It's almost cuffing season! 👩‍❤️‍👩 Vocal fry rules 🥓 What's a listless vessel? ⛵

Sep 06, 2023

Welcome to the latest instalment of English in Progress, the newsletter that keeps you updated on the English language. Fresh in your inbox every first Friday of the month. (Ish.)

My name is Heddwen Newton. I have degrees in English and psychology and am currently using these to write newsletters, raise two kids, and also to organise a book club in Bielefeld, Germany, which is where I live. A venture that is going surprisingly well considering Bielefeld does not exist.

Limited AI was used in the writing of this email newsletter; I have asked ChatGPT to suggest some titles and improve on some sentences. However, every article was selected, read and summarised by a human being, namely me.

Best of the month

Everybody is starting to sound the same on TikTok

On TikTok, influencers speak in enthusiastic, lilting tones. It is not just characterised by their voices, but also the way they structure sentences. The article draws a parallel with the half-American, half-British ‘transatlantic accent’ which was taught to actors, radio presenters, and newsreaders in the US in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It notes that influencers, Gen Z and TikTokers use an accent that veers unpredictably between US and UK or combines elements of both, perhaps aiming for a cosmopolitan effect that isn’t too localised.

Reading time: 5 minutes/ Dazed (UK)

How to invent your own neologism

Just add “core”, “girl”, or choose alliteration, advises columnist Arwa Mahdawi. “First things first: reinvent the wheel. Find something completely banal that has been around for ages but has the potential to be rebranded into a zeitgeisty phenomenon that launches a thousand think pieces.” Funnily enough, just two days earlier, Amanda Knox had invented her own neologism and launched quite a few, if not think pieces, then at least fluff pieces, with her new word pregspreading. (= Spreading your legs to get comfortable while highly pregnant without minding that you look like an inconsiderate man on public transport.)

Reading time: 2 minutes / The Guardian (UK)

A history of vocal fry

I don’t usually link to videos in this newsletter, but I make an exception for Dr Geoff Lindsey’s amazing videos on YouTube. In this one, Lindsey does a great job showing that vocal fry (or creaky voice, as it used to be known) is nothing new, and nothing to be ashamed of.

Watching time: 27 minutes / YouTube (UK)

Backlash against English in northern Europe

In the past, the pushback against English in Europe mainly occurred in France, which resented Anglophone primacy. Now some of the most liberal and polyglot places in the world, like the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, are beginning to fret about the dominance of English.

Reading time: 3 minutes / The Economist (UK; archived here, direct link here)

Gen-Z slang of the month

Here are some of my favourite new-ish slang words. Slang is difficult to track. I currently make use of “the craziest Gen Z slang terms you ever heard” type lists on Buzzfeed-type platforms. If anyone knows of a better source, please let me know! (Click on the word to see where I got it from.)

choong – describes someone attractive: “That girl on the train was choong.” (On Urban Dictionary since 2003)

cuffing season - a term popularized by SZA's song "Big Boy" that refers to the time of year when single people are actively searching for short-term romantic partners to spend the colder months with. (On Urban Dictionary since 2010; the song came out in Dec 2022)

daterview - the kind of date that makes you feel you are at a job interview (On Urban Dictionary since 2022)

to eat - to do a great job, to look good. “She really ate in her Insta pic.” (On Urban Dictionary since 2019)

to give Barbenheimer - apart from referring to the two movies, this phrase is now also being used for two phenomena with contrasting vibes. “interesting contrast, it’s giving barbenheimer!” (On Urban Dictionary since 2023)

glucose guardian - gender-neutral form of the term “sugar daddy” (On Urban Dictionary since 2016)

hot girl walk - a 4-mile (6.4 km) brisk walk outdoors during which you think about your goals and what you’re grateful for (On Urban Dictionary since 2021)

IJBOL - I just burst out laughing (pronounced “eej-bowl”), the new LOL (on urban dictionary since 2009)

mother is mothering - an iconic female figure who shows up in dramatic or extraordinary style “Looks like mother is mothering hard tonight.” (not (yet) on Urban dictionary, used since early 2022 according to Know Your Meme)

The shifting meaning of words

Girls are reclaiming the word “girl”

“For college-aged 'males,' we have the helpful term 'guys,' which allows us to avoid both 'men' and 'boys.' For 'females,' there is no similar term (the comparable term, 'gals,' having gone out of fashion a long time ago), forcing us to choose between 'girls' and 'women.'" (…) Women are stuck being "girls" (read: immature, innocent, inane) until they essentially get married. (…) The growing usage of the word girl in our lexicon speaks to the desire to acknowledge that awkward transitory phase and to divorce the word from the male-centered and toxic ways girl culture is so often depicted.”

