English soon to include 1 million words

AUSTIN, Texas, June 29 (UPI) -- English is close to adding its 1 millionth word to the language with well over 1 billion speakers worldwide, experts say.

Author Paul J.J. Payack, founding president of the Global Language Monitor, estimates English will hit the vocabulary milestone April 29, 2009, MetaNewswire reported Sunday. Currently, the English language counts about 1.35 billion speakers as a first, second or auxiliary language.

With 25 percent of the world now speaking English, that's a lot of sources for new words, suggests Payack. The latest addition found by his tracking service is "e-Vampire." It is a noun referring to electric equipment that consumes energy while in standby mode