Who made up all English words?

Answer 1

Nobody made up all this English words. All these words come from other words from other languages in the world. The one and only word made up in the world is quiz. One day a man went around stores and places, putting signs up saying to use the word quiz. So basically, each word has a history, except quiz, which was randomly made up.

Answer 2

There are no committees of academics, sitting in ivory towers in Oxford, Paris, Rome or Princeton, or anywhere else, entrusted with a final decision on whether a word is an acceptable, proper, or real, word. While there have been regular attempts worldwide to control language, to keep it 'pure', whatever that means, these attempts have never worked because, ultimately, the speakers of a language decide, and have the final say, on which words they consider to be words.

You decide which words are really words.

You and I everyone else using any language decide what its words mean, how they are pronounced and how they are spelled. You decide this simply by using those words: it's that simple.

When a word is used often enough, and by enough people, it'll be included in a dictionary. The contributors to, or publishers of, that dictionary first research how the word is spelled and pronounced, and how it is used, as well as where it came from and how it came to be used in its current form. This research involves finding instances of that word's usage in print and speech and can't be hurried: researchers don't just sit in in an office thinking a lot; they must get out and listen to the way people communicate.

Their research also applies to words which have been used for a long time but which have gained new meanings, or had their previous meanings altered.

Some words might've come into a language centuries ago with one meaning and then gained very different meanings at different times, without changing their spelling or pronunciation. Others change spelling or pronunciation, sometimes becoming nearly unrecognizable as the word which first entered the language. Have a look at the journey of the word 'nice' through the English language in the past seven centuries at the Online Etymology Dictionary, at the link below.

A word used in more than one way, but in similar senses, might be said or spelled differently depending on its usage; for example: 'He read a book'; 'He says he will read a book'. A word might also be pronounced differently in different geographical areas.

All this must be researched before a word, or changes to the definition of a word or to the description of its usage, is considered for inclusion in a reputable dictionary. Once this is done and the word has earned its place in a dictionary, the compilers of that dictionary must decided how to write its entry: how to define, describe and track its history. Then, eventually the word has its official place in the language.

But, before all this research and writing happens, the people - you and me - using the language have already decided how to spell, use, and pronounce the word. If a word isn't, or hasn't been, used by people speaking a language, it isn't a word in that language. We are the people who the word-technicians and analysts look to in order to discover which words are reallywords.

And once a word has gained sufficient popular or specialized usage to rate its inclusion in a dictionary, it will stay there forever, even if we stop using it. Once it's no longer popularly used it might be listed as 'archaic', or 'obsolete', or given some other description to indicate it isn't used in everyday speech. If it slips out of general usage and but it's usage continues in, say, a relatively small community, a little village or a tiny island, this will be reflected in revised dictionary entries.

When words alter their spelling and pronunciation between localities, this is explained in reputable dictionaries: many English words are listed to reflect differences between, for example, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, South African, UK and US usage. Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish are other examples of widely differing usage of the same language. It just depends on where you live: a person speaking Spanish in Africa, the Andes or Mexico speak, spell and pronounce it very differently to a person speaking Spanish in Spain, and within Spain - as in all other countries - there are regional languages which can be incomprehensible to Spaniards from other areas.

Lexicology:

A person whose profession is researching - studying - words is called a lexicologist; a person writing, compiling, or editing a dictionary, is called a lexicographer - inevitably they're the same person - 'ologist' means they're competent in a particular field of study; 'ographer' means they write about their particular field of competence.

These two words, lexicologist and lexicographer, are used interchangeably. I've used them in the way I have because that's my personal preference - it seems more logical to me; it feels right - the ultimate test of usage. This doesn't mean someone using the words the other way round is less, or more, correct than I am; it means two words which once had quite separate meanings now have, through usage, had the distinction between their meanings blurred. This is an example of how we change the language by the way we use it. I think it's a great thing, that we cannot be denied our complete, inalienable power over our own language!