keywords

THE FIRST FEW WORDS

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– of 2025

Back in December last year I wrote a second opinion piece on words of the year for the Conversation. You can find it here… *

At the end of January this year the Lexis Podcast team kindly invited me to discuss some of those words and why – if – they were really significant. We also looked at new terms recorded in 2025 so far, making a first attempt to explain and assess them, and to wonder which if any of them might endure. Our discussion, which went on for 40 minutes, is here…

…and, from February, a little puzzle for you. Can you unscramble and reassemble these two-word novelties? (Thanks to simplewordcloud.com)

It’s now July, and my attempts to go on recording this year’s wholly new, or reworked and updated terms and expressions have been interrupted by the need to react to the news-cycle – to the sinister euphemisms, avoidances and untruths perpetrated by war criminals, would-be dictators and their servants in the media. Examples of their language have been added my glossary of toxic terminology and the updated version is here…

A GLOSSARY OF WEAPONISED* WORDS, BREXITSPEAK and THE TOXIC TERMINOLOGY OF POPULISM

John Belgrove reminded me that in May Donald Trump bragged of coming up with a new word – ‘a good word’, but the word in question was ‘equalising’. I have managed nonetheless, with the help of other friends and contacts on Twitter, BlueSky, Instagram and Facebook, to gather a few more examples of lexical innovation, candidates for an end-of year survey in due course…

But I would very much welcome suggestions of other new words and phrases, ideally together with their meanings and comments on their usage in context. All donations will be credited and donors thanked.

*https://theconversation.com/most-words-of-the-year-dont-actually-tell-us-about-the-state-of-the-world-heres-what-id-pick-instead-246190

THE SLANG AND NEW LANGUAGE ARCHIVE

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A research portal for scholars, the press and the public

The Slang and New Language Archive was created in 1994 while I was Director of the Language Centre at King’s College London. The archive, consisting of a small library of books and periodicals and a number of databases and sub-directories, was designed as a repository for the collection, storage and dissemination of new language, in particular examples of nonstandard varieties of English such as slang, jargon and buzzwords. The archive was later expanded to take in examples of media language, political language, linguistic curiosities and etymologies. It remains a resource, unique in the UK and not-for-profit, assisting researchers, students, teachers and journalists, as well as non-specialists, in accessing information about aspects of contemporary language that are under-represented in traditional dictionaries and reference works.

This link will take you to the Archive webpage at King’s College, where there are further links to relevant articles and published sources…

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/slang-and-new-language

Glossaries from the archive may be accessed on this site by entering keywords, such as slang, jargon, MLE (Multiethnic London English), familect (highly colloquial language used in the home), coronaspeak (language related to the COVID-19 pandemic) and weaponised words (the contentious language of Brexit, populism and biased reporting) and slurs (racist and misogynist terms) in the search box. Once you have accessed a post of interest, check the tags and categories at the foot of the page for other articles or glossaries on the same topic.

Two of the larger archive datafiles are hosted on Aston University’s Institute of Forensic Linguistics Databank site. These are a glossary of current youth slang…

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/4

And a glossary of UK street slang, rap music and gang terminology…

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/5

Please note that the King’s archive focuses principally on contemporary language, that is terms used from the twentieth century to the present day. If you are interested in historical slang, I strongly recommend the monumental work by my associate, the British lexicographer Jonathon Green. His dictionary, now generously freely available online, lists current and historical slang terms with timelines and citations illustrating their usage and development…

https://greensdictofslang.com/

For more information, for queries, or to donate examples of language, contact me via this website or via the King’s College webpage. I’m on Twitter as @tonythorne007 too.

In terms of new slang and nonstandard language there are few reliable resources online. In February 2025, however, US publisher Merriam-Webster launched their own slang dictionary. You can find it here…

https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang

Among the many more informal glossaries and wordlists of slang posted on the internet in 2025, this review of slang in English schools is unusually comprehensive and accurate…

https://teachertapp.com/uk/articles/down-with-the-kids-slang-in-british-classrooms-2025/

INITIAL FINDINGS

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more updates on 2025’s language landscape

Once again, I’m very grateful indeed to Randoh Sallihall of Unscramblerer.com for sharing his data on language usage online. I previously posted his analysis of last year’s slang lookups (online searches)* and this time his findings reveal the most popular internet text abbreviation lookups in 2025 so far, for the UK and the USA. I was amused to see SMH (‘shaking my head‘) featuring high in both lists. A few years ago I confidently stated in a BBC radio interview that this stood for ‘same here’ – as I had just been informed by a group of schoolkids. I was immediately and publicly corrected – and shamed – by presenter Anne McElvoy and invited journalist Hannah Jane Parkinson and the bitter experience has stayed with me.** It may be culturally significant also that Britain’s favourite apology – in the form of SOZ – doesn’t feature at all on the American list.

“Analysis of Google search data for 2025 so far reveals the most searched for text abbreviations in the UK.”

Most searched for text abbreviations in the United Kingdom:

1.      POV (39 000 searches) – Point of view.

2.      SMH (34 000 searches) – Shake my head.

3.      PMO (28 000 searches) – Put me on.

4.      ICL (17 000 searches) – I Can’t Lie.

5.      OG (16 000 searches) – Original gangster.

6.      OTP (16 000 searches) – One true pairing.

7.      NVM (13 000 searches) – Never mind.

8.      TM (11 000 searches)- Talk to me.

9.      SN (7 000 searches) – Say nothing.

10.   BTW (6 000 searches) – By the way.

11.   KMT (6 000 searches) – Kiss my teeth.

12.   FS (6 000 searches) – For sure.

13.   WYM (6 000 searches) – What you mean.

14.   HRU (6 000 searches) – How are you?

15.   ATP (5 000 searches) – At this point.

16.   SYBAU (5 000 searches) – Shut your b—h ass up.

17.   IGHT (5 000 searches) – Alright.

18.   ONB (4 000 searches) – On bro.

19.   WSP (4 000 searches) – What’s up?

20.   TY (4 000 searches) – Thank you.

21.   SOZ (3 500 searches) – Sorry.

22.   IDC (3 000 searches) – I don’t care.

23.   LDAB (3 000 searches) –  Let’s do a b-tch.

24.   PFP (3 000 searches) – Picture for proof.

25.   IBR (3 000 searches) – It’s been real.

26.   IYW  (3 000 searches) – If you will.

27.   TB (2 500 searches) – Text back.

28.   FYI (2 500 searches) – For your information.

29.   GTFO (2 500 searches) – Get the f–k out.

30.   HY (2 000 searches) – Hell yeah.

Most searched for text abbreviations in the United States:

