Earlier this week we shared our favorite TV words of 2012. Today, we present to you our favorite language stories of the year.

Blah people

Rick Santorum kicked off 2012 with some comments about (cough) blah people. Mark Liberman took a closer look.

Apostrophe catastrophe!

In slightly less controversial news, the United Kingdom’s “largest high street bookseller,” Waterstone’s, decided to forgo an apostrophe and become Waterstones. Stan Carey deemed the decision “reasonable” and rounded up some great reactions. At Language Log, Mark Liberman poked fun at this “apostropocalypse,” while Geoff Pullum clarified some muddled apostrophe arguments and wondered about the apostrophe and sound.

Lin-sane linguistics

February was all about Jeremy Lin and the linguistics of Lin-sanity, as Ben Zimmer put it. The American Dialect Society went as far as to deem Linsanity a possible contender for 2012 word of the year, but after Lin fell out of the spotlight, it seemed Linsanity, though not Lin’s career, was over, at least for finicky linguists.

The other four-letter word

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh celebrated the leap year by calling law student and women’s right activist Sandra Fluke a “slut,” then faux-pologizing for it. Johnson examined Limbaugh’s onomatapology while at NPR, Geoff Nunberg took a look that four-letter word in question.

Passings

We were saddened by the passing of several great authors this year, including Helen Gurley Brown, Maeve Binchy, Nora Ephron, Adrienne Rich, Encyclopedia Brown author Donald Sobol, Ray Bradbury, Berenstain Bears co-creator Jan Berenstain, and beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak. Some delightful interviews from The Colbert Report helped us miss Sendak a little less (part 1, part 2, and the uncensored outtakes).

See here for more notable author passings.

English language wars and anti-Americanisms

As the weather warmed, an English language war heated up between a couple of New Yorker prescriptivists and, it seemed, all the descriptivists, including Ben Zimmer, Nancy Friedman, Christopher Shea at The Wall Street Journal, Ben Trawick-Smith at Dialect Blog, and Johnson at The Economist.

Later, September saw some (unnecessary, we thought) anti-Americanisms. But luckily, Stan Carey and Robert Lane Greene had a thing or two to say about that.

Jubilympics and brand police

June was a big month for London with both the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics (hence, Jubilympics). Meanwhile, the brand police were busy making sure ambush marketers didn’t get too olympic about their advertising.

Higgs boson metaphors

In early July, scientists found a new subatomic particle, the Higgs boson, as “imagined and named half a century ago by theoretical physicist Peter Higgs.” What this means, probably only other theoretical physicists know, but at least we got lots of Higgs boson metaphors, including the smoking duck variety.

The modesty of The New York Times

The New York Times failed in taboo avoidance when they described the noun cocksuckers as “Offensive Adjective Inappropriate for Family Newspaper.” As Arnold Zwicky wrote, “Adjective, noun, who really cares?” The NYT then refused to print the name of the website, STFU Parents, resulting in STFU-gate, which Zwicky also discussed, along with the seemingly new NYT modesty.

Stormy words

October closed with superstorm Sandy wreaking havoc on Cuba, Haiti, and much of the U.S. northeast. At The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal helped us sort the fake Sandy pictures from the real, while Jen Doll provided a dictionary of storm words.

The language of politics

The latter half of 2012 was dominated by the U.S. Presidential election. The campaign team of Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, made some spelling errors. A new meme was born out of the Republican National Convention.

After the Vice Presidential debates, we got a lot of malarkey, my friend, from Ben Zimmer, Jen Doll, and Nancy Friedman, as well as a sketchy deal, binders and barb words, binders full of women, and binder reviews. Meanwhile, after the Presidential debate, President Obama came up with a wit of the staircase, and later coined a new disorder.

We also learned where red states and blue states come from; the semantics of voting and standing in (or is it “on”?) line; a razor-tight mixed metaphor; and the We are all the X now trope.

“Lies! Murder! Lexicography!”

Finally, the headline of Ben Zimmer’s piece in The New York Times sums up the last big language story of the year. A former Oxford English Dictionary editor deleted a bunch of words and it was terrible, but no, not really. We mean, really not really.

Whew, that’s 2012 in a language blog nutshell. See you next year!

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Xuilla]

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

It’s raining words of the year! The American Dialect Society has geared up for their January announcement of 2012’s word of the year by putting out the call for nominations. Meanwhile, the Australian National Dictionary Centre chose green-on-blue, “(used in a military context) an attack made on one’s own side by a force regarded as neutral.”

Collins Dictionary had 12 favorites, and Ben Zimmer rounded up some standouts, including superstorm, Eastwooding, and fiscal cliff. Fritinancy shared her choices, such as ermahgerd, gaylo, and pink slime, as well as her names of the year.

