language and innovation
Language, Ideology and Zeitgeist Updates Much online discussion this year has addressed the baleful influence of the manosphere and incels on new language, and perhaps also on new attitudes and digital behaviour. Lucy Knight gathered together the strands of the debates for a feature in the Guardian, and asked me to contribute. Her article is Continue reading Misogyny, Masculinity and Messaging
and afterthoughts My un-asked for, scrambled words of the year for 2025 appear in the wordcloud above. Not based on statistical surveys, frequency scans or media prominence, but on the instincts and intuition of a logophile and lexicographer. The words of the year chosen and promoted by the Dictionary publishers* are worthy in their way, Continue reading LAST WORDS
The Autumn Equinox, and time for the latest perspectives on slang and youth language in the Anglosphere I m very grateful indeed for the latest data on the most popular slang terms according to online searches among younger people in the USA, provided once again by Randoh Sallihall of Unscramblerer.com Most searched for slang Continue reading AUTUMNAL UPDATES
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 Continue reading THE FIRST FEW WORDS
In 2018 I began collecting new and controversial language generated by the rise of conservative populism in the US and the UK, by pro- and anti-Trump sentiment in the US and by the divisions resulting from the UK’s Brexit vote. This is still a work in progress: the list of terms as it stands is Continue reading A GLOSSARY OF WEAPONISED* WORDS, BREXITSPEAK and THE TOXIC TERMINOLOGY OF POPULISM
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 Continue reading THE SLANG AND NEW LANGUAGE ARCHIVE
A (nearly) new lexicon describes new attitudes to work I spoke last week to Financial Times journalist Emma Jacobs about so-called Polygamous Working , part of the new vocabulary of the workplace generated by younger employees still coming to terms with a post-pandemic work-life balance. Holding a second job is not necessarily illegal providing it is Continue reading QUIET QUITTING, TWO-TIMING OR…
youth slang crosses world englishes Last week I was interviewed by two young journalists about the pervasive slang generated by Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Interestingly both journalists are operating outside the US/UK matrix from which much of this language variety emanates. Interestingly too, both journalists asked similar questions about the latest linguistic novelties and Continue reading GOING…
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 Continue reading INITIAL FINDINGS
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 Continue reading LANGUAGE REPLICATION – OR…