Global Language Monitor

The Global Language Monitor (GLM) is an Austin, Texas-based company that collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language. It is particularly known for its Word of the Year,[1] political analysis,[2][3] college and university rankings,[4] High Tech buzzwords,[5][6] and media analytics.[7]

Contents

History

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2003 by Paul J.J. Payack, the GLM describes its role as "a media analytics company that documents, analyzes and tracks cultural trends in language the world over, with a particular emphasis upon Global English". GLM's main services include various products based on the TrendTopper MediaBuzz and Narrative Tracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge. [8] In April 2008, GLM moved its headquarters from San Diego to Austin.[9] Most recently GLM named "occupy" (related to the Occupy Wall Street movement as the Top Word of 2011, "Arab Spring" the Top Phrase of 2011, and "Steve Jobs" the Top Name of 2011. In December 2011, GLM acknowledged 'Tebowing' as an English language word. [10]

Top Words, Phrases and Names of the Year

Since 2000, the Global Language Monitor (GLM) has been selecting the Top Ten Words, Phrases and Names of the Year.[11] To select these words and phrases it uses a statistical analysis of language usage in the worldwide print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the Blogosphere, including Social media.

GLM announced its Top Words of the Year for 2011 on November 9, 2010. The Word of the Year was 'Occupy'. The Top Phrase of the Year was 'Arab Spring'. The Top Name of the Year was 'Steve Jobs'.

The Top Words of 2011 (WOTY)

Rank/Word/Comments

  1. Occupy – ‘Occupy’ has risen to pre-eminence through Occupy Movement, the occupation of Iraq, and the so-called ‘Occupied Territories’.
  2. Deficit – Growing and possibly intractable problem for the economies of the developed world.
  3. Fracking – Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method for extracting fossil fuels from hitherto unreachable deposits.
  4. Drone – The ever increasing number of remotely piloted aircraft used for reconnaissance and attack purposes.
  5. Non-veg – A meal served with meat, originally from India, now catching on worldwide.
  6. Kummerspeck – From the German seeing wider acceptance in the English, excess weight gained from emotional overeating (grief bacon).
  7. Haboob – A name imported from the Arabic for massive sandstorms in the American Southwest.
  8. 3Q – Near universal term for ‘thank you’ now earning additional status after being banned from official Chinese dictionaries. Another example of the ever increasing mixing of numbers and letters to form words.
  9. Trustafarians – Well-to-do youth (trust-funders) living a faux-Bohemian life style, now associated with the London Riots.
  10. (The Other) 99 – Referring to the majority of those living in Western Democracies who are left out of the dramatic rise in earnings associated with “the Top 1%”.

The Top Phrases of 2011

Rank/Word/Comments

  1. Arab Spring – The series of uprisings, social protests, and rebellions occurring among many nations of the Arab World beginning this spring.
  2. Royal Wedding – The wedding of the former Kate Middleton and heir-to-the-British-Throne, Prince William that captivated millions around the world.
  3. Anger and Rage – Characterizations of the global electorate by the pundits, though closer analyses has revealed more frustration than anger and more disappointment than rage.
  4. Climate Change – No. 1 phrase for the first decade of the 21st century; still resonates into its second decade.
  5. The Great Recession – Though officially over, the media term most frequently used to describe the on-going global economic restructuring.
  6. Tahrir Square – The scene of the ‘25th of January’ demonstrations in Cairo against Hosni Mubarak.
  7. Linear No Threshold (LNT) – The methodology to calculate risk from exposure to radioactive elements from the Fukushima Daiiachi disaster.
  8. Bunga Bunga – Re-emerged in the language through ‘bunga-bunga’ parties hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
  9. ‘How’s that working out for you?’ – The New York Times credits Sarah Palin, but it predates her use of the phrase by several decades.
  10. “Make no mistake about it!” – President Obama has repeated the phrase thousands of times since his 2008 election.