Reading time: 6 minutes / Salon (USA)

Where did “rizz” come from and what does it mean?

"Rizz" is a slang term used by young people to describe a unique mix of confidence, charm, and magnetism. The term originated in internet slang and has now entered everyday conversation. (It was in one of my first newsletters, of course it was!)

Reading time: 4 minutes / Wall Street Journal (USA; archived)

De Santis’s listless vessels

When it comes to new English, one of the most talked-about subjects (among English linguists, that is) has been Ron DeSantis’s use of the term “listless vessel”. He’s used it a few times, now, and people are asking: what does he mean? Personally, I like the theory that it is an unintentional malapropism for “rudderless vessels”, but lexicographer Ben Zimmer’s reading is more generous. Zimmer assumes De Santis means a ship that is unmoving, possibly even with some religious undertones.

Reading time: 4 minutes / Wall Street Journal (USA; archived)

“Greenlit” or “greenlighted”?

Stan Carey does a deep dive into the question of the past tense of “to greenlight”.

Reading time: 11 minutes / Sentence First (Ireland)

-ification is everywhere

"Old man-ification", "Easter egg-ification"," 'You’re doing it wrong’-ification","Kim Kardashian-ification". The author discusses this language trend and explains what is happening linguistically (nominalization).

Reading time: 7 minutes / The New Yorker (USA; archived here, direct link here)

“Anxious” could not be a synonym of “eager”, then it could, but now it maybe it can’t again

Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty explains that originally, 'anxious' meant worried, while 'eager' implied enthusiasm. In recent times, they've been used interchangeably, but some resistance is growing due to associations with mental health. The first part of this podcast transcript, by Valerie Fridman, is also worth a read (or a listen)!

Reading time: 3 minutes / Grammar Girl (US)

The word “jerk” used to mean “idiot”

On how the word “jerk” has gone from meaning an inept or pathetic person or a fool to an objectionable or obnoxious person.

Reading time: 11 minutes / The Ringer (USA)

TikTok account is using popular Gen Z slang terms to retell Bible stories

The account's most viral video, titled "Annunciation," retells the story of the conception of Jesus Christ. It was posted on August 22 and has been viewed over 3.6 million times. In the video, the TikToker referred to Mary as a "pick-me girl for God," and said that she had "passed God's vibe check," and had been chosen to become "the mother of the main character." Two videos in article.

Reading time: 4 minutes / Insider (USA)

Neologisms of the month

The neologisms below were sourced from the Cambridge Dictionary New Words blog, “field X buzzwords”-type lists, and stuff I noticed myself. My totally subjective criterion for words to make the list is that they seemed new and interesting to me. Click on the word for my source.

biosolids - the useful part of sewage sludge; solid organic matter recovered from a sewage treatment process and used as fertilizer

candyceutical - a small, chewy, coloured sweet that contains vitamins or other ingredients to improve your health

HGTV-ification - the homogenizing effect of home renovation shows on American interior design (HGTV = Home and Garden Television)

house hushing - eliminating visual “noise” in your home as a way to create calm and focus

hurriquake - an earthquake and hurricane happening simultaneously

neogender - any gender identity that was coined after the year 2000

rucking - walking or hiking with a weighted backpack

soft hiking - the activity of going for long walks in the countryside without any pressure to walk fast, climb hills or cover a certain distance

Discussion starters

Good for sparking lively debates in your English linguistics class, or for sparking curiosity in your brain.

Kids these days are not ruining English

A common misconception about language is the idea that kids, these days, are ruining English or “dumbing it down.” New generations have always been responsible for linguistic innovations.

Reading time: 8 minutes / Medium (USA; archived here, Medium link here)

Has language stopped evolving?

The author of this Medium piece makes the point that languages used to change faster than they seem to be doing now. Has the ubiquity of written communication halted language change?

Reading time: 7 Minutes / Medium (USA)

Dealing with AI in the classroom

This short, super-practical article written by a teacher gives a great example of an educational AI policy. And if that one doesn’t work for you, he links to a resource with dozens of possible policy wordings and philosophies. One tip: talk about AI with your class. (Credit to Grammar Girl’s newsletter for linking to this article!)

