This newsletter is WotY coded 📘, "TikTok accent" will take over the world 📱, How to win a spelling bee 🐝

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

My name is Heddwen Newton. I am a translator and English teacher. I love discovering all the ways English is spoken; the ways in which it is used by different generations and by people from all over the world.

I have used limited AI to create this newsletter; just to improve on phrasing. All articles were chosen, read and summarised by a human being, namely me :-)

Best of the fortnight

Influencer speak could be the future of English

The 'TikTok accent', which is also called 'TikTalk', or 'Internet voice' is when influencers use a vlogger-style voice and intonation. In almost all studies of language change, the innovators of language seem to be young women. In general, the way young women use language is the future of the way language evolves. So any changes we hear by young women are probably the future of English. /National World (USA)

Winning the spelling bee by clever guesswork

15-year-old Dev Shah is the winner of the National Spelling Bee, that curious American tradition where children are asked to spell uncommon words on stage. There are two secrets to competing, Dev says. One is knowing your etymology. “Most words have patterns based on the sounds they make. For example, words that derive from French often substitute “ch” for the “sh” sound, as in the word “chagrin.” The part of speech can clarify how to spell the end of a word. Adjectives prefer “ous,” such as in the word “egregious,” and nouns typically use “us” like in “abacus.” The other? Accept that a big part of the game is luck, take risks, and lose with grace./ The Washington Post (USA; archived)

“Amazeballs” is the UK’s most annoying word

“Amazeballs” tops the list of 25 words that most annoy Britons, according to a new survey. “Holibobs” was second and “awesomeness” came third./ The Guardian (UK)

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Gen Zalpha slang

Slang used by Gen Z (born 1996 to 2010, more or less) and Gen Alpha (born 2010 to 2024). Click on the word to see where I got it from.

chat - a way of calling on an invisible audience by mimicking a streamer asking the audience in the chat what they think of something “Chat, is this real?”, “Chat, can you believe this?” (Just to be clear: kids are using this in day-to-day conversation, not just online) (on Urban Dictionary since 2023)

coded - used to describe how one thing is influenced by another thing. “That K-pop idol is golden retriever coded” (on Urban Dictionary since 2021, though with a slightly different usage. Current definition has existed since 2023 according to Know Your Meme)

gymcel - young man who’s entire life is centred around going to the gym and who does little else. Play on the word “incel”. (on Urban Dictionary since 2014)

it’s the ... for me - a way of naming the element of e.g. a scene or conversation that the speaker finds especially annoying, embarrassing, important or funny “it’s the hair for me” (on Urban Dictionary since 2020)

jabroni - stupid, foolish, or contemptible person; loser. From Italian. (On Urban Dictionary since 2003, having a moment in 2023 because it is frequently used by Taylor Swift’s new beau Travis Kelce.)

millennial pause - on video-based social media: a short pause between starting to record and starting to speak, ostensibly taken especially by millennials (not (yet) on Urban Dictionary)

vanilla girl - a modern-day girl next door, elegant, pretty, but not showy (on Urban Dictionary since 2022)

silent walking - walking without listening to anything (not (yet) on Urban Dictionary)

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The changing meaning of words

They wants

John McWhorter proposes to use the singular verb for singular they. “Under the current dispensation, “they want to trim the cat’s claws” can refer to an individual or more than one person. Context usually makes the meaning known, but surely it would make things a little clearer if we could use “they wants to trim the cat’s claws” when referring to just one person.”

Evolution of the F-word

The F-word is losing some of its power. “It is 28 times more common in literature today than [80 years ago]. It’s the most tweeted cuss word by Americans, and in a truly stunning upset, it recently surpassed bloody as the favoured obscenity among the British.” Lovely long article about the history of this versatile word.

Use different climate terms to inspire people to action

Swiss solar aviator and environmentalist Bertrand Piccard argues that we need to rethink the words we use to discuss climate change. He says many climate terms can numb people with fear instead of inspiring them into action, and proposes new language that will reframe our situation as an opportunity, rather than a crisis. Piccard’s draft proposal suggests swapping: “green economy” to “clean economy”; “cost” to “investment”; “crisis” to “opportunity”; “problem” to “solution”; “sacrifice” to “advantage”; “lost jobs” to “new professions”.

“Hallucinate” is too human a word to use for AI

I will admit that this is also a personal hang-up of mine, so I was glad to see a Guardian editorial agree with me. “Hallucinate” refers to the phenomenon of text generative AI generating nonsense, and was Cambridge’s Word of the Year. Giving it this name makes the machine seem human, which it isn’t. As Naomi Klein has pointed out. “Why call the errors ‘hallucinations’ at all? Why not algorithmic junk? Or glitches?”

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Words of the Year

First, let’s recap: UK-based Collins chose “AI”, UK-based Cambridge chose “hallucinate”, the Australian Dictionary Centre chose “Matilda”.

Then on to the more recently chosen terms:

US-based Merriam-Webster has chosen “authentic”, which saw a substantial increase in look-ups in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media.

UK-based Oxford University Press has chosen “rizz”, to the amusement of many who think it reeks of too much “hello fellow kids”. I will admit they got it wrong with “goblin mode” last year, but as someone who monitors Gen Z slang as much as I do, I have to say, I think rizz has a good chance of becoming mainstream. (I also liked this opinion piece by a woman who notes that having “rizz” is reserved only for men.)

The Australian Macquarie dictionary chose “cozzie livs”, a humurous play on the term “cost of living”. Their two honourable mentions go to “blue-sky flood” (a flood that comes when you don’t expect it) and “algospeak” (replacing forbidden words like “sex” with something like “seggs” to cheat the algorithms of e.g. social media).