The Top Names of 2011

Rank / Name / Comments

  1. Steve Jobs – The citations for Steve Jobs topped those for No. 2 (Osama bin-Laden and Seal Team 6) by more than 30%.
  2. Osama bin-Laden & Seal Team 6 – Who changed the world more? Al-qaeda or Steve Jobs?
  3. Fukushima – The epicenter of the Japanese Triple Disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown).
  4. Mohamed Bouazizi – the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself afire and became the symbol of Tunisian resistance – and the Arab spring.
  5. Chinese Paramount Leader Hu Jintao – The Rise of the Tiger being a primary cause of the Global Economic Restructuring.
  6. Kate Middleton – She captivated the world with her elegance and style and continues to do so as the Duchess of Cambridge.
  7. Muammar Gaddafi – Libyan strongman toppled in the recent insurrection.
  8. President Barack Obama – Hope and Change retreat further into the history books; the game plan is now for survival.
  9. PIIGS – The nations of Portugal, Ireland, Italy Greece and Spain taken together for their untenable deficits possibly affecting the economic health of the Eurozone.
  10. Yaroslavl Lokomotiv – The ill-fated elite Russian hockey team that was virtually wiped out in the crash of a three-engine Yak-42.

Top Words of the Decade

  1. Global Warming
  2. 9/11
  3. Obama
  4. Bailout
  5. Evacuee
  6. Derivative
  7. Google
  8. Surge
  9. Chinglish
  10. Tsunami

Climate Change was top phrase; Heroes was the top name of the first decade of the 21st century.

Previous Words of the Year include:

2010: Top Words: No. 1: Spillcam, No. 2: Vuvuzela, No. 3: The Narrative Top Phrases: No. 1: Anger and Rage, No. 2: Climate Change, No. 3: The Great Recession Top Names: No. 1: Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2: iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama

2009: Top Words: No. 1: Twitter, No. 2: Obama, No. 3: H1N1 Top Phrases: No. 1: King of Pop, No. 2: Obama-mania, No. 3: Climate Change Top Names: No. 1: Obama, No. 2: Michael Jackson , No. 3: Mobama

2008: Top Words: No. 1: Change, No. 2: Bailout, No. 3: Obama-mania Top Phrases: No. 1: Financial Tsunami, No. 2: Global Warming, No. 3: “Yes, We Can!” Top Names: No. 1: Barack Obama, No. 2: George W. Bush, No. 3: Michael Phelps

2007: Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge Top Phrase: Climate Change Top Name: Al Gore

2006: Top Word: Sustainable Top Phrase: Stay the Course Top Name: Darfur

2005: Top Words: No. 1, Refugee, No. 2: Tsunami, No. 3: Katrina Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream Top Name: (acts of) God

2004: Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War) Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States, No. 2: Rush to War Top Name: Dubya/Rove

2003: Top Word: Embedded Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2: Dubya

2002: Top Word: Misunderestimate Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue Top Name: W (Dubya)

2001: Top Word: Ground Zero Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’ Top Name: The Heros

2000: Top Word: Chad Top Phrase: Dot.com Top Name: W (Dubya)

Top Words, Phrases and Names of the Decade

The Top Words of the Decade from 2000 to 2009 were headed by Global Warming.[12]

The Top Words of the Decade from 2000–2009

Word/Year/Comments

1. global warming (2000) Rated highly from Day One of the decade

2. 9/11 (2001) Another inauspicious start to the decade

3. Obama- (2008 ) The US President’s name as a ‘root’ word or ‘word stem’

4. bailout (2008) The Bank Bailout was but Act One of the crisis

5. evacuee/refugee (2005) After Katrina, refugees became evacuees

6. derivative (2007) Financial instrument or analytical tool that engendered the Meltdown

7. google (2007) Founders misspelled actual word ‘googol’

8. surge (2007) The strategy that effectively ended the Iraq War

9. Chinglish (2005) The Chinese-English Hybrid language growing larger as Chinese influence expands

10. tsunami (2004) Southeast Asian Tsunami took 250,000 lives

11. H1N1 (2009) More commonly known as Swine Flu

12. subprime (2007) Subprime mortgages were another bubble to burst

13. dot.com (2000) The Dot.com bubble engendered no lifelines, no bailouts

14. Y2K (2000) The Year 2000: all computers would turn to pumpkins at the strike of midnight

15. misunderestimate (2002) One of the first and most enduring of Bushisms

16. chad (2000) Those Florida voter punched card fragments that the presidency would turn aupon

17. twitter (2008) A quarter of a billion references on Google

18. WMD (2002) Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction

19. blog (2003) First called ‘web logs’ which contracted into blogs

20. texting (2004) Sending 140 character text messages over cell phones

21. slumdog (2008) Child inhabitants of Mumba’s slums

22. sustainable (2006) The key to ‘Green’ living where natural resources are never depleted

23. Brokeback (2004) New term for ‘gay’ from the Hollywood film ‘Brokeback Mountain’

24. quagmire (2004) Would Iraq War end up like Vietnam, another ‘quagmire’?