Laura Slattery at The Irish Times wrote about 2012’s words in regards to women (slutshaming, binders, legitimate rape). Jen Doll gave us the A to Z of the year’s worst words (speaking of which, Mark Liberman considered some not-great euphemisms for the much maligned moist) while Geoff Nunberg told us to forget YOLO and focus on big data instead. Finally, the AV Club listed the year in band names.

Yesterday celebrated the 200th anniversary of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. We loved these illustrations, National Geographic’s interactive tale teller, and this piece on the cultural legacy of the often gruesome stories.

In movie news, Ben Zimmer explored the language of Lincoln, including anachronisms, and The Hollywood Reporter wondered if the cursing in the film was accurate. Meanwhile, the OUP Blog told us about the naming of Hobbits, while we explored ten of our favorite journey words.

In other language news, Johnson discussed the internet and language and a problematic BBC piece, as well as the origins of the word bork. At Language Log, Mark Liberman took down The New Yorker for claiming that the Constitution is ungrammatical, and Geoff Pullum ranted about “prescriptivist poppycock” around that and which.

Victor Mair looked at English loanwords in Cantonese and Chinese character amnesia. In other Chinese language news, we learned a neologism, nail house, referring to “homes belonging to people who refuse to make room for development,” and likened to “to nails that are stuck in wood, and cannot be pounded down with a hammer.”

At Lingua Franca, Ben Yagoda explored vogue vague nouns and wondered is that a thing? Lucy Ferriss discussed the language around gun control while Fritinancy delved into gundamentalist, “a person who goes beyond the language of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and takes his or her unrestricted right to bear arms as a tenet of religious or quasi-religious faith.”

At Macmillan Dictionary blog, Orin Hargraves felt used, and Stan Carey climbed the the steep rise of the fiscal cliff. On his own blog, Stan wondered how to pronounce GIF and if it really matters; explained who’s versus whose; and discussed the invented languages of Ithkuil and Blissymbols.

In words of the week, Erin McKean noted benne, “what sesame seeds are called in the Lowcountry, particularly in and around Charleston, S.C.”; sufganiyot, “Hanukkah-themed filled-donuts”; and one of our favorite words, twoosh, a tweet that uses all 140 characters.

Word Spy spotted sapiosexual, “a person who is sexually attracted to intelligent people”; self-interrupt, “to interrupt one’s own work to check social media or perform some other non-work-related task”; dozenalist, “a person who believes society should switch to a base-12 counting system instead of the current base-10 system”; and misophonia, “an extreme intolerance or hatred for certain sounds.”

Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing discussed literacy privilege and the dickishness of grammaticasters. Jonathan Green taught us some Yiddish slang. We learned some Japanese fish puns, about Ben & Jerry’s troubles with language laws in Quebec, and that Manchester, England is the most linguistically diverse city in Europe.

We also found out New York City is a graveyard of languages and enjoyed this literary tour of Manhattan. We were intrigued by lab lit, or laboratory literature; this newly discovered lizard named for President Obama (“Is this real?” tweeted one skeptical tweep); and these animal languages.

We enjoyed these “gobbledygook” words that are now common and these interesting words for common things. We loved these romantic expressions in other languages as well as learning how to laugh online in other languages.

Oh and hey, the world didn’t end, but you might still enjoy these apocalyptic words.

That wraps up our last Language Blog Roundup of the year, but stay tuned next week for something special.

Happy holidays!

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Jason-Morrison]

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

In lexicography scandals this week, The Guardian reported on a book which claims a former Oxford English Dictionary editor “secretly” deleted thousands of words, while Jesse Sheidlower, Ben Zimmer, and the author of the book, Sarah Ogilvie, all provided more context and put this non-scandal into perspective. In other dictionary news, Lifehacker offered an invaluable tech dictionary, while these rare dictionaries might go to auction for as much $1 million.

In other language news, Jen Doll at The Atlantic took a look inside the search for 2012’s word of the year (before she ranted politely about hyphens); Merriam Webster announced their choices, socialism and capitalism; and the OUP Blog discussed Place of the Year, Mars. Lynneguist requested nominations for British-English and American-English imports of the year, while the American Name Society asked for nominations for 2012 Name of the Year.

In other naming news, Laura Wattenberg, aka the Baby Name Wizard, explained the royal baby name process; we had fun with this Hobbit Name Game (ours is Rosie-Posie Chubb-Baggins); and, hey, did you catch our interview with professional namer Anthony Shore?

Ben Zimmer discussed the term fiscal cliff as well as how playwright Tony Kushner created “vintage 19th-century dialogue with contemporary ­vibrancy” in the film, Lincoln. Sally Thomason at Language Log took a look at the claim that English is a Scandinavian language. Johnson explored internet language, dictionaries and finding the right format, and Christmas cliches. Meanwhile, the OxfordWords Blog served up traditional Christmas foods.