1.      FAFO (254 000 searches) – F–k around and find out.

2.      SMH (166 000 searches) – Shake my head.

3.      PMO (101 000 searches) – Put me on.

4.      OTP (95 000 searches) – One true pairing.

5.      TBH (93 000 searches) – To be honest.

6.      ATP (85 000 searches) – At this point.

7.      TS (79 000 searches) – Talk soon.

8.      WYF (76 000 searches) – Where are you from.

9.      NFS (75 000 searches) – New friends.

10.   ASL (65 000 searches) – As hell.

11.   POV (63 000 searches) – Point of view.

12.   WYLL (59 000 searches) – What you look like.

13.   FS (58 000 searches) – For sure.

14.   FML (56 000 searches) – F–k my life.

15.   DW (55 000 searches) – Don’t worry.

16.   HMU (54 000 searches) – Hit me up.

17.   ISO (53 000 searches) – In search of.

18.   WSG (50 000 searches) – What’s good?

19.   IMO (48 000 searches) – In my opinion.

20.   MK (45 000 searches) – Mmm, okay.

21.   ETA (40 000 searches) – Estimated time of arrival.

22.   ICL (37 000 searches) – I Can’t Lie.

23.   MB (37 000 searches) – My bad.

24.   STG (29 000 searches) – Swear to god.

25.   ION (28 000 searches) – In other media.

26.   PFP (27 000 searches) – Picture for proof.

27.   NTM (27000 searches) – Nothing much.

28.   DTM (26 000 searches) – Doing too much.

29.   TTM (26 000 searches)- Talk to me.

30.   MBN (25 000 searches) – Must be nice.

31.   ETC (24 000 searches) – And the rest.

32.   BTW (23 000 searches) – By the way.

33.   WFH (21 000 searches) – Work from home.

34.   GMFU (20 000 searches) – Got me f—-d up.

35.   NGL (19000 searches) – Not gonna lie.

36.   SYBAU (19 000 searches) – Shut your b—h ass up.

37.   BTA (17 000 searches) – But then again.

38.   SB (17 000 searches) – Somebody.

39.   HBD (16 000 searches) – Happy Birthday.

40.   PMG (15 000 searches) – Oh my god.

41.   HY (15 000 searches) – Hell yeah.

42.   TMB (11 000 searches) – Text me back.

43.   WYS (10 000 searches) – Whatever you say.

44.   GNG (9 000 searches) – Gang (close friends or family).

45.   IKTR (8 000 searches) – I know that’s right.

46.   IKR (7 000 searches) – I know, right?

47.   ARD (6 000 searches) – Alright.

48.   IFG (5 500 searches) – I f—–g guess.

49.   HN (4 000 searches) – Hell no.

50.   TTH (3 000 searches) – Trying too hard.

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: “Text abbreviations are the secret language of the internet. You could even call them an integral part of social media culture. Snappy, always changing and hard to understand. Texting abbreviations is all about saving time and appearing cool. Keeping up to date with the newest trending abbreviations is no easy task. Old meanings can change while new abbreviations are created. A recent study found that abbreviations might not be as cool as people think. Using abbreviations makes the sender seem less sincere. This also leads to lower engagement and shorter responses. There is nothing wrong with using abbreviations in casual conversations with friends and family. However it is best do draw a line for professional conversations. Context matters.”

Research was conducted by word finding experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed 01.01.2025 -05.03.2025 search data from Google Trends for terms related to text abbreviations.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the top trending text abbreviations and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. America’s most popular text abbreviations can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword variations of ‘meaning text’. Abbreviations are used most often on social media and texting. The 2025 top trending abbreviations are the least understood. People have to search for their meaning (example ‘TBH meaning text’). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like ‘text meaning’ or ‘means in text'(example ‘PMO meaning in text’) and similar keyword combinations(example ‘what does SMH mean in text’). We added up 100 search variations of top text abbreviations.

I was very grateful, too, when Claire Martin-Tellis of content marketing and digital PR specialists North Star Inbound contacted me with an update, again from the USA, on attitudes to outdated slang…

“As new slang terms like “Beta,” “GYAT,” and  “Skibidi,” continue to surface, it’s enough even to make Gen Z feel old! Language learning app Preply asked Americans of all ages to weigh in on their favorite era of slang. Here is what decade reigns supreme:

  • Over ⅓ of Americans say the 1990s is their favorite decade for slang.
  • Men surveyed preferred the 1970s while women preferred the 1990s.
  • “Baloney,” “take a chill pill,” and “bogus” are the three most popular slang terms Americans want to see come back.

*https://language-and-innovation.com/2024/11/18/the-search-for-slang/

**the embarrassment is still audible here…https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vs6g2

LANGUAGE REPLICATION – OR LANGUAGE INNOVATION?

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Are the machine learning tools and chatbots that work with human language creating, or just impersonating?

I spoke this week to Rob Booth, the Guardian’s UK Technology Editor, about the latest interfacing between AI and human language interactions, a topic I am only just beginning to explore. Rob’s perceptive analysis with contributions from my friend Professor Rob Drummond, is here…

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/11/ai-tone-shifting-tech-could-flatten-communication-apple-intelligence

A few days earlier French business journalist Jacques Henno asked if AI could now actually create language rather than merely replicate it or imitate it…

“I’d like to know your opinion on the impact of generative AI tools on language evolution. These tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and others, don’t invent but simply reproduce learned content. What do you think their influence will be on written and spoken language?”

Primitive versions of AI have been used for some time to generate new terms, notably brand names and product names. These can be generated by entering desirable associations or attributes plus related names or keywords into an engine which will produce new combinations of words or completely new items of vocabulary.