The the University of Hawai’i has chosen “resurgence”

Now that it is December, non-dictionaries also like to chime in on the Word of the Year action. Ms. Magazine nominates “idionut” (someone who is both an idiot and insane), fellow Substacker Amateur Lexicographer has chosen “stagnation”, Word Guy Rob Kyff wrote an entire poem using 2023 terminology and has landed on “Barbenheimer” as his favourite new term.

The American Dialect Society, by the way, is still collecting nominations.

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Neologisms

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

angertainment - programming, especially talk shows and talk radio, which is characterized by anger or which provokes anger in its audience.

charge rage - anger or violence between a driver who is charging their electric vehicle and other drivers who are waiting in a queue to do so

double nepo - a nepo baby (the child of a famous person who is famous or aspiring to fame themselves) with two famous parents

fun-washing – the idea of cleansing toxic or repellent individuals or ideas by re-locating them into the heart of light entertainment

grippy sock vacation - a stay in a hospital or mental institution (named for the kinds of socks they make you wear) (great article about mental health slang in link)

hometel - a hotel that offers the comfort of home

prejuvenation - the act or process of using cosmetic procedures on someone who is still young to prevent them from looking older later

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Newbie reads

These articles give good explanations for those who are new to English linguistics.

Why English spelling reform is doomed

A classic known by English teachers the world over: “fish” could also be spelled “ghoti”: gh as in cough, o as in women, ti as in nation. According to Ken Grace: “English suffers from what linguists call deep orthography, or what I prefer to call 360 degree bastardry. Not only can spelling not be derived consistently from pronunciation, but neither can pronunciation be consistently derived from spelling.”

‘Swallowing your t’ is on the rise

In America, t-glottalization seems to be on the rise. Young people are especially likely to swallow their ts, leading to more and more instances of Americans saying things like “impor-an” instead of important. Article also gives great explanation of t-glottalization and flapping. (Compare British and American pronunciation of “written” here).

Miami English for beginners

This charming article lets you learn about the Spanish-infused English variant from Miami together with journalist Valentina Di Liscia, who grew up speaking this variant of English without realising it.

Where do accents come from?

Linguist Adam Cooper talks about accents. I feel like the interviewer probably isn’t doing him justice, but there are some good bits in this interview. “At the end of the day, there's no right or wrong way. Everyone has an accent. We may have a sense of what a "general American accent" is, but by no means is that taken to be the right way that a language like English is used.”

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Audio & video

The changing accents of Ireland

Vera Regan, Professor of Sociolinguistics is interviewed on the Irish radio about changes to the Irish accent.

Out-of-date pronunciation in dictionaries

Dr Geoff Lindsey checks modern English pronunciation with younger speakers and gets moderately riled up about outdated dictionary pronunciation guides in this YouTube video.

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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 fortnight. Click on the word to get more information. Tip: see if you can find your own English variety below. Find out which words seem normal to you, but strange to others!

brekky - Australian English for “breakfast”

to redd up - western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh English (USA) for “to set in order; to make things tidy”

pightle - a rural UK English word for “a small field or enclosure; a paddock, a close” which is now being used by city people to name their properties.

please wait a while - Singlish for “please wait just a moment”

So don't I - Boston English (USA) for “So do I”. For example, if someone says to their coworker, "I have a dog." And the coworker replies, "Oh, so don't I" — this person also has a dog

takeaway - UK English for “take-out”; food that you buy at a restaurant and then take elsewhere to eat

waka - Nigerian English for “walk or go away”

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English in society

Does language policing work?

This piece in UK newspaper The Telegraph takes a balanced look at language guides. ‘Inclusive language’ or the latest woke restriction on freedom of speech? “Research shows that the words we use affect the way we feel, even if it’s subconscious – cleaning lady and chairman, for instance, perpetuate the stereotype that men are more capable and should be in charge. Research also demonstrates clearly that explicit intervention – saying, ‘Don’t use these terms, use these instead’ – does make a difference. By changing our language, we can try to change the culture.”

Translating Winnie the Pooh into Singlish

I’ve featured this Singaporean version of Winnie the Pooh before, but this is a good interview. “There were […] people saying, ‘Because of people like you, my children’s English will suffer’,” recalls the 53-year-old literary critic and poet, who admits to feeling “quite depressed” that the conversation quickly moved on from Singlish into mud-slinging from proponents and detractors.”

UK police officer who mimicked victim's Indian accent guilty of gross misconduct

A police constable in a call centre mimicked and repeated offensive phrases from a hate crime report to the victim, not realizing she was still on the line.

Welsh youngsters who can’t speak can now get AI synthetic voices that reflect their accents

Previously, they’d only had access to communication aids with English and Scottish accents, or adult Welsh language voices. Sixteen synthesised voices have been developed to allow children and teenagers to sound more like others their age. They include voices with North and South Wales accents.

Ellen Jovin’s grammar table gets asked to leave subway station

‘Rebel with a clause’ Ellen Jovin is known for setting up her grammar table to field questions from the public all over the world, but often in New York, which (I assume) is where she lives. She’s been removed by police from the subway station she had set up in. (I also like the little internal debate about the Oxford comma at the end.)

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Academia

The academia category is going on a break while I wrap my head around the end of the first semester here in Germany and the amount of work that Christmas has become now that I have two young children (not griping, they’re lovely, but it does all take up a lot of time). If you are now really sad, because “academia” was your favourite category, let me know by replying to this email. It will give me a sense of urgency to bring it back ;-)

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And finally…

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The number of mistakes in this newsletter is directly proportionate to the number of times my three-year-old woke me up last night. If you want to give me any feedback, you can use the comment button below, or hit reply to send me an email.

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Comic created by me with an image from Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) Library