Language research from Germany: "to Skype" entering mainstream use
[March 30 edition of leading German weekly "Die Zeit"](http://www.zeit.de/2006/14/Gaga-Sprache) is mentioning “Skype” as one of the expressions that will make it into general vocabulary as the synonym for internet telephony. Here’s the synopsis.
> The article reports about the work of scientist Lothar Lemnitzer at the [University of Tuebingen](http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/) in the field of computer-aided linguistics, who is observing the change and growth of language. At the website [www.wortwarte.de](http://www.wortwarte.de), Lemnitzer collects all newly created expressions and words. His results show that new things always require new expressions. When it comes to internet telephony, Lemnitzer sees two favourites that will make it into the German language: “Skypen” (for “to talk via skype”) and “Voipen” (for “to talk via VoIP”). These results came by running a special linguistics software that tracks down all online articles of newspapers and magazines on the internet for new expressions.
Cool stuff. Although if you’re running a business, there are actually some reasons to control and limit the use of your brand name or trademark in people’s speech, crazy as it sounds. So it’s a balancing act. But whether we like it or not, people are talking about “skyping” all over the place and we can only rejoice about that. While we’re at it, why not add some [Skype buttons](http://www.skype.com/go/skypebuttons) to places where you haven’t yet added them 
The only question is, is there really such a verb as “to voip”? In German apparently there is, but in English? I can certainly see people going “Skype me up”… “let’s Skype later”… sure. But “I will voip you tomorrow”? “she voiped me the other day and then I voiped back and it was all one big happy voiping”??? Ummmmm… no.
Well in some languages certain words just don’t fit in. In German “voipen” [vo'ipen] sounds just ok. You should hear what kinds of expressions I hear arround me. Waw. Here is something I overheard a few days back: “Fussballweltmeisterschaftsqualifikationsspiel” or “a qualifying soccer game for the world cup”. Not that we get that a lot, but still it makes a point that some things sound differently in the context of different languages.
skype me or I’ll skype you at … more friendly & comfortably than voip me ))
Well, Jaanus, I know that you like your company and many of your customers do like it, too. But we can take it for granted that the SIP-based VoIP community is growing and might even overtake Skype in the future, too. There is a simple reason: Between Skype and circuit-switched telephony is a big bunch of companies that want to make more money with Internet Telephony then only charging micro-margins on breaking out or into their subscriber base.
Therefore, many guys who like to stay neutral start using the term “voipen” here in Germany.
I believe that the name “Skype” was invented in order to work as a verb (ending with an “e”, sounding similar to the verb “to hype”, having a bit of “the sky is the limit feeling” in it) in the same way that people use “to google” when recommending to search something on the Internet, e.g. to a friend who has a need to find an answer.
I wonder who the SIP-based VoIP leader brand will be. Maybe something sounding like another verb.
I’m German, but I never heard of ‘voipen’ (to voip). However, we do say ‘skypen’ (to skype) here.