What Gets Me Hot: Linguist Labels 2010's (Audio MP3) Competing for Dominance: ‘twenty ten’ or ‘two thousand and ten’ (2010)

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Labels for Years, Again
My question about the pronunciation of labels for years in this decade continues to produce discussion. Now, I have audio grist for the mill. The following audio clip is from CKNW Radio (980am) in Vancouver. This morning, financial analyst Michael Levy was discussing the collapse of asset-backed commercial paper investments in Canada. During the conversation with on-air host Michael Smyth, Levy referred to 2006 as ‘2-oh-6′, 2007 as ‘2-oh-7′, and 2009 as ‘2-oh-9.’ Listen for yourself:

This is not the everyday reference to this years that I use. I don’t hear it very often. What do you make of it?
Note: This clip ran between 11:14:26am and 11:15:54am. The clip has been edited. ‘2-oh-6′ appears at 22s, ‘2-oh-7′ at 23s, and 2-oh-9′ at 1:43.

Labels for Years? A Question for Linguists?
When I was a teenager (waaaaay back in the 1980s) I occasionally wondered how society was going to refer to the years after 2000. I saw several possibilities including things like ‘twenty-0-six’ (a parallel construction with, say, nineteen-0-six) or even ‘two thousand and six.’ (I have never heard anyone use ‘twenty hundred’ to refer to 2000, though.) As 2000 approached, I got the sense that most people would use the second construction.
I then wondered how years after 2009 would be spoken about and it seems clear that two constructions are still competing for dominance: ‘twenty ten’ or ‘two thousand and ten’ (2010).
Three times in the past week, however, I have heard a different construction for the year 2010 on the radio. The label for 2010 that some are using in the Vancouver radio market is ‘two ten’ as in “Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics in two ten.” Should this surprise me? It seems like a reasonable contraction for ‘two thousand and ten’ but it does not represent a huge improvement on ‘twenty-ten’ as far as syllable conservation is concerned anyway.
Has anyone else heard this? If so, in which cities or areas? Any linguists interested in weighing in on the processes at work here?

12.31.2009

Linguist Labels 2010's (Audio MP3) Competing for Dominance: ‘twenty ten’ or ‘two thousand and ten’ (2010)

Labels for Years, Again

Labels for Years? A Question for Linguists?