?

"After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?"

Russell Hoban

There are many resources for language learners on Twitter, but can you really learn a new language through tweets?  Vocabulary, yes.  Reading practice in your new language, yes.  But do you think you could learn - not practice, not reinforce - grammar in a foreign language?