Poor old Pope. He has lost his standing in the written word. So says at the University of Maribor in Slovenia, who has identified the most common words used in 5.2 million books published over five centuries.
Perc used data collected by Google for the company鈥檚 application 鈥� a tool that lets users see the changing popularity of certain written words over time. Once he had downloaded data for books published between 1520 and 2008, he used an algorithm to search for the most commonly used words and groups of words in each year.
The most popular words stayed the same. 鈥淭he鈥� was top in both 1520 and 2008. Common groups of words have changed, though. The most common three-word phrase in 2008 was 鈥渙ne of the鈥�; in 1520, it was 鈥渙f the Pope鈥�. References to religion featured heavily in early literature, Perc notes. For example, 鈥渢he Pope and his followers鈥�, 鈥渢he laws of the Church鈥� and 鈥渢he body and blood of Christ鈥� all feature in the 10 most popular five-word phrases of 1520. By 2008, the most frequently written five-word phrases were along the lines of 鈥渁t the end of the鈥�, 鈥渋n the middle of the鈥� and 鈥渙n the other side of鈥�.
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A closer inspection of the changing use of English words revealed that, while changes in popularity of some words were quite dramatic during the 16th and 17th centuries, rankings have stayed pretty constant in the 20th and 21st centuries. That said, recently the words 鈥淯nited States鈥� have increased in popularity.
鈥淚t seems English writing has reached a mature state,鈥� says Perc. 鈥淭here is a statistical coming of age of the language.鈥�
Because the most frequently written words are changing little over the years, the English language might be particularly easy to learn, says Perc. 鈥淚f phrases reappear in a book, it鈥檚 easier to follow,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n China, where globalisation is still taking place, there鈥檚 still a lot of change in the language, and that probably makes it harder to learn.鈥�
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