Brits and Aussies love abbreevs ✂️, AI for deciphering doctors' notes 👓, a newsletterussy of English-language content 🐚
Welcome to English in Progress, the biweekly newsletter that keeps you updated on the English language. Fresh in your inbox every other Wednesday.
(A bit later today, and probably with some imperfections, due to a little 2-year-old girl with the sniffles needing more cuddles than usual.)
News from English in Progress
A list of EVERY podcast about English out there
To promote this newsletter, and because I like making lists, I have spent the past two weeks of my life creating a list of every podcast about the English language that I could find. I listened to all of them (some more than others, I must admit), and tried to group them in a way that made sense. People have already told me the list has been very helpful to them, which makes me feel fuzzy and warm inside.
I’m going to try to be more active on Twitter, with a neologism of the day and a world-English word of the day. (Not actually every day, though, that’s too much for me, even with the scheduling tool. But I have discovered most word-of-the-day posters, like Susie Dent, only post a few times a week. If Susie can do it, then I can, too!)
New words and other links will usually appear in this newsletter first, and it’s not all going on Twitter, so you guys are still ahead of the curve!
New words
Damp January (during which you reduce your alcohol intake rather than stopping it, which would be "dry January".)
Revenge travel (leisure travel after a period of not being able to travel, e.g. because of the pandemic)
Sextortion (a form of blackmail that involves threatening to publish sexual information, photos or videos about someone)
Boomerang employee (an employee who leaves a job and then return after some time)
Postbiotics (the healthy stuff probiotic bacteria leave behind as they guzzle their food)
Anti-perk (an advantage someone is given because of their job that is in fact not useful or helpful)
One for my American readers: midwestern cosmopolitanism (the often-radical international activism that comes from non-coastal college towns)
And for the Brits: the Kate effect, the positive economic effect of Kate Middleton on the fashion industry.
The OED update
The Oxford English Dictionary has posted its quarterly update. These are not new new words, but words that have been around long enough to become a fixed part of the English language. Some fun ones are:
air fryer (a small convection oven, typically used to fry foods using very little oil)
dap (a casual gesture of greeting, acknowledgement, or affirmation, typically involving slapping palms, bumping fists, or snapping fingers)
mononym (a one-word name by which someone, esp. a celebrity, is known)
Full list here, some great selections here.
Words of the year 2022
The last time I’ll be using this heading until October/November, when it will all start ramping up again…
American Dialect Society Word of the Year 2022: -ussy
The American Dialect society chose -ussy as its word of the year. The suffix originated within LGBTQ+ slang in the forms bussy (boy + ‑ussy) and mussy (man + ‑ussy) in the early 2000s (“come here and eat my bussy”). After a trend on TikTok in 2021 it can now be used for cavities of any kind ( “what do you call that connectussy between the plane and the gate”) or to mean something like “heart and soul of your profession” (“I put my whole lingussy in this newsletter”). It can be rather nicely gender neutral (“Someday, I’d love to experience what ussy feels like”) and has been embraced by the LGBTQ+ community. Some funny social media reactions here, and an example of an angry response here.
Kirby Conrod, a linguist who was there for the vote, gave their honest appraisal as to why -ussy became the word of the year. Linguists are human, and they are nerds. Conrod’s final remark: “a lot of us voted for it because we thought it would be funny to make Ben Zimmer talk about it to the press.”
Panel discussion That Word Chat is now online on YouTube. Hosted by editor Mark Allen, it features most of the linguists involved in choosing the various Words of the Year 2022. 1 hour and 12 minutes of lovely lexicology!
The UK children’s word of the year 2022 is “queen”, according to a questionnaire carried out by Oxford University Press. For Australia it’s “privacy”. Other English-speaking countries don’t have a kids’ word of the year, (as far as I can tell).
