When the calendar turned to 2000, people self-consciously speculated as to what we’d call this decade. My feeling was that language would emerge, not be decided upon. As the decade closes, I have seen a lot of decade-end lists, best (movie/music/television) of the aughts. Yep, it seems to be settling into “aughts.” (My own best movie list is coming soon.)
More interestingly, I heard a guy on the radio hoping that there would be fewer tragic deaths “in twenty-ten than in two-thousand-nine.” It was a perfectly natural language shift I’m sure he wasn’t even aware of, and I think it’s pretty meaningful in terms of how we’ll be speaking.