Likewise, there have been business or corporate ‘jargon or buzzword generators’ in use for some years which can be activated for fun to create new (and supposedly absurd or comical) terms. https://www.feedough.com/business-jargon-generator/

AI can already create new languages in order to translate or interpret communication systems and to mediate between other non-human ‘languages’ such as programming languages or symbolic or mathematical systems. These languages however are not generally usable for normal human interactions and not normally recognisable as languages by non-specialists 

More recently, more powerful and sophisticated AI tools have been introduced which claim to work with the technical mechanisms and structures of existing languages (the ways in which English, French, Russian, etc. form words and attach word-endings, change nouns to verbs, for example and the way in which Hungarian, Mandarin, Hindi, etc. arrange words or characters in order) and with their use of metaphor and semantic shift (extending the meaning of a concept). These can already create new words. Two examples are here…

https://alibswrites.medium.com/times-are-changing-will-ai-create-our-new-vocabulary-12f6f68a7890

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-new-word-does-not-exist-gpt-          2-a9514936.html

But despite the sophistication of the latest Large Language Models and language-generating AI tools, there are still predictable areas in which the material they produce is often deficient or defective. Real language innovation does not just involve using the structures of existing languages or adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words or combining syllables in a new way. Even a machine-learning tool which can understand and manipulate metaphor, synonymy, imagery can’t yet grasp the subtleties of human inventiveness, or the psychological and physical processes involved in making new language which is genuinely usable, pleasing, convincing and ‘authentic’. Creating new words involves – as in literature, poetry but also in everyday professional or social life – drawing on cultural allusions, references to shared values, knowledge of fashion, beliefs, cultural history, local conditions, jokes and styles of humour, etc. Apart from style, register, tone, appropriacy (tailoring one’s choice of words to the context in which they are used), etc. another key linguistic concept that AI will struggle to cope with is ‘implicature’, the human tendency to express things indirectly, to infer.

Another aspect of language which AI finds it hard to understand or replicate is what is called ‘phonaesthetics’ or ‘sound symbolism’. This involves the sounds and pronunciations (and the look of the word on the page too) of words and the psychological effects these sounds have on the mind of the hearer, many of the words created by AI just don’t sound or look like real words. This has been a problem in generating brand names or product names, many of which look or sound ugly and unappealing to potential consumers or users.

There are so many tiny social cues in real-life human interactions that are not always pattern behaviour or even precedented and are often based on abstract ideas. They may also involve allusion, shared cultural reference and often irony and humour. There is also something called ‘embodied metaphoricity’: “For a mental representation to be “embodied” in the sense most commonly invoked by metaphor researchers, it must be instantiated at least in part by a simulation of prior or potential bodily experiences, within modality-specific components of the brain’s input and output systems (e.g., visual cortex, motor cortex; Barsalou 1999)”, in other words understanding is ‘seeing’, knowing is ‘grasping’. Humans activate this instinctively and can reflect on it intellectually: AI in its present incarnations can’t do either.

Developers and programmers are well aware of many, if not all, of these problem areas and are energetically attempting to address them…

https://www.sapiens.org/language/ai-oral-languages/

My observations so far have been based on a very superficial understanding of exactly how large language models and generative AI work. I’m therefore very grateful indeed to Dr Joe McIntyre for his recommendation of this explanatory guide…

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/07/a-jargon-free-explanation-of-how-ai-large-language-models-work/

I’m recommending a role for linguists in monitoring AI’s ability to understand or replicate the nuances of human speech. This project is pioneering a sociolinguistic approach to the question of bias in AI-generated content…

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence/articles/10.3389/frai.2024.1472411/full

Very belatedly I asked ChatGPT itself to tell me about AI’s drawbacks in handling or reproducing human language. It offered me two responses which I reproduce here…

The first response…

AI has made great strides in handling human language, but it still has notable weaknesses:

  1. Context Limitations: AI struggles with maintaining long-term context in lengthy conversations or documents, which can lead to inconsistencies or irrelevant responses.
  2. Ambiguity: Human language is often ambiguous, and AI might misinterpret subtle nuances, slang, or idiomatic expressions, leading to incorrect or nonsensical outputs.
  3. Lack of World Knowledge: While AI can access vast amounts of information, it lacks true understanding or lived experience, which can make it difficult to handle subjective, emotional, or cultural contexts.
  4. Subtlety in Tone: Sarcasm, irony, and humor are challenging for AI to detect and respond to appropriately, especially without clear contextual markers.
  5. Ethical Judgment: AI can falter in making ethical or moral judgments when the appropriate course of action requires nuanced human values or cultural sensitivity.
  6. Bias in Training Data: AI can inherit and even amplify biases present in its training data, leading to unfair or problematic language generation.
  7. Difficulty in Creative Expression: While AI can mimic creative writing styles, it often lacks originality, deeper insight, or the emotional depth that comes from human creativity.
  8. Overconfidence: AI can confidently provide incorrect answers because it doesn’t inherently know when it lacks the required knowledge or context to respond accurately.

The second response…

1. Lack of True Understanding

  • AI processes language based on patterns and statistical associations but doesn’t truly “understand” meaning or context the way humans do. This can lead to misunderstandings or inappropriate responses in nuanced situations.

2. Ambiguity in Context

  • Human language is highly context-dependent. Ambiguities, idioms, sarcasm, or double meanings can confuse AI, especially if the context is insufficient or contradicts typical patterns.

3. Inability to Handle Novelty

  • AI struggles with completely new or rare scenarios that lack sufficient training data. If faced with language or ideas it hasn’t been trained on, it might provide irrelevant or nonsensical responses.

4. Bias in Language Models

  • AI models can inherit biases from their training data, leading to biased or insensitive outputs. These biases reflect the data sources used and are difficult to eliminate completely.

5. Rigidity in Logic

  • AI often interprets instructions literally and may struggle with flexible or creative problem-solving, especially when the input is vague or requires unconventional reasoning.

6. Lack of Emotional Intelligence

  • While AI can mimic empathetic responses, it lacks genuine emotional awareness or the ability to fully grasp the emotional subtext in complex human interactions.

7. Limited Common Sense

  • Despite improvements, AI still struggles with common-sense reasoning, particularly when it involves understanding the physical world or day-to-day human experiences.

8. Overconfidence in Responses

  • AI can sometimes generate confident-sounding but incorrect or misleading answers, as it has no internal mechanism to distinguish between what it knows well and what it doesn’t.

9. Difficulty with Long-Term Coherence

  • Maintaining coherence in extended conversations or texts can be challenging for AI, especially when the discussion involves multiple threads or evolves over time.

10. Cultural and Linguistic Nuances

  • AI may falter in understanding or generating culturally specific expressions, regional dialects, or less commonly spoken languages, especially if training data is sparse.

I later spoke to author Mark Piesing on the same subject, and his very informative review in the Bookseller is here…

https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/servant-or-master

Dan McIntyre (a Twitter mutual) is among the first linguists to subject the capacities of large language models to expert analysis…

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378216625000323

And in May 2025 I came across this interesting study which, at first sight, seems to suggest hitherto unexpected capacities for AI in precisely the areas suggested as deficient above…

Click to access 2025.naacl-long.544.pdf

In September 2025 Wikipedia published an excellent review of writing styles and linguistic cues detectable in AI-generated texts…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing

THE SEARCH FOR SLANG

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Researching and tracking the latest slang can now draw upon statistical analysis of online data.

