Ladies and Gentlemen, the Millionth Word in the English Language: “Web 2.0″. And to present the award, I’d like you all to give a big round of applause to the last of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, DEATH!!!

With more than 1.53 billion speakers around the world, and more than 600,000 words listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, the English language dwarfs neighbouring European tongues. French registers a mere 100,000 words, while the Spanish fare only slightly better with 250,000.

GLM’s figure gives English twice as many words as Mandarin Chinese, the world’s second most abundant language.

“The million-word milestone brings to notice the coming of age of English as the first truly global language,” saidPayack.

Needless to say, academics are sceptical. Professor David Crystal, professor of linguistics at Bangor University, called the idea “the biggest load of rubbish I’ve heard in years”.

He said: “It is total nonsense. English reached 1 million words years ago. It’s like someone standing by the side of the road counting cars, and when they get to 1 million pronouncing that to be the millionth car in the world. It’s extraordinary.”