Reading time: 2 minutes / LinkedIn (USA)

Children using therapy speak; when is it a problem?

“The language of therapy has become mainstream. Mild disappointment becomes a trauma to be survived; toxic colleagues a reality to be overcome. If someone in our lives becomes too co-dependent, we must set up boundaries to deflect their neediness.”

Reading time: 5 minutes / iNews (UK; archived)

World Englishes - vocab

The different varieties of English as spoken all around the world are known to academics as “World Englishes”. In this section, I highlight some words and terms from the richness of the English-speaking world that came to my attention in the past month. Click on the word to get to an article that will usually list more words from the English variety in question.

bum bag - UK English for a fabric bag worn around the waist

carnapper - Filipino English for car thief

drong - Newfoundland English for a narrow laneway

high blood - Filipino English for stressed or annoyed, in reference to having high blood pressure.“You’re making me high blood, anak.”

junglee - Hindi English for wild

plugging - Walmart English for when employees stock items in the wrong spot

wuzham - New Orleans slang for what’s happening

World Englishes and literature

On how animals and plants often get mistranslated into English

In this piece, I loved the search for the correct translation of a Bengali poet’s phrase “Sudarshan … flying in the evening breeze”, which had been translated by previous translators as buzzards. But buzzards don’t fly in the evening. After much searching, the translator finally realised this famous poet had been describing a common Indian beetle “that’s ubiquitous in Bengal at dusk. Their characteristic whirring flight is so obvious in its familiarity that I laughed out loud.”

Reading time: 9 minutes/ Daily Hampshire Gazette (USA)

Five Indian authors who are reclaiming the English language from its colonial legacy

Mission-driven website Homegrown lists five great Indian writers who write (or have written) in English. Rushdie is in there, of course, but to my shame I must admit I had not heard of the others.

Reading time: 6 minutes / Homegrown (India)

Jamaican English story wins 2023 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers

Author Stephenjohn Holgate: “even when we try to bridge the gaps between Patwah, Jamaican English, and other world Englishes, there is a Jamaican syntax that asserts itself and organizes our thoughts, one that affects the cadence and structures of our stories and I wanted to explore that and how it might inform how the story was told.” There is an excerpt in the article.

Reading time: 5 minutes / pen.org (USA)

Classic children’s books in Singlish

Poet Gwee Li Sui has rewritten classics such as Winnie the Pooh, Peter Rabbit and The Little Prince into Singapore English. Clips of the poet reading the works in the article.

Reading time: 3 minutes / Shout (Singapore)

Guess the World English

If you were paying attention in the last two newsletters, you’ll know this one! Answer here, or scroll all the way down for a hint.

World Englishes - articles

The Michigan accent is distinct, but changing

I love this article because it does a great job describing the features of the Michigan accent in such a way that I understand what they mean. “The short “a” sound in the words bat, Dad and map sounds more like the vowel sound in yeah.” Worth the many ads on the webpage (visiting with an adblocker makes reading more comfortable.)

Reading time: 5 minutes / Detroit Free Press (USA)

In Ghana, some want English to no longer be the official language. But is that realistic?

Dr. Richmond S. Ngula takes a realistic look at the idea of replacing English with a local language in Ghana.

Reading time: 6 minutes / Joy Online (Ghana)

Singapore presidential candidate gets mocked for speaking Singlish

This piece by journalist Stephanie Lee gives a good overview of Singapore attitudes to English, weighing the pros and cons of speaking standard English and examining attitudes in herself and her colleagues.

Reading time: 8 minutes / RICE (Singapore)

New books

Collins Complete and Unabridged: 14th edition

British Dictionary publisher Collins brought out its 14th edition on 31 August. It is the largest single-volume English dictionary in print (in other words, it’s very fat). With more than 732,000 words, meanings and phrases, it celebrates the extraordinary breadth and changing nature of world English.

Macquarie Dictionary Ninth Edition

Coming out 12 September: the ninth edition of Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary, the dictionary that always has me checking if I spelled its name right. The two-volume package features hundreds of new words and updated definitions from words which Australia shares with the rest of the English-speaking world, to words unique to Australian English, such as cozzie, shonky, snot-block, servo, having a barry and doing a Bradbury.

