Gender-neutral God š, Are Bens the new Karens? š, Decoding brainwaves š§
Welcome to English in Progress, the bi-weekly newsletter that keeps you updated on the English language. Lexicology and linguistics. Fresh in your inbox every other Wednesday.
I skipped a week, did you notice?
I start quite a few of these with āthis newsletter is late because one of my children was illā. I can only hope that many of you know what it is like having a two-year-old in winter. Permanent snot, thatās what it is like.
This particular snot was caused by Covid, so our whole family got to stay home for the week. First time weāve ever knowingly had it, despite sharing our house with two toddler-sized virus bombs. Nobody got really ill, but the grown-ups were exhausted, and my newsletter-writing capabilities went down to zero. Rather than stress myself out with deadlines, I thought Iād just move the Wednesday up a week. Next one will be in two weeks again!
Woke backlash
Everybody getting angry about Roald Dahl rewrites
Augustus Gloop, Charlieās gluttonous antagonist in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which originally was published in 1964, is no longer āenormously fat,ā just āenormousā. In the new edition of Witches, a supernatural female posing as an ordinary woman may be working as a ātop scientist or running a businessā instead of as a ācashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessmanā.
Church of England debating non-gendered language for God
Warning: Daily Mail link!
Originator of term ācisgenderā on its use today
āI am disheartened that a term I only intended to improve the precision of the English language may have become a divisive tool in todayās toxic landscape of exclusion and violence. (ā¦) I am convinced the word cisgender was needed, even if the emotion and fear it evokes for some may overshadow its potential to advance understanding.āĀ
Originator of term āmansplainingā on its use today
āHereās what almost everyone seems to miss about mansplaining, including those doing the formal studies as well as the people telling the funny stories. Itās one corner of a colossal problem, in which biases, statuses and assumptions warp everyday life and allocate more credibility, audibility and consequence to some people than others.ā
New terminology isnāt helping
Nicholas Kristof opines in the New York Times that terms like ābodies with vaginasā just antagonize voters and empower the right.
Tech
Artifact, new text-based newsfeed
Two Instagram co-founders have launched an app called Artifact, a personalized, text-based news feed that uses machine learning to understand your interests.
Technology to decode brainwaves
A scientist at Davos warns that AI means technology to decode what people are thinking will be available sooner than we think.
Large Language Models threaten linguistic diversity
āItās no surprise that ChatGPTās default functionality seems to prioritise forms of English writing developed by white people. White English-speaking men have long dominated many writing-intensive sectors, including journalism, law, politics, medicine, computer science and academia.ā
Teenagers weigh in on ChatGPT in education
The New York Times asked for teenagersā opinions on ChatGPT. The precociousness drips off the page.
Looking to the future of Large Language Models
Forbes discusses three potential futures for Large Language Models: 1) Models that can generate their own training data to improve themselves, 2) models that can fact-check themselves, and 3) Massive sparse expert models.
Odds and Ends
Nepo baby discourse can inform our take on privilege
Who knew? Teen Vogue has a surprisingly intellectual politics segment. Here, Sarah John argues that ānepo babiesā show that our society is not as meritocratic as we would like.
Slang explained to the general public
Emily Brewster from Merriam-Webster helps a CBS Minnesota reporter make a perfectly charming news item explaining slang to the general public.
Full points to the academic who was interviewed for this piece, who gave the following response: āTimothy Jay, a professor of psychology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and a swearing expert, sighs. āIāve been answering that question for 50 years,ā he says.ā
On saying ādied by suicideā instead of ācommitted suicideā
In this blog post, professor in linguistics and psychology Dariusz GalasiÅski objects to the policing of mental health language. This article from The Economist (archived), argues much the same.
Parodies of Bermudian English get it wrong
āIn dialect parody of Bermudian English, users often replace Ws with Vs, however actual Bermudian English makes a more subtle change which is difficult to replicate in writing.ā
Academic with Essex accent speaks out on accentism in the UK
Dr Richard A Courtney describes his experiences in academia as someone with an accent connected to negative bias. For non-UK readers, a video of how he speaks can be found here.
With the UK no longer in the EU, English is a neutral lingua franca
Most EU politicians choose to communicate in English, the French being the exception. With Malta and Ireland having English as an official second language, there are no countries in the EU with English as their first language, meaning the UK leaving the EU has made English a more neutral choice.
Being called āKarenā or āBenā is no fun right now, but it will blow over
Poowong, in Australia, temporarily changed its name to 'Pooright' for Gut Health Month
America has a love affair with exclamation points!
New Media
New book: Thinking with an Accent
āThinking with an Accent is a creative and ambitious multidisciplinary collection of essays that clearly captures the academic and popular zeitgeist about race, listening, and power.ā
Available for free via Open Access
New book: The People's Tongue: Americans and the English Language by Ilan Stavans
Professor Ilan Stavans discusses American English as the key to hold the country together. Audio interview and book excerpt in this link.
New podcast on European History, Identity, and Linguistic Diversity
Academics interview each other on their work in linguistics and how this work can contribute to reducing present-day European conflict through knowledge of historical multilingualism, language conflict, and language policy.
New videos in OED student and teacher resource list
The Oxford English Dictionary has added some videos to its library for teachers and students.
New documentary: The Language I Speak
This documentary by Ana Cuadra explores the regional varieties of spoken English in America. Trailer and interview with the maker available via the link, and thereās an article on the film here. I have not been able to find out if and when the film will be available online.
New words
bossware - a type of software that employers can use to monitor what their employees are doing on their computers (In use since 2022)
de-influencing - influencers on Tik-Tok giving critical reviews of products, telling consumers what not to buy. (In use since 2023)
exposome - the measure of all the exposures of an individual in a lifetime and how those exposures relate to health (in use since 2008)
gagged - to be āgaggedā is to be shocked, amazed, et cetera. (In use since 2017 accoprding to urban dictionary)
goblin-timacy - (goblin + intimacy) showing yourself for who you really are from the first date, goblin-mode tendencies and all. (In use since 2023)
hack - a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way (new for language blogger Dr. Metablog)
megadrought - a drought period spanning 20 years or more. (in use since 1996)
MidĀ ā Insult meaning ālow qualityā or āaverage.ā Derives from āmid-tierāāĀ not awful, but not great.Ā Example: āThe new Bad Bunny track is mid.ā (In use since 2020, popular since 2022, if Urban Dictionary is to be believed)
Mullet trip - adding a few days of leisure travel to a business trip ābusiness in the front, party in the backā (Invented in 2022)
situationship - a relationship between two people that is more than a friendship but not a fully committed romantic relationship (in use since about 2012)
ZaddyĀ ā A well-dressed, attractive man of any age (In use since 2012, but this meaning seems to be newer)
World English
Brekkie - Australian English for ābreakfastā, but is it spelt ābrekkyā or ābrekkieā? (Discussion in the article.)
Goozlum - Northwestern Slang For Slurp-Able Sauces
Looper - Irish English for crazy person
Mamlette - Bengali English for āomeletteā
Outwith - Scotting English for āoutsideā
Pissa - Boston slang for awesome
Veteran - not as American as Brits might think
Yo - Baltimore gender-neutral third-person pronoun, like ātheyā: āI saw yo at the Oās gameā
What did you think of this newsletter?
Or reply to this email to give me any feedback you fancy!