As 2024 draws to its end and talk among lexicographers, culture journalists and language buffs turns to ‘words of the year’, I’m immensely grateful to Randoh Sallihall of Unscramblerer for providing me with his datasets showing lookups (Google searches) for the most popular recent slang expressions…

Most searched for slang words in United Kingdom:

1.      Gaslighting (170 000 searches) – a type of manipulation that makes you doubt your memories and feelings. The person doing it may lie and deny things.

2.      Skibidi (125 000 searches) – refers to a viral internet trend featuring surreal, animated videos of singing toilets and dancing heads, popularized on platforms like TikTok for its bizarre humor.

3.      Pookie (47 000 searches) – to show endearment and affection. Used for a close friend, partner or family member. A playful way to say someone is special.

4.      Hawk tuah (40 000 searches) – imitative of a spitting sound. The catchphrase originates from a viral street interview conducted in June 2024 with Haliey Welch, who stated that her signature move for making a man ‘go crazy’ in bed was to ‘give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang’.

5.      Sigma (37 000 searches) – refers to an independent, self-reliant person who operates outside traditional social hierarchies, often described as a ‘lone wolf.’

6.      SMH (31 000 searches) – internet slang for ‘shaking my head’. Used to express disapproval or disappointment.

7.      Demure (26 000 searches) – reserved, modest or shy in manner or appearance. The TikTok user Jools Lebron made a series of viral videos using the phrase “very demure”. This trend gave the word a playful slang meaning. She uses it to assess appropriate makeup and fashion choices in various settings.

8.      Rizz (25 000 searches) – style, charm or attractiveness. The ability to attract a romantic partner and make others like you.

9.      Dei (17 000 searches) – diversity, equity, inclusion. A family friendly way of saying woke.

10.   Aura (13 000 searches) – the vibe someone gives off. When used by tweens and teens it is likely a reference to how badass someone is. Aura points make you cooler. So you definitely want to earn more aura points instead of losing them.

We can compare this list with Randoh’s equivalent for the USA, used in the Newsweek article posted previously to which I contributed, and reproduced here with his explanatory comments…

Analysis of Google search data for 2024 reveals the most searched for slang words in America:

1.      Demure (260 000 searches) – reserved, modest or shy in manner or appearance. The TikTok user Jools Lebron made a series of viral videos using the phrase “very demure”. This trend gave the word a playful slang meaning. She uses it to assess appropriate makeup and fashion choices in various settings.

2.      Sigma (220 000 searches) – refers to an independent, self-reliant person who operates outside traditional social hierarchies, often described as a ‘lone wolf.’

3.      Skibidi (205 000 searches) – refers to a viral internet trend featuring surreal, animated videos of singing toilets and dancing heads, popularized on platforms like TikTok for its bizarre humor.

4.      Hawk tuah (180 000 searches) – imitative of a spitting sound. The catchphrase originates from a viral street interview conducted in June 2024 with Haliey Welch, who stated that her signature move for making a man ‘go crazy’ in bed was to ‘give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang’.

5.      Sobriquet (105 000 searches) – a nickname or descriptive name given to a person or thing. Borrowed from French sobriquet (nickname).

6.      Schmaltz (65 000 searches) – refers to excessive sentimentality or melodrama. Often used for art, movies, music or storytelling if there is too much sappiness.

7.      Sen (50 000 searches) – slang for self.

8.      Katz (34 000 searches) – a term for anything enjoyable, fun or pleasing. It can also mean ‘yes’.

9.      Oeuvre (25 000 searches) – refers to the complete works produced by an artist, writer or composer. A word used by literature professors to express superiority.

10.   Preen (20 000 searches) – slang for a child who tries to act like a teenager(wears teen clothes or makeup).

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: “The English language is ever changing. Every year new slang words are created. Many slang words are born through trending topics and viral videos on social media. However only few manage to stick around long enough to be added to the dictionary and remain in daily use. Slang words are a normal and fun evolution of language. We encourage everyone to learn some new words and surprise their children by using them.”

Research was conducted by word-finding experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed 01.01.2024 -25.10.2024 search data from Google Trends for terms related to slang words.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the top trending slang terms and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. Americas most popular slang terms can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword ‘meaning’. People will hear or read slang terms and search for the meaning of the term (example ‘demure meaning’). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like ‘slang’ or ‘trend’ (example ‘demure slang’) and similar keyword combinations (example ‘what does demure mean’). We added up 150 search variations of top slang terms.

A few days after Randoh’s findings were published, I was asked by Robert Milazzo* to take part in the masterclass on new slang and youth language that he convened at Virginia Commonwealth University. The whole lively one-hour event was recorded and can be accessed here…

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yYlV7LkKdEf5AqFF-bJQAfIE5s5PUpGi/view?usp=sharing

Robert’s class was particularly illuminating, allowing as it did for contributions from young slang users themselves and from puzzled old-timers too. Bear in mind that the samples handled by data analysts are taken solely from online usage and not from authentic speech. Nearly all the slang used on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. originates in the USA whereas the slang terms used by British youth in their IRL conversations will differ considerably from their North American counterparts, showing much greater influence from African Caribbean rather than African American sources.

*https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-milazzo-3a8860116/

THE DISCOURSE OF DIVISION

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The US election campaign through a language lens

As the campaigning reached its climax and the polling-stations began to open, I spoke to Kate O’Connell and Gemma Chatwin of the Corporate Communications Team at King’s College London about the language used by the rival candidates, their aides and their supporters during the twelve months since the election process began. Kate and Gemma’s questions are below with my replies…

  • As a language specialist, what have you observed/found interesting about the US election?

One thing that strikes an outsider – British or European, I suggest – is the different  nature of the vocabulary and rhetoric employed in US campaigning: the seemingly chaotic and unrestrained messaging, pivoting and veering unexpectedly into new areas sometimes, showing a lack of consistency, except in tone (Trump’s particularly). There is actually less reliance on a narrow range of repeated specific keywords, slogans and soundbites than has been the case in UK political campaigning – for Brexit, during the pandemic and in the recent election: (‘Take back control’, ‘Brexit means Brexit’, ‘Eat out to help out’, ‘Stop the Boats’ etc.). The Republicans’ messages have been more consistent in emphasising a few key ‘wedge’ issues while Democrats seemed to take a long time to decide on their priorities in terms of focus.

  • How has the language used by both candidates differed? What does their language tell us about their campaign strategy/ voter base?

