Linguists, translators, interpreters and language pundits are debating how properly to refer to the year 2010.

"Twenty-ten" and "two-thousand-ten" are the main options in North American English, although British English would make the latter "two-thousand-and-ten."

Alicia Beckford Wassink, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington, told The Seattle Times that "this is one of the places that our language allows variability," predicting that "we will not converge on one way."

The San Francisco Chronicle carried out a statistical survey, finding that four out of five YouTube videos randomly selected used "two-thousand-ten."

Despite this, the National Association of Grammar has insisted on "twenty-ten," maintaining that Americans have been incorrect in referring to the preceding decade as the "two-thousand-ands."

The society's Tom Toraglia, author of The Grammar Police Never Sleep, told the Chronicle that "NAGG is here to put everybody back on the correct path," saying that "twenty follows nineteen. Two thousand does not follow nineteen. It's logical."

But other issues are just as pressing as a new decade dawns.

Amateur and professional linguists alike are also arguing over the right designation for the decade 2010 to 2019. 2000 to 2009 were known as "the noughties," so a label for the new period is keenly sought.

"The Teens" is the top choice, although the "teen" suffix does not actually appear until 2013. A slightly more colloquial suggestion is "the Teenies". A third option is "the Twenty-Tens," following the pattern set in the 20th century, when the years 1910 to 1919 were referred to as "the Nineteen-Tens."

Professor Roly Sussex of Queensland University, Australia, said he could not see "an obvious candidate," and declared the debate "still open."

The linguist predicted "twenty-ten" would rule the day in 2010, however, since it is "nice and short."

11 January 2010