lame it on Shakespeare, the 1960s, the computer revolution, MTV, or even "Cash Money" rap artist BG, if you want to.

It's the changing nature of the English language - a linguistic scholar's first love and a grammar student's worst nightmare.

Like it or leave it, English is far from stagnant. If you spoke English in the year 1300, chances are, you wouldn't recognize much of today's language.

But it doesn't take 700 years of history to change a dialect. Hipsters from the 1960s have let go of their own vocabulary, "groovy" and "hip" not being so "cool" anymore.

The so-called Generation X and MTV, which debuted just 25 years ago, has laid claim to its own vernacular, like "jiggy" and "bling bling," which was recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The term, used to describe diamonds, jewelry and all forms of showy style, was coined by the rap family Cash Money Millionaires back in the late 1990s. It gained national awareness through the song, "Bling Bling," by Cash Money artist BG.

"I'm probably not very hip, so I pretty much ignore the things I don't understand," said Jackie Lynch, operations coordinator for Experience Works - a group that offers job training to people 55 or older.

"I don't try to figure it out," she said.

The 1980s had its own expressions, including "bad," meaning something good.

"We used to use 'cool' back in the '50s and '60s," Lynch said. "Back then it was fun, and we thought we were ahead of everyone else, speaking a language no one else understood."

Where do new words come from, and where do old words go? Is there really a language gap between the Greatest Generation and Generation X?

According to Ron Stottlemyer, chairman of the department of languages and literature at Carroll College, the answer is maybe.

Computers, which entered the home around the same time as MTV, have injected new terms into the language. It's not enough to have a computer "Web" and "log." Now it's a "blog," meaning a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page.

The English language has one of the largest vocabularies in the world, Stottlemyer said, placing the number of words at about 500,000.

Buried at the center of that verbal pile is a core of 5,000 commonly used words, like day and night, and hot and cold. It's the epicenter of the English language.

"These are the words that no English speaker can do without," Stottlemyer said. "I can't begin to explain how incredibly resourceful the English language is."

There are an estimated 450 million native English speakers around the world, plus another 300 million people who speak English as a second language. Behind Mandarin's 1.3 billion speakers, English is the most used language in the world.

As such, Stottlemyer said, it remains open to borrowing new words, like sushi and tipi to name two.

As Stottlemyer opens one of his many books in his campus office, he explains how the reach of any language is based on economic power.

"There used to be a time when Hittite was the spoken language," Stottlemyer said. "Right now, the position of the English language relies largely upon the economic clout of Britain and the United States and their provinces."

English began as a backwater language spoken by Anglo-Saxon tribes. Those tribes, Stottlemyer said, weren't of any consequence until they became Christianized and began adopting words from Latin, like "priest" and "bishop," to describe their new religion.

The language has been evolving ever since. Shakespeare himself, Stottlemyer said, invented as many as 10,000 words or phrases, most of which have been retained in the current language.

Dwi Rananda, an adjunct professor at Carroll College, who's visiting from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, began learning formal English at age 12.

Where she comes from, English is part of the curriculum.

"In school, you mostly learn about grammar," she said. "If you wanted to improve your speaking skills, you had to learn on your own."

Rinanda is more than a product of a good curriculum. American pop culture helped, with American music and movies contributing to the global distribution of the English language.

"Do you know New Kids on the Block?" Rinanda asked one day. "The funny thing is, I had their tapes and wanted to understand what they were saying. I wanted to learn English."

Like many, Rinanda also indulged in American movies, picking up new terms and phrases that weren't taught in grammar school. "How do you do" might be proper, but "What's up?" is more common.

Rinanda said some of the words have stuck. Others she chooses not to use.

"Growing up, I learned formal English," she said. "But since I've been here, I've learned more slang and some new expressions. A week ago, I just learned what 'far out' meant. It's amazing how much slang people use here."

Stottlemyer explains the changes in language through blends, conversions and eponyms - a name coming from a person or place. The Earl of Sandwich, for instance, didn't like getting up during poker, so he made a habit out of sliding meat between two pieces of bread.

The earl's quirk gave us "sandwich."

Other changes have taken place in phonetics (the sound), phonemics (the distribution of sounds and words), and syntax and morphology (the grammar).

"My sisters and I, we think English is very convenient to use," Rinanda said. "Even my mom says 'Happy Birthday' and 'How are you, honey?' My father knows passive English. He writes and reads English, but he hardly speaks it."

Even in Indonesia, Rinanda adds, American trends are obvious.

"If you go to the mall in the big cities, you can find kids dressing in loose shirts - kind of hip-hop style," Rinanda said. "They have that influence from American culture. They want to be like Britney Spears and Snoop Dogg."

The lyrics to Tim McGraw's new song, "Back When," might say it all. "Back when a hoe was a hoe, a coke was a coke, crack is what you were doing, when you were cracking jokes."

It doesn't take a country music artist to recognize the morphing of language. The so-called Greatest Generation has watched the language shift, and Lynch has tried to keep up.

"It's not harder to communicate," she laughed. "If you don't understand, you just move on."

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or at mkidston@helenair.com.