25. truthiness (2006) Stephen Colbert’s addition to the language appears to be a keeper

Also worth noting: ’Embedded’ (2003) to embed reporters with US Troops

The Top Phrases of the Decade from 2000–2009

Word/Year/Comments

1. climate change (2000) Green words in every form dominant the decade

2. Financial Tsunami (2008) One quarter of the world’s wealth vanishes seemingly overnight

3. ground zero (2001) Site of 9/11terrorist attack in New York City

4. War on Terror (2001) Bush administration’s response to 9/11

5. Weapons of Mass Destruction (2003) Bush’s WMDs never found in Iraq or the Syrian desert

6. swine flu (2008) H1N1, please, so as not to offend the pork industry or religious sensitivities!

7. “Let’s Roll!” (2001) Todd Beamer’s last words before Flight 93 crashed into the PA countryside

8. Red State/Blue State (2004) Republican or Democratic control of states

9. carbon footprint (2007) How much CO² does an activity produce?

10. shock-and-awe (2003) Initial strategy of Iraq War

11. Ponzi scheme (2009) Madoff’s strategy reaped billions & heartache

12. Category 4 (2005) Force of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans’ seawalls and levies

13. King of Pop (2000) Elvis was the King, MJ the King (of Pop)

14. “Stay the course” (2004) Dubya’s oft-stated guidance for Iraq War

15. “Yes, we can!” (2008) Obama’s winning campaign slogan

16. “Jai Ho!” (2008) Shout of joy from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

17. “Out of the Mainstream” (2003) Complaint about any opposition’s political platform

18. cloud computing (2007) Using the Internet as a large computational device

19. threat fatigue (2004) One too many terrorist threat alerts

20. same-sex marriage (2003) Marriage of gay couples

High tech terms

On March 17, 2010, the Global Language Monitor presented the Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords of the decade (2000–2009).[13]

1. HTTP — HyperText Transfer Protocol is used for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files. 2. Flash — As in Flash Memory. “Flash’ is easier to say than “ I brought the report on my EEPROM chip with a thin oxide layer separating a floating gate and control gate utilizing Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling”. 3. God Particle – The Higgs boson, thought to account for mass. The God Particle has eluded discovery since its existence was first postulated some thirty years ago. 4. Cloud Computing – Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.) 5. Plasma (as in plasma TV) — Refers to a kind of television screen technology that uses matrix of gas plasma cells, which are charged by differing electrical voltages to create an image. 6. IPOD – Apple maintains that the idea of the iPod was from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. 7. Megapixel – One million pixels or picture elements. 8. Nano – Widely used to describe anything small as in nanotechnology. Like the word ‘mini’ which originally referred to the red hues in Italian miniature paintings, the word nano- is ultimately derived from the ancient Greek word for ‘dwarf’. 9. Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires. 10. Virtualization – Around since the late ‘70s, virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O.

On November 19, 2008 Global Language Monitor announced the most confusing yet frequently cited high tech buzzwords of 2008 to be cloud computing, green washing, and buzzword compliant followed by resonate, de-duping, and virtualization. Rounding out the Top Ten were Web 2.0, versioning, word clouds, and petaflop. The most confusing Acronym for 2008 was SaaS (software as a service).

On 14 October 2007 GLM released a list of the most confusing high tech terms and buzzwords. The words included: iPod, flash, cookie, nano and kernel, followed by megahertz, cell (as in cell phone), plasma, de-duplication and Blu-Ray. Other terms being tracked included terabyte, memory, core, and head crash. The most confusing acronym was found to be SOA, for service-oriented architecture, an acronym which IBM published a book about.[14]

The studies are released each year on the anniversary of the cookie, the invention that made the World Wide Web practical for widespread surfing, communication, and e-commerce.[15]

Counting English words

GLM announced the 1,000,000th English word on June 10, 2009.[16] This controversial exercise was widely covered in the global media.[17][18] The count itself was widely criticized by a number of prominent members of the linguistic community, including Geoffrey Nunberg,[19] and Jesse Sheidlower[20] and Benjamin Zimmer.[21] on the grounds that since there is no generally accepted definition of a word, there can never be a definitive count.[20][21][22] However, in December 2010 a joint Harvard/Google study found the language to contain 1,022,000 words and was expanding at the rate of 8,500 words per year.[23] The difference between the Google/Harvard estimate and that of the Global Language Monitor is about thirteen thousandth of one percent.

