Vid slutet av varje år publicerar språkrådet en lista med ord som har blivit uppfunna eller har ökat i användning under året. En titt på dessa ord och deras förklaringar är alltid ett trevligt sätt att sammanfatta året och dess händelser. För en svensk gör igenkänningsfaktorn att det blir en underhållande läsning och för en utlänning visar det vad som pågår i Sverige och hur våra tolkningar av internationella händelser ser ut. Så vilka ord är med i 2011:s lista kanske ni frågar. Jo, sätt er bara bekvämt ner så ska jag gå igenom mina favoriter från 2011!

Första ord till rakning är verbet ”att appa” vilket innebär att leka med apparna på din mobil. Jag förutspår att detta ord kommer att upphöra att existera inom ett år då de svenska föräldrarna adopterar det och därmed gör det o-hippt.

Vi hade även i Sverige ord för de totalt virala sociala media fenomenen att uggla och att planka. För dem av er som inte vet, så innebär dessa att huka sig som en uggla respektive ligga platt som en planka på svårtillgängliga platser, ta ett kort på detta och sedan lägga upp det på Facebook. För skojs skull jämförde jag 2011 års lista med dess föregångare från 2002 och jag kan lugnt säga att några ögon av 2002 års modell skulle ha hoppat ur sina ögonhålor vid omnämnandet av dessa fenomen. Jag menar, de hade sin beskärda del av märkliga uttryck på den tiden som galna chipssjukan och att göra en hel pudel men inga så besynnerliga som dessa.

När vi ändå talar om tekniska termer måste jag även nämna verbet ”att padda” som hänvisar till användandet av en Ipad och även som ju alla vet är en viss vårtig amfibie.

Flipperförälder är också ett ord som ökade i användning under 2011. I motsats till en curlingförälder så skjuter en flipperförälder bara iväg sina barn ut i verkligheten som en flipperkula (inte vid födseln utan bildligt talat vid ett senare stadie).

Tjejsamla är ett ord som har skapat viss uppståndelse i Sverige. Det innebär att samla som en tjej, underförstått att tjejer samlar mindre seriöst än män. Detta har tydligen lett till förslaget att ordet killstäda även det borde introduceras.

Slutligen, så är mitt favoritord för 2011 ordet ”retronym”. En retronym är ett nytt ord för någonting gammalt som ersätts av någonting nytt. Förvirrande, jag vet. Men ett exempel är ordet tjock-TV som man ju kallar vanliga TV-apparater nu när platt-TV har introducerats.

Det var min lista det. Vill ni se den fullständiga listan kan ni ladda ner den som PDF på Svenska språkrådets nyordlista för 2011!

[English]

At the end of each year, the Swedish language council conducts a list of words that have been invented or increased in use during the year. A glance through the words and their explanations is always a nice way of recapping the year that has passed and all of its events. For a Swede, the recognizing factor makes this an entertaining read and for a foreigner it shows what goes on in Sweden and what our take on international events is. So, what’s in 2011’s list, you might ask. Well, just sit back and I’ll share my favorite new Swedish words from 2011 with you!

First off is the verb “appa” which means to play around with the apps on your cellphone. This word is funny because it’s one of those that all the Swedish parents probably will start adopting at the end of this year, which will then “force” all the kids to call it something else.

We also had translations of the terms for the totally viral social media phenomenons: owling and planking (“uggling” and “plankning” in Swedish). For those of you who didn’t know, they refer to the practice of squatting like an owl respectively lie down like a plank on hard-to-reach places, taking a picture of it and then posting it on Facebook. Just for fun I compared the 2011 list with its predecessor from 2002 and I can say that some 2002 people's eyes would pop out at the mention of these phenomenons. I mean, they had their share of peculiar expressions back then, like the mad potato chips disease (galna chipssjukan) and to make a whole poodle (att göra en hel pudel) but nothing quite as odd as these.
While on the technical terms, I should also mention the verb “padda”. It refers to the usage of an iPad but it also means toad.

Flipperförälder is also a word that increased in use during 2011. It translates into pinball parent and is the opposite of the previous word curling parent (curlingförälder). While curling parents look after their kids like hawks and at some point carefully let them face the real world, like letting go of a curling stone, the pinball parents just shoot their children away into the unknown like a pinball (i.e. let them be independent).