Linguists – myself included – have tried to track the formulations (not so much genuinely new language as reworking of familiar tropes) used by each side and measure the frequency with which particular topics and particular trigger-words recur. Donald Trump has employed a vocabulary containing many examples of the language of fear and violence, and much intemperate language throughout: ‘vermin’, ‘criminal migrants’, ‘the enemy from within’, ‘radical left lunatics’, and words evoking existential threats: ‘invaded’, ‘conquered’, ‘occupied’, ‘deportation’ and violence: ‘kill’, ‘death’, ‘blood’, ‘nuclear war’, ‘guns trained on her face’. One analysis concluded that Trump had used more violent language than any other recent political orator except Fidel Castro!

Trump has consistently favoured the use of ‘I’ and ‘they’, Harris more often emphasising ‘we’. The Democrats on the other hand, while perhaps favouring less inflammatory language have possibly failed, until the closing days of the campaign (‘neighbors not enemies’ is a last-minute exception), to find memorable, resonant phrases to inspire and motivate. While initially hesitant, and despite Kamala Harris being accused in the more distant past of ‘word salads’ the Democrats, apart from Joe Biden, have been measurably more coherent, while many of Trump’s recent performances have been criticised as meandering if not incomprehensible. His justification for this being that he is practising ‘the weave’, a sort of improvisational incantation that his followers appreciate.

  • We have seen a lot of name-calling in the 2024 election, has it been effective?

A famous example of a slur which seems to have worked is Tim Walz’s characterising of Trump and the Republicans as ‘weird’. This is effective since the word is not especially offensive or toxic but frames the opposition as odd, eccentric, unstable in worrying ways, by implication disturbing – a relatively casual criticism of a community that is old and out of touch with reality. The Republicans accusing ‘immigrants’ of eating pet dogs and cats and likening Puerto Rico to a ‘floating island of garbage’ outraged their opponents, though Joe Biden also came unstuck when he reached for the same metaphor. It’s notable that both sides have used proxies to deliver some of the most stinging criticisms of the leaders, rather than have them delivered by the candidates themselves: ‘childless cat lady’ for example, or ‘unhinged, unstable, unchecked’ – words supplied by former Trump aides and reposted by the Democrats. One rather surprising blip in the unfolding news cycle occurred when Harris suddenly approved the f-word, agreeing when it was suggested to her that Donald Trump was a ‘fascist’. He quickly returned the insult, adding the ‘N-word’ which everyone had so far avoided: ‘I’m the opposite of a Nazi’. Both sides seem to have tacitly put those words aside for the final phase of the campaigning, though tellingly, in a final peroration J.D Vance urged followers to ‘take out the trash’ in reference to the Vice-President.

I think that outsiders listening in bemusement or horror at the campaign rhetoric misunderstand the nature of the voter bases involved. Doom-laden warnings and threats and angry braggadocio can be effective, reassuring and motivating to an audience for whom ‘make America great again’ carries a conviction that the country is at the mercy of hostile forces and on the edge of social breakdown. Conversely Kamala Harris’s more upbeat, feelgood emphasis attempts to instil a cheerful positivity which may not always have been backed up with hard facts or firm commitments (apart perhaps where reproductive rights are concerned).

  • Could this be the first election won on TikTok?

Kamala Harris’s folksy reference, early in the campaign, to having ‘fallen out of the coconut tree’ cleverly appealed to a family audience and referenced her own potentially controversial heritage in a positive way. She has also tried, seemingly with some success, to tap into the female and feminine constituency and the relatively youthful energy  displayed by users of TikTok, a platform which avoids threats and displays of anger and relies on self-promotion, performances of success and – crucially – an element of self-mockery and humour that is entirely missing from Donald Trump’s repertoire. TikTok currently occupies the high-ground of the social media landscape and is a valuable channel by which to reach millennials and GenZ (the latter voting for the first time) millions of whom are potential democrat supporters. It does not reach, however the middle-aged or elderly undecided. Celebrity endorsements apparently can motivate potential non-voters to change their minds and vote, but unsurprisingly probably only affect a demographic which is already on-side anyway (‘Swifties’ for example who are said to have added 400,000 votes to Harris’s tally). Elon Musk’s embracing of Donald Trump is more difficult to assess, as Musk’s own fanbase – tech bros, startup promoters and bitcoin traders among them – aren’t necessarily effective multipliers or influencers on his behalf or Trump’s and perhaps less likely to sway the undecided.

  • How did brat summer and ‘vibes’ benefit Kamala Harris’s campaign?

When pop icon Charli XCX posted her endorsement on X, ‘Kamala IS brat’, young women flooded social media with pro-Harris ‘brat’ memes, kickstarting her takeover from Biden and effectively labelling her as endearingly ‘messy, honest and volatile.’ The democrat campaign switched up to make good use of the tropes and tendencies of pop culture and entertainment media, receiving endorsements from many musicians and Hollywood names, culminating in their candidate’s surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live in which she launched viral versions of her own name -‘End the drama-la’, ‘Cool new step mom-ala’ and returned to that conflicted keyword, asserting that she would be able to open the ‘doors of the garbage truck’ that Trump had fumbled with. This confident banter in the very last moments of the campaign, along with her pivot, after Bill Clinton’s disastrous intervention, to promising some sort of support for Gaza, can only help the democrats’ chances, and these messages are featuring in places that Trump cannot usually access. Nevertheless the Republican candidate is doubling down on his insurrectionist rhetoric, welcomed by his base, saying now that he ‘should never have left the White House in the first place’.

My friend Serena Smith wrote perceptively for Dazed magazine about the role of celebrities in the presidential race…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/64995/1/will-pop-culture-impact-the-result-of-the-2024-us-election

Once the race was over the avalanche of post-mortems and recriminations began. Among them were a few which focused, as I had tried to, on the discourse of division. In the New Yorker Joshua Rothman considered the very different flavour of the two parties’ language…

“Id been spending a lot of time watching interviews with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – conversations that tended to be below average. On shows like “60 Minutes” and in her CNN town tall, Harris had been charming and trenchant but also repetitive and inflexible. Restrained by her determination to stay on message, she often failed to answer questions directly. Trump, for his part, lied, rambled and spouted nonsense as usual. And yet his lack of constraint at least made him entertaining…

…Harris and Trump’s flawed performances were typical of the duelling communications styles now wielded by Democrats and Republicans. Broadly, Democrats preach while Republicans riff; Democrats stick to their messages while Republicans let loose with whatever comes into their heads.”

