A lot of people wonder about the future of Twitter - the social-networking brainchild of St. Louis native Jack Dorsey.

Regardless of where you stand on that topic, it’s really tough to deny how fast the young site/service has grown in popularity. And if we need another reminder, the Global Language Monitor says “Twitter” was the top word of 2009.

Said, Paul JJ Payack, the organization’s president:

“In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the after effects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words. Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters.”

Wondering how they figure that out? Well, they aren’t saying exactly how they do it. But they monitor words and phrases in various forms of media, including blogs.

And just for fun, here are the top 10 words of this year:

1. Twitter
2. Obama
3. H1N1
4. Stimulus
5. Vampire
6. 2.0
7. Deficit
8. Hadron
9. Healthcare
10. Transparency