Never has human society witnessed the death of so many languages.

Linguists predict 90 percent of the current 6,700 languages in the world will disappear this century, while data from UNESCO reveals that 95 percent of the world's languages are spoken by only 4 percent of the global population.

But at the same time, there is also a linguistic explosion occurring, albeit within one particular language. Today young people are "wired" together all over the world, connected online, even though they may never meet face-to-face.

People are brought together if they can speak the same language and separated if they don't. Today, Chinese grandparents may not be able to chat with their grandchildren, if the kids don't rack their brains to find some words lying half forgotten in the recesses of their minds.

The vitality of the Internet language in China, an increasing part of this cyber-community, has its roots in real life. Chinese netizens, 470 million and growing, in their mid-20s on average, enjoy tremendous freedom of speech online and the Internet has become the public sphere for debate in China.

New Internet buzzwords come and go as netizens roam freely across the social landscape and new words and phrases are born and evolve as netizens share ideas about the society they live in. Many new expressions are fabricated by Chinese netizens seeking to criticize corrupt officials or express their discontent with particular aspects of their lives.

For example, fangnu, which literally means "house slave", refers to those who have to work so hard to pay their mortgages they are leading a hand-to-mouth existence. Netizens invented this expression to complain about the house prices that are now out of reach of many. Fuyun, which literally means "floating clouds", refers to something unreal, which is often used to encourage people not to struggle over trifles. Geili, which means "give power", has already been adopted in headlines by People's Daily, and conveys the message "ideally effective".

Words such as these have a unique power when used in the proper context.

The way people use the Internet language is also changing. Repeating a simple sentence with a number of exclamation marks and question marks, known as the "Roaring Style", conveys vehement outrage or forceful emotions.

But even though Chinese lexicographers have accepted many new words that originated with netizens in the latest edition of Xinhua Dictionary, a standard Chinese language reference book, the education, media and research authorities are less accommodating of new words and expressions.

Those opposed to change remain vigilant against the popularization of new cyber-expressions, strongly resisting the use of new net-words. For instance, in the college entrance examinations, students are only permitted to write the language they are taught in class and are forbidden to use the language they actually use online.

With the introduction of reform and opening-up, the Chinese language experienced its most rewarding enrichment since the mid-1800s as new words were introduced to reflect the changing times. These words greatly supplemented Chinese people's daily vocabulary and many are taken for granted now.

The rise of new expressions and words that originate from the Internet is likewise anything but a short-lived phenomenon. Social networking and the fast development of Chinese society are promoting the creation and popularization of new expressions and these are also shaping the evolution of Chinese society in a subtle way.

As German linguistic philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt pointed out, language expresses the inner life and knowledge of its speakers, words do not exist until meaning has been put into them, and this meaning embodies the thought of a community.

The author is a China Daily writer.

(China Daily 07/26/2011 page8)