Well, what I do is try to point out when two communities I’m aware of are coming up with different words for the same thing. Especially when someone is saying “There’s no word for this phenomenon yet, so I’m coining the word X for it,” but in fact there is a word for it in a nearby community.
There’s not a Big Problem here; it’s just ordinary language change. It’s perfectly normal for language communities to invent new words and usages; and if two communities are isolated from one another, there’s no magic process that will cause them to converge on one word or usage over another. Convergence can only happen when people actually talk to each other and explain what their words mean.
Well, what I do is try to point out when two communities I’m aware of are coming up with different words for the same thing. Especially when someone is saying “There’s no word for this phenomenon yet, so I’m coining the word X for it,” but in fact there is a word for it in a nearby community.
There’s not a Big Problem here; it’s just ordinary language change. It’s perfectly normal for language communities to invent new words and usages; and if two communities are isolated from one another, there’s no magic process that will cause them to converge on one word or usage over another. Convergence can only happen when people actually talk to each other and explain what their words mean.
I think it’s great that you point this out when you see it!