In the Guardian Nesrine Malik convincingly dismantled the lazy consensus that held that the result was a defeat for the Democrats’ supposedly embracing ‘woke’ policies and relying on endorsement by ‘woke’ celebrities…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/25/woke-lost-us-election-patrician-class-identity-politics

LANGUAGE AND LONGEVITY – 2

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Dictionary makers and journalists are breathlessly – if not desperately – publicising the latest online language – but do they really understand it?

One week on, I spoke to Chloe MacDowell of the UK Guardian newspaper, then to Marni McFall of the US Newsweek magazine on the topic of TikTok language and the online messaging mannerisms of Influencers and GenZ. Chloe was interested in one particular trending TikTok catchphrase, Marni in the whole panoply of 2024’s viral innovations.

Once authentic conversations and personal interactions (previously happening in private spaces or local communities) began to feature on the internet and in messaging and on microblogging platforms,  language novelties, slang and faddish usages crossed over from a private realm into the global public domain. The latest slang and new language was visible, audible and immediately available to share. Obscure or exotic terms might quickly catch on and become viral favourites, spreading in some cases across the anglosphere more rapidly than print, broadcast or word-of-mouth transmission had ever been to achieve in the past.

Words and phrases began to function like memes, taking on sometimes a ‘multimodal’ aspect whereby sound and image could reinforce the purely verbal expressions that people chose to exchange and promote. Pre-internet there had always been catchphrases, what linguists call ‘vogue words’, slogans and soundbites, and keywords that somehow seemed to evoke or encapsulate some special aspect of the ‘zeitgeist’. What we have now is a much more knowing, deliberate intention (on the part of trend-setters, influencers, ‘thought-leaders’) to create new language to celebrate new identities and to promote new attitudes and lifestyle innovations to the widest possible audience.

Subcultures like surfers, valley girls, fanboys and girls, hip hop aficionados had always invented striking, expressive language and this is still true, but instead of niche culture we have ‘meganiches’, instead of subcultures we are dealing with globalised communities.

The fashionable language of TikTok and GenZ in particular is part of their wider obsession with vibes, aesthetics and microtrends, many of which arise and are discarded in rapid succession. The prevalent style is exhibitionist, self-promoting, allusive and often ironic, increasingly even absurdist, making it hard for outsiders to grasp the nuances in play. Older commentators and dictionary publishers struggle to keep pace, often misunderstand and record the terms in desperation (in their searches for ‘word of the year’ for example) just as they fall out of use.

The use of this language as an identity marker in an intensely competitive digital ecosystem means that the Gen Alpha cohort now ridicule GenZ usages as being out-of date, while GenZ is still deriding millennials for their old-fashioned ‘cringe’ vocabulary. At the same time would-be influencers practise bragging, ‘manifesting’ and other forms of self-congratulation in a search for clicks and clout.

One of the latest features of online wordplay is the elevating of an older concept or cliche into a teasing provocation or pretence at new insights, as we have seen with ‘delulu’, ‘demure’ and ‘mindful’, ‘rizz’ and ‘brat’. The current rash of declarations of ‘being privileged’ – a new version of ‘humblebragging’ or ‘virtue-signalling’ – is another example. In parallel is the ironic celebration of the incoherence or absurdity of much online discourse and of low-quality ‘slop’ by embracing a culture of ‘brainrot’ – nonsense memes such as ‘skibidi’ and vacuous, contagious content.

Most of the innovation in online language and image still emanates from the US and even though a global audience can access it instantly, its tropes (think ‘goblin-mode’ – ‘goblin’ doesn’t have the same associations for Brits) don’t always translate for other speakers of English. In parallel, poses, gestures and looks as well as music-related modes are increasingly generated from non-English cultural zones such as Japan and Korea. It will be interesting to see if other parts of the globe begin to play a part in the evolving online theatre of signs and behaviours, but this doesn’t seem to have happened yet.

Chloe’s piece is here…

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/02/what-a-privilege-trend-catches-on-as-gratitude-makes-social-media-comeback?CMP=share_btn_url

And the Newsweek article is here…

https://www.newsweek.com/2024-most-popular-internet-slang-words-revealed-1978732

On the first of November Collins Dictionaries, ahead of the pack, had already announced their choice of word of the year for 2024, and their candidates illustrated the same, in my opinion mistaken, concentration exclusively on terms from a very narrow range of sources. While postings on social media are performances designed to attract attention, there is an even wider domain in which discourse demands analysis: the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine and the surreal spectacle of the US presidential campaigns, for example, are also highlighting keywords and generating new formulations or reworkings of language – data that mainstream media and lexicographers seem to think unworthy of their attention…

https://twitter.com/CollinsDict/status/1852139743112208794

LANGUAGE AND LONGEVITY -1

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Digital media enables language change and innovation – of course, but how much and for how long?

I spoke to Caitlin Talbot, Culture Researcher for the Economist magazine, who asked me about the effect of TikTok talk and the slang, catchphrases and viral puns invented by Gen Z. Caitlin wondered how many new terms were actually being added to the global conversation each year, and whether these novelties would last.

My own solo attempts to record new language and to understand and comment on its sources rely on fairly haphazard, old-fashioned techniques, so it’s not possible for me to quantify the lexical items, locutions, expressions and longer elements of discourse that I come across. The major dictionary publishers do have access to powerful and sophisticated electronic methods of scanning, scraping (‘aggregating’ as it should more properly be termed) raw linguistic data from across the internet. This material can be categorised to a certain extent and entered into giant databanks from which lexicographers can select the terms they periodically admit into published dictionaries.

Attempts to amass and analyse examples of language in use are nonetheless hampered by several considerations: the language in question is primarily in the form of text, rather than authentic speech, and the texts in question are largely recoverable from published sources and media platforms, only to a limited extent from personal messages. Tracking their use over time is possible, and the popularity of some usages can be subjected to frequency counts and represented on timelines, but private use and communications by local and specialist communities is far harder to assess. One of the more interesting challenges to the lexicographer is to predict which novel terms may become embedded in the national conversation and which drop out of use – some almost immediately and others over time. In fact my experience (since I began to collect slang in the 1980s) proves that it’s impossible to predict, let alone to speculate as to why this happens.