Tjejsamla is a word that has caused some commotion in Sweden. It translates into “to girlcollect” but it’s not as bad as it sounds. It means to collect like a girl, inclining that girls (women) don’t collect things (DVDs, video games, cards) as devotedly as boys (men) do. This has lead to the suggestion that the word “Killstäda” should also be introduced, which means to clean like a man.

Finally, my favorite word of 2011 is “retronym”. A retronym is a new word for something old that is replaced by something new. Confusing, I know. An example is that TVs now are generally referred to as "tjock-TVs" meaning fat-TVs, due to the introduction of flat-screen TVs.

That was my list!. The complete New Swedish Words List 2011 can be seen on the Swedish language council’s homepage.

[Svenska]

If these symptoms apply to your condition, then we have the panacea you have been looking for all along!

How to write right!

Sometimes, you have 90% of it. You could have the perfect sentence, but there is one tiny word missing to it and you just cannot pinpoint what it is. How frustrating is that?! Time to put an end to the age of doubts; here comes the era of certainties. bab.la’s latest product, wording, helps you build sentences based on statistics, decreasing the risk of making mistakes when writing. How do statistics play a role in your writing skills? Wording browses millions of sentences stored in its database and analyses how often a combination of words is used.

Here is how it works (also check the screenshot below):

• You enter the beginning of the sentence you need help for, e.g. "I am looking"

• You place a question mark for the word you want to know about, e.g. "I am looking ?"

• Wording shows you the words that are most likely to be right.

• You choose what fits best.

Quick, free and easy! What’s more, the software retrieving data for you to choose from displays the percentage of use for each option. That should give you a boost to beat the odds. Thanks to wording, your essays, reports and any other documents written in English will have a nice flavour of fluency.

Screenshot of the wording product:

Never lost for words again!

Now that you saved so much time on your writing, you can try the fun side of Wording. You don’t believe there is a fun side to it? I let you try for yourself, use the following phrase:

"[Insert name of famous person] is a ?"

You will most certainly read unexpected statements – for which we decline all responsibilities if it happens to be about you

Enjoy toying with wording and feel free to share the funniest sentence results you come across!

Downloads:
Wording screenshot | bab.la logo

Hace algunos meses decidí aprender alemán. Siempre pensé que dominar un idioma aparte del nativo facilita el proceso de aprender uno más. ¡Estaba tan equivocada!
Eso no quiere decir que sea más dicífil porque en realidad todo depende del tiempo que se invierta en el estudio y práctica.

Regresando al tema del alemán, noté que tiene palabras muy largas y aparentemente difíciles o casi imposibles de pronunciar para alguien que aún está en nivel básico. Entonces se me ocurrió buscar la palabra más larga en español, existen algunas como electroencefalográficamente y anticonstitucionalísimamente. Curiosamente la palabra más larga es hipopotomonstrosesquipedaliofobia, que se define como el miedo a la pronunciación de palabras largas y complicadas debido principalmente al nerviosismo.

Fue al primera vez que leí acerca de ésta palabra y aún para un nativo es un poco complicada de pronunciar. Después recordé haber leído que el alemán permite construir palabras compuestas sin límite de longitud, es decir, palabras extremadamente largas.

Una de las más largas tiene 63 letras y es el título de un proyecto:

Rinderkennzeichnungs - und Rind¬fleisch¬etikettierungs¬über¬wachungs¬aufgaben¬übertragungs¬gesetz

En español se traduce literalmente como: “Ley sobre la transferencia de las obligaciones de vigilancia del etiquetado de la carne de vacuno y la designación de los bovinos”.

Existe también otra que en español significa “Sociedad de funcionarios subordinados de la construcción de la fábrica principal de la electricidad para la navegación de barcos de vapor en el Danubio” y en alemán se escribe así:

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

No duden que más adelante existan palabras más largas, ¿aún les interesaría aprender alemán?

