One of the icelandic author Þórarinn Eldjárns short stories is about a linguist who is sent to map the place names in the countryside. The mission is two-pronged – he shall not only clear away the weeds in the namnfloran but also get the farmers to clean up the wreck that turned the fields to the skrotbilskyrkogårdar.
before he get lost among the corroded junkheaps and bustling namngalleriets all spelling and tolkningsvarianter. He soon finds that the wrecks have become an indispensable part of the landscape. They have fused with the hills, cliffs and meadows and turned into the geographical places with their own name. As he takes root in the village, he discovers that it is necessary to be able to tell you that the best fishing in the river is ”west of Ferguson” and that it is time to go ”opp to the Bus”. The hope that the culling among the place-names go by the wayside.
editor-in-chief at Språktidningen I’m one of those who take up the year’s bugs. The basics of the work reminds actually a lot of ortnamnsforskarens. Each year, formed thousands of new words in the English language. Many of them are temporary and may only get limited distribution. We map the linguistic soil with the same zeal and interest that the icelandic researcher. But then separated our ways.
This is 2018, the year of nyord – you can keep track of them?
The 33 nyorden in this year’s list is just a small part of all candidates and proposals. Unlike ortnamnsforskaren sifts through to lift our eyes from its own land.
of the lower-case. It means that words that have very limited distribution or only used in some circuits rarely have a place. Where ortnamnsforskaren lists all the variants, we try to make a language conservation effort and control the use of language. One such example from this year’s list is to write up nollavfall despite the fact that zero waste is more common. The reason is that hopskrivningen nollavfall follow the same pattern as the assemblies that zero tolerance and zero tolerance.
nor is there any space in the list for their own älsklingsord. But it does nothing. Word works just like the Bus did before it was retired on ortnamnsforskarens farm. There will always be new.
anders@spraktidningen.se
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