Linguistic Fandom

[jesse_the_k]

The American Dialectic Society nominates more than 50 items for "Words of the Year." I was particularly delighted by

• oysgezoomt: fatigued or bored by Zoom (formed in Yiddish)
• Blursday: humorous indication of difficulty in determining what day of the week it is
• coronials: the coronavirus generation, for the predicted baby boom in the wake of the pandemic
• essential (workers, labor, businesses): used for people, often underpaid, who are actually treated as expendable because they are required to work and thus risk infection from coronavirus
• Zoomer: term for Generation Z, previously a play on boomer but now highlighting their use of Zoom for remote learning and other activities

The word of the year is, predictably and boringly, covid.

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This month's Lingthusiasm podcast addresses "Writing as a Technology." Reading and writing are so tied in to early education that I was surprised to learn that the "real" object of linguistic study is language as it is spoken or signed.

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The Lingthusiasts (GretchenAMcC and superlingo) have collaborated with Crash Course https://thecrashcourse.com for a 16-episode introduction called, surprisingly enough

Crash Course Linguistics

Sixteen episodes on YouTube with excellent captions

The pace of instruction is very fast — in addition to host Taylor Behnke’s excellent speaking voice, there are copious graphics as well as an animated section called "Thought Bubble."

The episode Computational Linguistics delivers a great smack-down of all those foolish hearing computer researchers proposing gloves that "translate" between ASL and spoken language, beginning here:

direct link

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[isis]

oysgezoomt

I legit laughed out loud at this!

[jesse_the_k]

Yep, it's great, and it's the first one in the Zoom category. One of Us is involved.

[bluedreaming]

Such an interesting post, and I second loving/laughing in delight at oysgezoomt

[jesse_the_k]

Can you use it in a sentence, or are you blessedly free of regular Zoom interactions?

[bluedreaming]

I have been able to sidestep Zoom interactions due to (less happily) work being fantastically busy in other respects, but I could confidently say, “My mother is very oysgezoomt.”

I don’t speak Yiddish, but coming from an including-German-speaking (and passing familiarity with one of the many dialects of Low German) background I would assume this is an adjective, in the vein of “I am cold” / “Ich bin kalt” (“Ich bin sehr ausgezoomt.”[oysgezoomt]).

[adrian_turtle]

I haven't heard it in the wild, and just missed an opportunity to use it this evening on a zoom call with people who understand way more Yiddish than I do. I realize now it rhymes with "Zey Gezunt," and should perhaps be used similarly.

The literal meaning is "be healthy" but the usage is "goodbye," so adding "I can't even deal with zoom anymore, so goodnight" is apt.

[jesse_the_k]

So apt. All the apt!

[sonia]

Hm, perhaps I shall replace COVID-19 with covid in my book, since it seems to have moved from acronym to a regular word. Thanks for the heads-up! ETA: wow, that came out in formal language! Can you tell I've been neck deep in final edits?!

Formality is fine, in its place.

[jesse_the_k]

I suspect it's down to the ubiquity of lowercase in social media, but initialisms are becoming words a lot faster than they used to.

[adrian_turtle]

Last winter, I heard "zednik" and was starting to push for it as "member of Generation Z." Oh well.

[jesse_the_k]

Ahh, that would be lovely!

When would a zednik be born to fit the class? (I'm getting lost at the end of the alphabet.)

[ljgeoff]

As a nurse, I heartily agree with the "essential" -- also, we as a society have to figure out a better system, and figure it out fast. There aren't enough nurses; not enough LPNs or Rns or BSNs. It's getting really bad.

[jesse_the_k]

really bad.

Performative hand claps are easy to put in the news, but good pay and recognition that adequate relief time can avert trauma are what's needed.

[yourlibrarian]

It'll be interesting to see if Coronials catches on but as a marker for kids who had their early education (1st to 3rd grade) interrupted by the pandemic. Because at least in the U.S. there apparently has been a baby bust which could stretch out for years due to economic factors: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/16/covid-19-baby-bust-coronavirus-pandemic-lead-birth-decline/6507974002/