Curiosidades:

- Eunoia: Es una de las palabras más cortas en inglés y contiene las 5 vocales principales. En español se podría traducir como “pensamiento hermoso”.
- Strengths: Es la palabras más larga en inglés que contiene una sola vocal.
- Unprosperousness: Tiene 16 letras y todas se repiten al menos una vez.

[English]

A few months ago I decided to learn German. I used to think that speaking fluently any other language apart from the native one would facilitate the process of learning a third language.
Turns out I was wrong! I’m not saying it’s even more difficult but it all depends on how much time you invest in studying and practising. Getting back to the German learning issue, I noticed that there are many compound words that are apparently difficult and sometimes impossible to pronounce for someone who only knows basic words.

I had then the brilliant idea of looking for the longest word in Spanish; there are words like electroencefalográficamente and anticonstitucionalísimamente. Curiously, the longest one is hipopotomonstrosesquipedaliofobia and is defined as the fear or phobia to pronounce long and complicated words due to nervousness in most of the cases. It was the first time I read about this word and even for a native speaker its pronunciation could be hard.

On the other hand, German language allows the creation of extremely long compound words. One of the longest has 63 letters and it was created as a project’s title:
Rinderkennzeichnungs - und Rind¬fleisch¬etikettierungs¬über¬wachungs¬aufgaben¬übertragungs¬gesetz
Literally translated as: Cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation law.

However, there’s another word translated as “Association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services” and in German is written like this:

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

We shouldn’t be surprised if longer words are created in the near future. Would you still be interested in learning German?

Curious word facts:

- Eunoia: Is one of the shortest English words and includes the 5 main vowels.
- Strengths: Is the longest English words that has only one vowel.
- Unprosperousness: Has 16 letters and they all appear at least twice.

[Español]

Come si può leggere qui, la parola "idiota" deriva dal greco antico ἰδιώτης (idiotes), che significa "privato cittadino, cittadino comune senza cariche pubbliche"; è stato solo un migliaio di anni più tardi che questa parola ha cominciato a venire usata per indicare prima una "persona rozza e ignorante" e poi un "idiota".
Per quanto riguarda la parola "ragazzo", il dibattito sulle sue origini è ancora infuocato. Tuttavia, la maggior parte degli esperti sostiene che essa derivi dalla parola araba raqqa sò, usata per indicare un "ragazzo che consegna un messaggio", tuttora presente nei dialetti del Magreb col significato di "postino". Molto probabilmente, questa parola araba è arrivata in Italia passando per la Sicilia nel XIV secolo. Un'altra parola molto utilizzata di derivazione araba è "assassino"; essa deriva da Ḥashshāshīn (persona chef a uso di hashish), parola usata per indicare i membri di una setta ismaelitica mediorientale del VIII secolo. Gli assassini erano conosciuti per la loro abitudine di fumare ingenti quantità di hashish prima di uccidere le loro vittime; per questo motivo al giorno d'oggi la parola viene utilizzata per indicare qualcuno che abbia commesso un omicidio volontario.

Per concludere questo breve elenco di parole dall'etimologia curiosa, qualche breve cenno sulla parola "pupilla". Pupilla è il diminutivo del diminutivo ("pupula") del latino "pupa" (bambola). A questo punto la domanda sorge spontanea: "dov'è il nesso tra la bambola e l'apertura di forma circolare situata al centro dell'iride?" La risposta è che la nostra immagine che vediamo riflessa nell'occhio della persona che abbiamo di fronte è di dimensioni piccole rispetto al resto del corpo di costui o costei.
Ecco perché ai romani è venuta l'idea della pupilla.
Interessante, no? Questi sono soltanto alcuni esempi di quanto affascinanti possano essere le parole, ma sono sicura che ogni parola abbia una storia da raccontarci. Tutto quello che dobbiamo fare è comprare un buon dizionario etimolgico.

[English]

There are some words that we are used every day. For example, if you are in Italy – surrounded by Tuscan hills and the Italian language – you will often hear people addressing each other as "ragazzo" (boy) or "idiota" (idiot). We are so used to these words that we never wonder how they originated; they are there and we just use them. However, if we just took some time to do so, our question could lead us to surprising results. That is what happened to me when – out of sheer curiosity (and boredom) – I decided to wonder where words like the above-mentioned "ragazzo" and "idiota" came from.