Purrieties of Language

Edith Podhovnik's "Purrieties of Language" provides linguistic analyses of the cyber 'Cativerse', exploring online language variation, and explaining key linguistic concepts – all through the lens of cat-related communication. Each chapter explores a different sociolinguistic phenomena, drawing on fun and engaging examples including memes, hashtags, captions and 'LOLcats'. Innovative yet accessible, it is catnip for all 'hoomans' interested in how language is used online. (This book came out in April, but it only just crossed my radar, and it is too good not to include!)

Academia

I was both happy and sad to read this piece by The Thesis Whisperer about how social media does not work for academics looking to share their work anymore. Mailing lists are the way to go (hence the happy part of my feelings ;-) If you would like your work to be featured in this newsletter, and seen by its 600+ subscribers, just send me a message by replying to this email.

Warning: many links lead directly to a PDF

Researchers with limited English skills are being treated unfairly

Non-native English-speaking researchers face many challenges. This article calls for greater understanding, support, and inclusivity in academic environments where English is the dominant language.

Languages with more non-native speakers do not have simpler grammars

Some linguists have suggested that languages spoken by larger, more diverse communities tend to simplify their grammar, as non-native speakers struggle with complex rules. This study, which uses the new Grambank database, refutes that idea. This article led to a huge discussion on LanguageHat which might also be worth a look.

Compiling The Oxford Dictionary of African American English: A Progress Report

As regular readers of this newsletter will know, the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, set to be published in 2025, is expected to contain around 1,000 words, and will cover more than three centuries’ worth of language. This article gives a progress report.

About “good” and “bad” English in India

This article gives an extensive account of how English is viewed in India, with some aspiring to “good” English, and others embracing their Indian variant of English. The judgment of what makes “good” English is, of course, colonial, racialized, and classed. I especially loved the author’s anecdotes in this one.

Lexico.com does a good job with slurs

This study shows that Oxford-powered free online dictionary Lexico.com does a good, but not perfect, job reflecting the offensive nature of ethnic and racial slurs and warns users about their derogatory and hurtful impact.

After Brexit, English has become a neutral language in the EU

Usage of English has not decreased after Brexit, in fact, it could be now said to be a good language to use because it is effectively neutral (Ireland and Malta officially use Irish and Maltese at the EU level). The author expects “Euro-English” to develop away from British English, becoming Europe’s own language.

How can you measure how well learners understand spoken English?

One way of checking how well English learners understand English is called orthographic transcription. People listen to someone saying something in English on tape and write down what they hear. The number of words that they wrote down correctly is taken to reflect the amount of understanding that has taken place. This article argues that this method isn’t terrible, but that researchers using it should be aware of its pitfalls.

Ghanaian Pidgin English

Ghanaian English has been continually ‘corrected’ by world standard English, but Ghanaian Pidgin English has proceeded unhampered by standardization. This article takes a look at this English variant and describes its development, and also talks about the process of indigenisation.

Book: The Practice of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) Around the World

Presents eleven empirical papers reporting the existing literature and the results of an original study focusing on EMI (English as a medium of instruction) in a particular area (Central and Eastern Europe, Western and Southern Europe, Nordic/Baltic countries, Central Asia, the Middle East, East Asia, South-East Asia, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America). Each of these different areas tends to have its own ways of dealing with the EMI issue, and these are brought together in a meta-analysis in the final chapter.

Native speakerism in the EFL Job Market

An analysis of 200 online job advertisements for TEFL teachers shows that more than three quarters want native speakers of English.

Evaluating Englishes in secondary English textbooks in China

English textbooks in China show improvements in depicting a relatively wider spectrum of English users, but there are minimal efforts to introduce more English users from outer circle countries. There is also a middle-class bias.

A Global Englishes course for teachers in Saudi Arabia

This study found that Saudi English teachers are already quite open to global Englishes and a course makes them even more so.

Which English should be taught in Korea

A short review of World English literature leads the authors to conclude that Lingua Franca English/ Korean English should be preferred.

Native speakerism in Japan

This paper critically analysed native-speakerist ideologies in the Japanese English as a Foreign Language teaching context with the aim of illustrating the complicated nature of native-speakerism as it currently exists.

How Korean tourists experience speaking English abroad

Korean tourists had concerns about using English in overseas travel and had experienced language barriers. However, these were mainly caused by different linguistic expression (dialects, accents) among speakers, not from using English per se.

And finally…

Content creator Turtle aka @turtleboi made a Singlish dub of a ‘Peppa Pig’ episode. (Warning: expletives!)

@turtleboi singlish pig

Tiktok failed to load.

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Guess the World English bird hint:

This is a city in the US. Answer here.

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