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THE YEAR OF THE CROWN: The pandemic, social distancing and the countless press conferences of the authorities have left their mark in the last year. Photograph: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB
The Language Council has chosen the word of the year and, at the same time, has drawn up a list of the ten concepts that they believe have characterized 2020. A suitable choice, but little to get excited about, according to language expert Helene Uri.
– We must remember that the year has been marked by great seriousness, and the choice of the first words reflects that we have entered a different era, says Åse Wetås, director of the Language Council.
They claim that the word is nothing new in itself and that, among other things, it has been used as a technical word to describe the outermost layer of the atmosphere.
However, the word has certainly taken on a new meaning after the corona virus spread across the world in 2020.
When historians look back at 2020, there is a good chance they will write about the crown in a certain way. In everyday speech, the crown is used for both the virus, the disease, the crisis and the actual moment we find ourselves in, says Senior Advisor Dagfinn Rødningen of the Language Council.
Note: VG has had the practice of writing crown with the initial letter “c” and not with “k” as the Language Council defines as the correct spelling.
A CONDITION OF CREATIVE LANGUAGE: Language Council director Åse Wetås explains that the corona pandemic has led to the formation of several new concepts. Photo: Mariam Butt / NTB
The Language Council has also published a list of the concepts that they believe have characterized the year:
- The crown (winner of the word of the year)
- Hold gauges
- Lyshare
- The national emergency team
- Flatten the basket
- Melaninrik
- Elf
- Forensic
- Group
The language council director notes that 2020 has been an exceptionally creative linguistic year overall.
– We are seeing a resurgence of new words, along with a new use of old words. There is visible evidence that language is changing with society, says Åse Wetås.
– At the same time, we see how easy it is to create new words in Norwegian by forming creative compositions such as corona roll, light hare and the national emergency team, he adds.
Other notable expressions that have emerged this year:
- Søringkarantene
- Hytteskam
- Coronapolitiet
- Quarantine Concert / Party
- Virtual Friday game
- Distance trip
- Coronafast
- Quarantined bodies
- Shock scanning
- Home insulation / self-insulation
- Social bubbles
- Fucking thursday
(Source: Language Council, VG, NRK, NTB)
I could have chosen something more exciting
– I think it’s a bit boring. It’s hard to say they missed the mark, but they could have chosen something more exciting, says author and linguist Helene Uri.
He served on the board of the language council until 2013 and has written the books “Good language” and “Who said what? Women, men and languages.”
-I could have wanted a slightly more positive expression describing what the nation has done rather than what has hit us, like “national contribution” or one of the funny words, says Uri.
– Still, they are absolutely right: this is a word that has marked 2020 to a very high degree, he adds.
LANGUAGE WHITE: Helene Uri has written several books on the language and was a member of the Language Council until 2013. Photo: Fredrik Solstad, VG
Among the examples that she herself would have preferred, the linguist points out, among other things, “quarantine” and “crown curl”.
– I also think the term state manager is great, which is the new gender-neutral term for what was previously called county governor, says Uri.
– How about words like “national emergency team” and “Fuck Thursday”?
– I’m really glad that the language council didn’t choose fucking Thursday as the word of the year. It’s funny, but as a phenomenon to consider, it is probably an internal word that was very negative in the police, and it may not have affected the year that passed to the same extent.
Like the Language Council, it has also noted that 2020 has seen a blossoming of new expressions, which has been exciting to follow.
– It’s great that times of crisis show that we have so much creativity and ingenuity, says the author.
Hard to avoid
– The fact that “the crown” is the word of the year is quite obvious and difficult to get around. If the Language Council hadn’t voted in favor, enough people would have asked questions, but it’s not directly exciting, says language professor Sylfest Lomheim.
– The other relevant words have also been fine, but mostly related to the crown as a whole, he says.
Lomheim was himself the first director of the Language Council in the period 2004-2010, but now he works as a professor of Norwegian at the University of Agder.
However, in recent memory, he may have been mentioned more for posing as an expert witness in the Laila Bertheussen trial, where he believed that a woman had written the threatening letter against Tor Mikkel Wara’s house because it contained the word ” pee “instead of” pee “.
– As Queen Elizabeth said, it has turned out to be an “Annus Horribilis”. We can only hope that we can name a more exciting and positive word in 2021, says the linguist.
LETTER OF THREATS ANALYZED: Sylfest Lomheim testified as an expert witness in Laila Bertheussen’s trial this fall. Photo: Berit Roald
Lomheim still has a couple of other personal favorites among the concepts that have seen the light of day this year.
– A word that becomes historical, and you can hear me smile, is “søringarantaranten”. If such a word were forged and made in northern Norway this year, there is no doubt that it will go down in language history, says the language teacher.
– And, for example, the “national emergency team”?
Wonderful! In some ways it can mean several things: either it is a national team in need or it is made for an emergency country. It’s a pun on par with Øystein Sunde, who has sometimes come up with a “bus pocket lark” or “diaper changing worker,” Lomheim responds.