Caitlin’s article, with useful links, is here…(if it is paywalled for you, go to here *)

TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks

In speculating about the number of new terms generated (and the playful, sometimes absurdist tendencies featuring on social media involve not only inventing new terms but reworking and re-purposing existing language like ‘demure’, ‘babygirl’, ‘millennial pause’, etc.) we can only fall back on subjective, anecdotal, incomplete accounts, even if these may be interesting and informative in their way…

TikTok Slang: The Exclusive Language of Gen Z (Study)

TikTok is full of made-up slang and trendbait | Vox

* TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks

On social media new words spread far and fast

The illustration shows a playful evolution of speech bubble characters, progressing from a small, four-legged figure to a larger one riding a skateboard, against a bold red background
Illustration: Mark Long

Oct 21st 2024SavedShareGive

THE WORD “demure” is old—it describes the sort of modest lady Victorians esteemed—but it is freshly fashionable. There are some 800,000 posts on TikTok with the tag #demure. Youngsters today are using the word with lashings of irony, invoking it to describe everything from Saturn to sunset to New York City’s bin service.

TikTok is changing how young people talk. Other fusty words, such as “coquette”, are fashionable again. Colloquialisms are on the rise: members of Gen Z say “yapping” instead of “talking” and trim “delusional” to “delulu”. New words have also become popular. Take “skibidi”, a term popularised by a meme of an animated head singing in a toilet; it means “cool”, “bad” or “very”, depending on the context.

On social media words spread far and fast. At least 100 English words are produced, or given new meaning, on TikTok a year, reckons Tony Thorne, director of the Slang and New Language Archive at King’s College London. Some linguists think the platform is changing not just what youngsters are saying, but how they are saying it. A “TikTok accent”, which includes “uptalk”, an intonation that rises at the end of sentences, may be spreading.

The platform’s versatility encourages experimentation. Users can combine audio, text and video in a single post. That means words that sound especially satisfying can go viral, as well as those that are memorable in written form. Linguistic code has emerged, dubbed “algospeak”, to dodge content-moderation algorithms. It includes euphemisms (sex workers are called “accountants”), and misspellings (“seggs” instead of sex).

The mutation of language on TikTok is also due, in large part, to the age of its users. Most are 18-34 years old. That matters because “Young people are language innovators,” says Christian Ilbury, a linguist at the University of Edinburgh. For decades youngsters have created words to distinguish themselves from adults. On social media such neologisms find a big audience. Mr Ilbury describes this as “linguistic identity work”; parents have long called it attention-seeking.

The platform brings together fan groups and communities, from #kpopfans (people who like Korean pop music) to #booktokers (people who love reading). These groups create their own slang, says Adam Aleksic, a linguist and influencer. Some of it leaks into the mainstream. Other slang comes from specific groups: black people have innovated and spread hundreds of English words over the years, from “cool” to “tea” (gossip). Journalists and screenwriters popularise such words; now TikTokers do, too.

*For help in understanding the language and online mannerisms of TikTok and GenZ, I’m grateful to my daughter, Daisy Thorne Mrak*

SLANG AT THE END OF SUMMER

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Teen talk continues to baffle older cohorts, but as autumn approaches the vibes shift – and Tiktok identities evolve…

In mid-August I talked to Mary McCarthy about the ever-changing patterns of youth language, and, with her kind permission, Mary’s article for the Irish Independent follows…

No cap, sigma and rizz? You’ll need more than Google Translate for teen talk now

Parents are supposed to be bemused by the slang words their children use, but the new summer vocab in our house has me totally flummoxed. This is particularly so with the younger two lads – eight and 11 – who walk around saying nonsense words like “sigma”, “no cap” “Skibidi Toilet” and “gyat” all the time.

I don’t mind them having in-jokes, and it’s nice to see them falling around laughing – I’ll take that over sullen moods any day. But what are they laughing about?

Are they being kind? I can see the pleasure of getting the giggles over absurd stuff. I used to have this thing with a school friend where we would say repeatedly “The dog is dead” in a Northern Ireland accent – no idea why. But there is so much coming at them now online. How can I know they won’t soak up the wrong messages? The Andrew Tate alpha-male rubbish, for example.

This week I hired my Gen Z 16-year-old to help me decode what his brothers were saying, and he pocketed his €5 before unhelpfully telling me that “it’s just little kids saying random, mental stuff”.

“It’s the internet, it’s TikTok language,” he said. But they don’t have TikTok, I reminded him. YouTube shorts are the same and they have a lot of that, he told me darkly.

So I asked the lads themselves, and they were fairly keen to enlighten me, which was reassur­ing. “No cap” means no lying, “sigma” just means cool (no Andrew Tate alpha-male link, thank goodness) and rizz is “charisma”.

My 11-year-old elaborated. “So, this would be a chat-up line like, ‘Are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see’.” I’m unsure what to say. They refused to explain “gyat”, so I looked it up later.

It mostly seems fine. They’re getting it from pals and YouTube shorts, which I will limit more now. But what I’m most baffled about is the Skibidi Toilet YouTube show, and why they call everything Skibidi for no reason.

The show has amassed over 65 billion views over the last year, and I can’t see any pull factor. It’s about toilets with human heads engaged in a war with people who have CCTV cameras for heads, all set in a dystopian landscape. Apparently, there will be a TV show and a movie. I had a headache watching it after 30 seconds.

Youth slang can spread very quickly these days via online platforms and messaging

It’s everywhere. We were on holiday in Kerry a few weeks ago and had a few hours to kill in Kenmare, so we visited the Kenmare Stone Circle, which was erected some time between 2000 and 500 BC. If you clip a wish at the Hawthorn Fairy Tree, it comes true. That’s according to the man working there, who handed us a piece of paper and a pen.

Being my nosy self, I immediately started reading other people’s wishes, and among the pleas for health, happiness and planning permission there were lots of Skibidi.

“Sigma, sigma on the wall, who is the Skibiest of them all?” one card read.

“Desidere che i cani diventine Skibidy Toilet,” read another, which Google translate told me was “Wish that dogs become Skibidy toilets” in Italian. So it’s not just my children larking around. I’m sure it’s all just a silly phase, perhaps the same as my own “the dog is dead”.

Tony Thorne, director of the Slang and New Language Archive at King’s College London, said young people have always created their own language to keep outsiders like parents and teachers out. It just happens that there’s more around today.

“This language innovation, as linguists call it, used to take place in private spaces and only sometimes spread further – if, for example, the language was used in music or movies or TV comedies,” he said.

“Youth slang can spread very quickly these days via online platforms and messaging and so can become global. Terms often coined in the US rapidly move into the Anglosphere. We see that in the huge network of English speakers who converse excitedly in ‘mid-Atlantic’ accents.”