Tech
ChatGPT still causing jubilation
Large language models like ChatGPT are still the focus for a lot of journalism. There’s a lot of positive stuff, like using the technology as a as a coach/ therapist/ journal that talks back and helps you order your thoughts, using ChatGPT to improve your writing, AI helping us to decipher doctors’ notes, Microsoft paying a gajillion dollars to add the technology to its Office suite, and much more.
ChatGPT still causing worry
But there are also voices warning that these large language models fool scientists, spouting untruths that are difficult to detect, cause environmental harm, and of course lots of noise about what ChatGPT means for assessment of learning.
Dutch academic Iris van Rooij is worried about academics speaking about this technology positively without noting any ethical considerations.
Other AI stuff
This freaky Twitter thread on how to build a business in 24 hours using AI. He doesn’t quite make his point (to sell furniture you still need to make the furniture), but it’s still freaky to see the real-world implications of all this stuff.
Some other AI tools you may not have known of yet.
New books
Communicating Linguistics, edited By Hazel Price and Dan McIntyre
Twitter is abuzz about this LingComm book. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can download the e-book for free!
The Babel Apocalypse, by Vyvyan Evans
As a linguist and psychologist, I am dubious about the premise of this SF e-book novel, which reads: Language is no longer learned, but streamed to neural implants regulated by lang-laws. But it’s new, it’s about language, so I felt I should include it here.
World English
Brits and Australians love abbreviation
Linguist Tony Thorne has been keeping an eye on the abbreviation trend going on in the UK, with the Queens’s platinum jubilee being referred to as Platty Joobs, the cost of living crisis being shortened to the cozzy liv, and mental breakdown to a menty b.
The internet was also full of articles celebrating the Australian love of shortening words the past two weeks, though this is something less new (to my mind at least).
More Australian slang
This list by Adam Sharpe includes “To put on the wobbly boot” (to get drunk), “I’m not here to fuck spiders.” (I mean business) and “It charges like a wounded bull” (that place is expensive).
Comparing New Zealand English to Australian English
“ambiguity seems to be a hallmark of New Zealand English and it’s true that Aussie terms sometimes seem to make more sense: the meaning of outback, for example, is more self-explanatory than wop-wops, and an overseas visitor is more likely to understand what you’re on about if you tell them to pack their swimmers or bathers for the beach than their togs”
Academic English (hihi)
Editor Ingrid Piller of the academic journal Multilingua is leaving, and as a goodbye has written an open-access article about the editor’s point of view, full of tips and tricks for authors looking to get published.
Indians annoyed at Indian actor’s American accent
I’m always trying to find more Indian-English content for this newsletter, with more than 200 million speakers you’d think it would get a bit more attention. This Indian news article complains about NTR (actor N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) speaking with an American accent during international interviews. I thought that was interesting.
Odds and Ends
Who needs an English proficiency test, and who doesn’t?
This article does a great job at making clear how unfair and biased English-proficiency-proof requirements can be.
Love Wordle? Here are some similar games
Mark Liberman has helpfully listed some Wordle alternatives, and has added a passive-aggressive remark about Word of the Year “-ussy” to boot.
New slang terms for female masturbation
McSweeney’s writer Tina Caputo gifts us with 15 excellent new terms for this pleasurable activity, including Hittin’ the Kitten and Denching the Judy.
Comics
XKCD had a joke about etymology, and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal did a really good one about AI in the future, and one about phonology.
Buzzfeed has a funny social-media article about the words toddlers use when they don’t know a word. Nexterday for “tomorrow”, long-sleeve shorts for “trousers”, and much more.
Do you know any teachers/ translators/ linguists?
If you find my newsletter valuable, please do recommend it to others. Perhaps you have a Facebook group of English teachers, or a LinkedIn group of translators, or something similar, with people who would also appreciate being kept up to date on the English language. The link to share is englishinprogress.substack.com. If you would prefer, you could also share my list of podcasts.
What did you think of this newsletter?
Or reply to this email to give me any feedback you fancy!