English for teens Now and Then

Professor David Crystal’s Insights into Linguistic Change

As part of Helen Doron Educational Group’s celebrating 35 years, British linguist, academic, author, and Helen’s former professor,  David Crystal, weighs in on some of the more interesting changes in the English language during that time. Who knows what new terms and expressions are next as language continues to evolve?

Helen has a good reason to remember 1985, but that year is still with all of us in many lexical ways. It was the year – according to the first recorded usages in the Oxford English Dictionary – when we first read about biodiversity, ecotourists, Rambo, and something happening      24-7. It was the year for telecottages, rent-a-quote, power shopping, and telling porkies, and when we first heard people saying no problemo.

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