As we can read here, the word "idiota" comes from the Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiotes), which means "a private person as opposed to a magistrate, ruler, king". It was only a thousand years later that it began to be used in the sense of "uneducated or ignorant person".

As for "ragazzo", the question about its origin is still an object of heated debate. However, most linguists argue that it comes from the Arabic word raqqa sò, referring to a boy who delivers messages, which is still used in the Magreb region in the sense of "postman". Most likely, the Arabic word came to Italy through Sicily in the 14th Century. Another commonly used word deriving from Arabic is "assassino" (murderer), which comes from the word Ḥashshāshīn (users of hashish), indicating an 8th Century's militant Ismailitic sect in the Middle East. The members of this sect – after having made use of huge quantities of hashish – carried out selective eliminations of prominent rival figures; that is why – the origins of the word forgotten – the term has taken the meaning of "professional murderer".

Lastly in this first series of curious etymologies – we look at the word "pupilla" (pupil). This word comes from the diminutive of the Latin word "pupa" (doll), "pupula", whose diminutive, in turn, is "pupilla". At this point, one may be naturally led to wonder what link could be between a doll and the dark circular opening in the centre of the iris of the eye; the answer is that the image that can be seen reflected in the eye is very small if compared to the human body, and that is why the Romans associated it with a doll.
Interesting, isn´t it? These are just a few examples of how fascinating words can be, but I am sure that every word has a story to tell. All we have to do is buy a good etymological dictionary.

[Italiano]

Un'introduzione generica e noiosa (solo per i veri appassionati di linguistica!)

I fattori che influenzano il processo di crescita e sviluppo di una lingua sono molteplici: tra questi, due possono essere considerati intrinseci e uno intrinseco. I due fattori intrinseci sono il numero di parlanti e il prestigio che una lingua ha. È risaputo che quanti più parlanti una lingua ha tanto maggiori saranno le sue possibilità di crescita. Per quanto riguarda il prestigio, si può invece affermare che maggiore è il prestigio che viene attribuito a una certa lingua, tanto maggiori saranno le sue possibilità di influenzare altre lingue di minore prestigio.
Il fattore estrinseco consiste nel maggiore o minore grado di esposizione di una lingua all'influenza di altre lingue e culture. Ad esempio, un parlante di madrelingua francese che vive in Francia avrà certamente molte più occasioni di venire in contatto con lingue e culture di altri paesi rispetto a un parlante di madrelingua Huli che vive sulla sua isoletta della Papua Nuova Guinea. Ciò vorrà anche dire che ci saranno molte più possibilità che il parlante francese "contamini" la sua madrelingua con elementi esterni.
La situazione appena descritta è comune a tutte le lingue del mondo. Tuttavia, ci sono anche altri fattori specifici di una data lingua e di una data cultura che possono influenzare lo sviluppo di quella stessa lingua.

Il caso dell'italiano


Considerando il caso dell'italiano, possiamo notare due tendenze maggiori: un considerevole gusto per gli esotismi e la ricchezza di varietà dialettali e popolari al suo interno. Una riscontro di quanto appena affermato è possibile trovarlo nell'ultima edizione dello Zanichelli (2010).

Di seguito, una lista di alcune tra le new entry più curiose:

- Prestiti dall'inglese: shot, shottino, acquaspinning, crunch, emo.
- Parole provenienti da varietà popolari o dialettali dell'italiano: impanicarsi, inguattare, pinocchietto, ndujia, friarielli, inciucio.
- Neologismi: cinepanettone, cinecocomero.

Il Vocabolario Zingarelli allo stesso tempo si è anche lanciato nell'impresa di salvare le parole che stanno scomparendo perché sostituite da sinonimi. Tra queste possiamo trovare "abulico", "aulico", "scherno", "zelo" o "trastullare".

Questo è quanto per l'italiano.
E la tua lingua? Quali sono le parole nuove che più ti piacciono? Quali parole in via di estinzione pensi che valga la pena salvare?
Scrivici un commento!

[English]

A general and boring overview (for linguistic nerds only!)

