[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Micah R Ledbetter]

On Apr 11, 2007, at 13:13, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:

> I was talking to a pastor, asking him which Bible translations he
> recommends in addition to the KJV.  He made the point that in the  
> 1950s
> the average vocabulary was 10,000 words for high school graduates.   
> Now
> it is 4,000 words.  KJV requires a vocabulary of (I think) about 6,000
> words, RSV requires 4,000, ESV (based on RSV / KJV blended) requires
> 8th grade vocabulary which I think is about 2,000 words.

As a linguist-to-be, I find 4K and even 10K words pretty difficult to  
believe. What is the source of this information? My intro to  
linguistics textbook said that one learned about 1K words per year in  
the first fear years of life, which puts you past 4K by the time  
you've started first grade.

It's a completely different question altogether *which* words those  
are. Perhaps a greater and greater portion of those are not in "the  
dictionary", and certainly a large portion are not in the KJV  
register, since we don't speak 17th century (or before) British  
English. Go figure. :)

(As for Bible translations, I used the NASB, which still maintains  
some archaic language - it's based on the RSV, written 1907(?) - but  
is much more readable than the KJV to me. I chose it based on  
everything I've read on how literal it is.)

  - Micah