At Lingua Franca, Geoff Pullum told us not to blame our bad moods on language and compared who and whom, while Allan Metcalf rounded up five rules for why new words survive. At Macmillan Dictionary blog, Gill Francis explored the funny side of omitted objects; Orin Hargraves discussed the language of internet dating; and Stan Carey compared anymore and any more. On his own blog, Stan considered the comma that muddles meaning, some howling ambiguities, and African American Vernacular English.

In words of the week, Erin McKean’s Wall Street Journal findings included spezzato, “a combination of jacket and trousers that’s not a matching suit”; exit host, a polite way of saying “bouncer”; and the bezzle, “the stock of undiscovered embezzled wealth that accumulates during the boom in a country’s business and banks.” Fully (sic) spotlighted the word ranga, a person with red hair, where ranga is “is an abbreviation of orang-utan (a primate with reddish-brown hair native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia).”

Word Spy spotted rooftopping, “taking photographs from the roof of a building, particularly one accessed illegally”; prepper, “a person who goes to great lengths to prepare for an emergency caused by a natural or man-made disaster”; misteress, “a man who has an extramarital affair with a woman”; and copyfraud, “a false or overly restrictive copyright notice, particularly one that claims ownership of public domain material.”

Fritinancy’s weekly word choices were nones, “a term used by religion scholars and pollsters to describe Americans unaffiliated with any religion – people who respond ‘none of the above’ in a survey about religious preference”; and Kabuki dance, “political posturing.” She also tried on the fashion word smoking slipper.

Other fashion words we learned this week were portmanteaus swacket, sweater jacket, and shacket, “blazer-meets-shirt,” for that “dapper casual” (dapsual?) look. Arnold Zwicky took a look at another word blend, replyallcalypse, the result of hitting “reply all” to 40,000 people.

Dialect Blog posted on “Americanized” non-American novels and French-English accents, and wondered: diphthong or L? In other accent news, we learned why some British singers sound American and why the brain doubt a foreign accent,

The Virtual Linguist explained the Pope’s Twitter handle, Pontifex. Superlinguo explored rude gestures and the origins of the phrase, [place] I am in you! Ozworders told us about schoolies and schoolies week.

This week we also had a quick Hinglish lesson, learned that World War I trench talk is now entrenched in the English language, and how to say Google in other languages. We loved these different names for eggs in toast, these favorite recipes of poets, these fictional foods, and these 30 Rock cocktails to celebrate Liz Lemon’s wedding. Speaking of which, we embraced geek and nerd as positive terms.

We were fascinated by these historical manias and this look at how the New York Times’ crossword puzzle is made. We loved these misheard lyrics and this Alice in Wonderland transit map. We felt old upon learning Schoolhouse Rock turned 40 this week, as Pong did last week. Then we had a Stabbing Robot and felt better.

Cheers!

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

Earlier this week, superstorm Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on Cuba, Haiti, and much of the U.S. northeast. At The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal helped us sort the fake Sandy pictures from the real, while Jen Doll provided a dictionary of storm words.

We also fell in love with Lydia Callis, Mayor Bloomberg’s American Sign Language interpreter, and learned why sign language interpreters are so expressive.

In politics, Philip Resnick at Language Log discussed the linguistic angle of acts of terror. President Obama coined Romnesia, a blend of Romney and amnesia, and Ben Zimmer explained surrogate, Obama’s “is is,” and some political portmanteaus. Fritinancy talked bayonets while Allan Metcalf told us how to talk presidential. Finally, we learned some Mittisms and the problem with Sarah Palin’s shuck and jive.

In The New York Times, Helen Sword took on verbification and Ben Yagoda considered the versatile em dash. Maddie York at Mind Your Language wondered where all the adverbs had gone, while Johnson stood proud for adjectives.

At Lingua Franca, Ben Yagoda expounded on euphemisms and the word douchebag. Geoff Pullum commented on taboo words, the phrase illegal immigrant, and some Frankenwords. Allan Metcalf explained the origins of trick or treat.

At Macmillan Dictionary Blog, Orin Hargraves delved into miscreant word behavior. Stan Carey updated us on Google’s Ngram Viewer 2.0, and on his own blog, explored would of, could of, might of, must of and ancient Irish names. Kory Stamper shared her response on logic and etymology. Grammar Girl explained ghost words (not the scary kind), while we offered some ghostly words (the scary kind).

In words of the week, Fritinancy cringed (or maybe we just did) at curlbro, “a pejorative slang term referring to gym-goers [who] focus on training their arms when weight lifting,” and pointed out postapocalit, “novels set in an imaginary North American wilderness after the unthinkable happens.”