Generally speaking, there are many factors influencing the process of growing and developing of a language: among these, two are intrinsic factors and one is an extrinsic factor. The two intrinsic ones are on the one hand the number of speakers a certain language has and on the other hand its "prestige". First of all, it goes without saying that the more speakers a language has the faster it will grow – and change too. As for prestige, it is possible to say that the higher level of respect is accorded to a language the more it will influence other lower-prestige languages. The extrinsic factor is a certain language's exposure to external influence. For example, a French speaker living in France will have more chances of getting in contact with people living outside the borders of his or her country compared with a speaker of Huli in Papua New Guinea. This also means that it will be far more likely that the French speaker will "contaminate" his or her own native language with new foreign elements.
The situation described above is common to all languages in the world. However, there are also other minor factors – which are typical of a certain language and culture – that influence the process of that language's growth and change.

The case of Italian


Considering the case of Italian, we may notice two main trends in its development and growth: one is a relatively strong liking for exoticisms, and the other is its richness of dialectal varieties. We can see a proof of what I stated above by giving a look at the latest edition (2010) of the main Italian language dictionary, "the Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana di Nicola Zingarelli".

Here is a list of a few interesting words among the newest entries:
- Loan words from English: 'shot', 'shottino' (meaning a little glass of an alcoholic drink), 'acquaspinning', 'crunch', 'emo' (short version of 'emotional').
- Words coming from local dialects or parlances: 'impanicarsi' (to panic), 'inguattare' (to hide something), 'pinocchietto' (capri pants), 'nduja' (spreadable sausage from Calabria made with pork), 'friarielli' (a vegetable commonly known as field mustard), 'inciucio' (a dishonest agreement).
- Neologisms: 'cinepanettone' (a commercial movie released at Christmas time), 'cinecocomero' (a commercial movie released in summer)

The Zingarelli dictionary has also engaged in the endeavor to save words that are less used and replaced by more common synonyms in the everyday language. Among these we can find words such as 'abulico' (abulic), 'aulico' (noble, refined), 'scherno' (mockery), 'zelo' (zeal) or 'trastullare' (to amuse).
What about your language? Are there any new words in your language that you like? Are there any old-fashioned words you would like to save?
Share your ideas in the comments!

[Italiano]

Have you ever wondered what the most beautiful word of the English language is? I have. In fact, many of us have and what spontaneously occurred to me was that, beauty being subjective, there is no answer to that question. And yet, after some research on the Internet, I realised that there has been a lot of research done to find an answer to that question.

Cellar Door

If you ask your two favourite oracles (Wikipedia and Google) about what the most beautiful word in English would be, they point at an obscure “cellar door.” Clearly, it is not related to what it represents. Wikipedia elaborates on how several factors, including historical and literary ones have led to the conclusion that “cellar door” would be the most beautiful word in English. After repeating the word several times in your head, then uttering it aloud with different accent (the British one is supposed to suit it best), it is quite likely that you will acknowledge “cellar door” as a nice phonetic piece.

The people’s choice


The one flaw I see in that analysis is that it seems to be based on a bunch of scholars’ choices. It is not that representative of what the everyday people think and what their favourite words are. The British Council asked 7,000 English learners what they thought the most beautiful word is and came up with a list of the 70 most beautiful English words, “mother” as number one. Undertaking the counterpart of the “cellar door” case and taking it one step further than the British Council, we, at bab.la, have set up an application generating two random words or sets of words in English. You can then click on the one that appeals most to you to generate two new words, etc. The number of clicks will be used to determine the most popular words among the database. As I am writing that article, we have some 156,200 clicks out of the 100,000,000 clicks we need to decide what the most beautiful word is. There is a long way yet to go, but it will mirror what people actually consider their favourite words to be.

All fun and even a hint of learning

As new clicks are registered, the top 25 most beautiful and ugliest words lists are updated and can be consulted right below the game itself. Unexpected words will be read in both lists...
The game is quite addictive and it is hard to quit once you have started! Some choices will be obvious, some a lot less. I was suggested that it could be quite amusing to make a sentence with the two words popping up – you could make up some very unexpected segments!
You will also encounter some oddities or words you have never read before. Great opportunity to enhance your word power!

Get hooked now on: http://en.bab.la/most-beautiful-word/