Thorne recommends the guide to teenage slang on the Gabb.com website. I soon discovered that “gyat” is a way to express admiration, usually for a woman’s backside. So I nipped that one in the bud.

It is a habit for parents and the older generation to laugh at teenagers for speaking in a frivolous way

Once you start researching the origins of these words, it gets interesting. According to a recent Forbes article on how Gen Z language is changing the workplace, to “slay” – which is something my 13-year-old daughter says, as in “You slayed that lasagne, Mammy” – means “high praise” and originated in black and LGBTQ+ communities before gaining popularity on TikTok.

I can’t remember using much slang as a teen, apart from the many violent descriptions we had for being drunk, among them flutered, slaughtered, battered and trollied.

My cousin would visit from Canada, and she loved hearing those terms. Today, though, there’s no difference between what a 15-year-old in Dublin and a 15-year-old in Toronto is exposed to, and they’re the more creative for this. After all, the way we learn to speak is from listening to other people, so we probably don’t really need to worry much about the slang.

Kevin Barry, former professor of English at the University of Galway, said that while adults can see it as foolish, there’s a wisdom to the newly minted words and phrases.

“It is a habit for parents and the older generation to laugh at teenagers for speaking in a frivolous way – to the adults it makes no sense. What they are seeing is the frontier of language change, which is a creative Wild West,” he said.

There’s no point trying to keep up. New slang will be coined as fast as I learn. We can’t police it. The only thing to do is role-model IRL (in real life) what it is to be a nice person. To not shout, to be kind, to make time for the children. To let them know you have high expectations for their behaviour by having high expectations for your own – no cap.

The dominance of memes and viral posts from the USA celebrating a brat summer was challenged in late August by a TikTok injunction to ‘be demure and mindful‘ in all one’s actions and representations. Alternative and mainstream media jumped quickly aboard the accelerating bandwagon – and Ellie Bramley of the Guardian asked me to comment…

‘Demure‘ is a seemingly prim and dated adjective, used recently only by rueful babyboomers and tabloid journalists, for whom it is code for ‘not completely undressed’ when describing female celebrities attending film festivals, tottering along red carpets and catwalks. In drag queen and ‘ballroom LGBT‘ circles, though, it has long featured as a self-mocking keyword when urging the outrageous, usually ironically and teasingly, to behave with modesty and decorum. It is in this spirit that ‘fierce divas’ and other influencers have relaunched the term, along with ‘mindful‘ in its older sense (before the advent of self-seeking ‘mindfulness’) of considerate, respectful and cautious. The Guardian piece is here…

It’s very easy to dismiss GenZ and TikTok fads as shallow, ephemeral provocations, unworthy of the attention of rational adults. Easy, too, to deride aged babyboomers like me who record them and attempt to analyse the thinking behind them. But as Ellie herself remarked, a keyword like ‘demure’, inasfar as it isn’t just an absurdist gesture, can not only signify a genuine shift in self-awareness on the part of a few influential online individuals, but can prompt reflection and even changes in behaviour among a much larger segment of the population.

With that in mind, from Laura Pitcher, here’s Dazed‘s perceptive take on the word of the moment…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/64378/1/demure-mindful-tiktok-owns-an-internet-buzzword

In September I was interviewed by Mary Ugbodaga about a slang acronym in use in Nigeria…

WSG meaning: what does the acronym mean and how to respond – Legit.ng



Long January

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First language updates from 2024

I have written several times on this site about new language and novel forms of expression generated by Generation Z and about how evolving attitudes, fashions and social behaviour among younger cohorts translate into a multimodal mix of verbal and visual on platforms such as TikTok. I have argued that older generations should not ignore or deride the unfamiliar and often baffling messaging practised by ‘the youth’, but try to understand and engage with it. During the slow, fraught, trying first weeks of 2024 the UK’s mainstream media has for the first time begun to pay some attention to the new language appearing online and on the street.

Earlier in the month my friend, Financial Times journalist Emma Jacobs, wrote about intergenerational language differences and resulting misunderstandings in the workplace. Her article, which quotes me, is here…

https://www.ft.com/content/b73d81c0-b4b8-40f9-b0e4-8f97a1701d0b

More recently the BBC focused on the changes in accents and vocal affectations associated with online influencers and new media platforms…

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240123-what-tiktok-voice-sounds-like-internet-influencer

Dr Christian Ilbury, quoted in that article, added this caveat subsequently: “it’s just HRTs + memetic discourse styles which keep the audience engaged (linked to platform capitalism) not a *new accent*”. Christian had previously helped to explain the latest incarnations of the once taboo c-word…

We Asked A Linguist To Explain What Is Going On With Those ‘Slay The Cuntocracy’ Tweets

For Dazed magazine Jess Bacon looked back at the many successive incarnations of the ‘girl’ featuring on media platforms during 2023…

2023: The year of the girl | Dazed

The Guardian meanwhile valiantly attempted to help its readers interpret the latest catchphrases and slang…

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/24/so-babygirl-its-the-new-gen-z-term-of-endearment-but-what-does-it-mean?CMP=share_btn_tw

While the Daily Mail sent its reporters on to the streets to discover whether well-established slang terms were understood by members of the public…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12994057/So-Gen-Z-slang-know-MailOnline-visits-streets-London-Solihull-Sunderland-ask-millennials-boomers-know-real-meaning-terms-like-peng-bare-beef.html

In distressing contrast, the news cycle has been dominated throughout the month of January, in fact since October last year, by far less frivolous concerns. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a very different way has generated language (‘administrative detention’, ‘the other team’, ‘educide’, ‘nakba 2’) – or recycled older terminology (‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘demilitarization’, ‘collateral’) – which is controversial and which demands analysis. While recording the language of Donald Trump, of Brexit and of the Covid pandemic, and once again, while tracking the atrocities taking place today, I have been conscious of distortion, untruths, avoidance and manipulations practised both by the participants in the conflict, by their allies or sponsors, and by those who should be reporting on it objectively and, where possible, impartially. It is by scrutinising their language and treating public and media discourse critically, by exposing bad faith and countering falsehood that linguists can make some small contribution to the global conversation taking place.

Linguists have begun to discuss the ways in which facts and opinions are being presented to the public and to unpack the assumptions and covert intentions of those controlling, or attempting to control the narratives in question…

https://newlinesmag.com/argument/language-is-a-powerful-weapon-in-the-israel-palestine-conflict/

For my part I am collecting new examples of contentious language relating to the middle eastern crises and adding them to my existing glossary of weaponised words and toxic terminology on this website. I would be very grateful for contributions from readers and will acknowledge these in upcoming posts.