Erin McKean spotted banging the beehive, “in which high-speed traders send a flood of orders in an effort to trigger huge price swings just before the data hit”; Bibendum, “the stacked-tire figure better known as the Michelin man”; and boro, “a fabric from the bygone Japanese tradition of roughly patching clothing and bedding to extend its use for generations.”

The Dialect Blog discussed N’Awlins and other abbreviations and compared shall and will. Lynneguist explored the American English untranslatable, visit with; BBC America rounded up 10 Americanisms adopted by Brits; and Oz Worders told us the story of the blue-arsed fly. Meanwhile, the Virtual Linguist explained the origins of toast, “a person or thing that is defunct, dead, finished, in serious trouble, etc”; earworm; blood rain; and Vinglish.

This week we learned about tone deafness and emotion; that Chaucer coined the word twitter; and about language lessons told through Twitter. We found out why we say pardon my French, some Chinese fashion buzzwords, and about slang in the dictionary.

The Atlantic gave us some prison lingo while Jonathan “Mr. Slang” Green told us about slang words for the poor throughout history. We wondered if there were Rosetta Stone tapes for the language of Cloud Atlas, this conlang from a woman’s point of view, umlaut happy Volapük, and coffee talk.

That’s it for this week!

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

It’s Banned Books Week, and the American Library Association has listed 97 of the most banned books of the 20th century while The Huffington Post rounded up the ten most banned books of the year. We love this quote from frequently banned author, Judy Blume, and these funny responses from authors on being banned, like this one from John Irving: “I imagine, when I write, that I am writing for young readers — not for uptight adults.”

In politics, Mitt Romney got literary while Ben Zimmer explored bipartisanship and rounded up some words from the first Obama-Romney debate. In British English versus American English, lexicographers galore explored Britishisms and the Britishization of American English, and Stan Carey discussed anti-anti-Americanism.

Ben Zimmer begged Apple to stop the funnification; Jen Doll had some fun with eggcorns, mondegreens, and other word mistakes; and Arrant Pedantry had some “funner” grammar. Robert Lane Greene and Bryan A. Garner debated which language rules to flout (or flaunt), and The Atlantic put a call out for spelling standardization. Neil Genzlinger complained about the overuse of really on television, while Jerry Seinfeld (yes, the Jerry Seinfeld) real(ly) responded.

At Lingua Franca, Ben Yagoda explored the thin red line and got eye-rate about Iran. Allan Metcalf announced a new contest: “forge a brand-new [grammar] usage rule that will pointlessly vex students in English composition classes, and writers for publications, for generations to come.”

At the Macmillan Dictionary blog, Michael Rundell wondered about crowd-sourcing and dictionaries; Stan Carey explored different types of dictionary crowd-sourcing; Orin Hargraves served up pasta language; and Liz Potter gave us some tips on maybe versus perhaps. Meanwhile, Motivated Grammar declared that misuses of myself and yourself are nothing new.

In words of the week, Fritinancy selected lucky ducky, “an American who pays no federal income tax because his or her income level falls below the tax line after deductions and credits,” and civility, “behavior or speech appropriate to civil interactions.”

Erin McKean noted gansey, an English and Scottish fisherman’s sweater; alligator fruit, another name for the avocado, also “called an ‘alligator pear,’ which should not be confused with the alligator apple, a relative of the soursop and cherimoya”; homosociality, “the tendency of people to hire others who look and act like them”; summer melt, “when students change their plans or decide to attend another school after getting in off the wait list”; and railgating, tailgating on a light-rail train.

Word Spy spotted selfie,“a photographic self-portrait, particularly one taken with the intent of posting it to a social network”; racebending, “the practice of hiring actors whose race is different from that of the characters they portray”; orange-collar, “relating to a worker who wears an orange safety vest while on the job”; baby-lag, “extreme fatigue and disorientation due to the sleep deprivation associated with parenting a baby”; and flirtationship, “a relationship that consists mostly of flirting.”

Sesquiotica considered the phrase I’m just saying and the German word, Zungunruhe, “migration restlessness.” Lynneguist compared the British and American English versions of the word sleepover. Johnson broke Pennsylvania Dutch; The Guardian professed a love for Nigerian pidgin; and the Dialect Blog took a look at singing in dialect, specifically when Brits go GenAm.

We learned a little about the history of the Welsh language; that the sign language African Americans use is different from that of whites; and the secret lives of little words. We learned about the names of the seasons and the names of winter storms.

We weren’t really surprised to find out that these famous authors had ghostwriters. We loved F. Scott Fitzgerald’s response to hate mail, this letter on the beauty of words, and this website of tweets in iambic pentameter. We want this unofficial Downton Abbey cookbook right now.

That’s it for this week! Really? Really.