Encarta World English Dictionary 2001 . I assume that you are fond of language, because you are reading a letter from the editor of a dictionary. Love of words is what editing a dictionary is all about. Lexicography is not usually viewed as an exciting profession. To people who love words, however, language gives endless thrills.
Language changes more quickly than any other human activity.
Language reflects and records all human change. If someone invents a new move on a snowboard, creates a new rhythm, markets a new computer game, or discovers a new species of beetle, that new thing will get a new name. Right now, language is evolving more rapidly than ever before, because people can share it so widely and so quickly. Television can reach out to billions of viewers, but computers allow billions of readers and writers to reach one another. Philologists are delighted that the age of the Internet has been, so far, an age of texts.