The finalists, which met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution and depth of citations, were:

1. Web 2.0. 2. Jai Ho! 3. N00b. 4. Slumdog. 5. Cloud Computing. 6. Carbon Neutral. 7. Slow Food. 8. Octomom. 9. Greenwashing. 10. Sexting. 11. Shovel ready. 12. Defriend. 13. Chengguan. 14. Recessionista. 15. Zombie Banks.[24]

Critics noted that the target date had been changed a number of times from late in 2006 to early in 2009.[25][26][27][28][29][30] It was also criticized on grounds that a count is impossible because "word" is not a scientifically valid concept. Google addressed this situation by counting the words in the 15 million scanned texts in their corpus.[31] Global Language Monitor states the general criteria for inclusion on its site, maintaining that it is simply updating the established criteria for printed dictionaries beginning with the works of Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster.[32]

The New York Times quoted Payack as saying that the PQI is "an algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet in relation to frequency, context and appearance in global media. It is a weighted index that takes into account year-to-year increases and acceleration in the last several months".[33] In general terms, GLM describes its Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), used to run its analytics on global language trends and , as a weighted index, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity, using frequency data on words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, and throughout the blogosphere, as well as in proprietary databases (Factiva, Lexis-Nexis, etc.). It can also create "signals" that can be used in a variety of applications.[34]

Obama an English language word

On 20 February 2008 GLM announced that the latest word to enter the English language was "obama", derived from Barack Obama, in its many variations. GLM described Obama- as a "root" for words including obamanomics, obamican, obamamentum, obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, Obamafy, obamamania and obamacam.[35] GLM announced it to be an accepted word, once it met the group's published criteria: a minimum of 25,000 citations in the global media, as well as achieving the necessary 'breadth' and 'depth' of citations.[36]

Other Analysis and Rankings

The Global Language Monitor publishes other lists relating to the English language including: the TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide rankings of the top 300 U.S. colleges and universities according to their internet brand equity,

Universities (2012): Rank/University/Previous Ranking

  1. Harvard University (3)
  2. Northwestern University (31)
  3. University of California, Berkeley (8)
  4. Columbia University (5)
  5. California Institute of Technology (19)
  6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4)
  7. Stanford University (11)
  8. University of Chicago (2)
  9. University of Texas, Austin (10)
  10. Cornell University

Colleges (2012): Rank/College/Previous Ranking

  1. Williams College
  2. University of Richmond
  3. Union College
  4. Claremont McKenna College
  5. Harvey Mudd College
  6. Pomona College
  7. Wesleyan University
  8. The Juilliard School
  9. Carleton College
  10. Bates College[37]

The Top Global Fashion Capitals (2011): Ranking / City / Previous Ranking

  1. London (3)
  2. New York (1)
  3. Paris (4)
  4. Milano (6)
  5. Los Angeles (5)
  6. Hong Kong (2)
  7. Barcelona (10)
  8. Singapore (15)
  9. Tokyo (14)
  10. Berlin (18) [38]

and 15 Top All-Time Bushisms, and many others.[39]

References

  1. ^ Spillcam, vuvuzela are top words of 2010
  2. ^ Kristof, Nicholas (2008-10-17). "Obama the Intellectual". Kristof.blogs.nytimes.com. http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/obama-the-intellectual/?scp=9&sq=global%20language%20monitor&st=cse. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  3. ^ Nicholas D. Kristof: Obama and the war on brains
  4. ^ By ANITA B. HOFSCHNEIDER Contributing Writer. "Media Fixates on Harvard". Thecrimson.com. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524332. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  5. ^ "Bamboozled By Buzzwords". Search.japantimes.co.jp. 2005-04-24. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20050424a1.html. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  6. ^ "10 Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords". Networkworld.com. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/6854. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  7. ^ Michael Jackson's Death Second Biggest Story of the Century
  8. ^ "Global Language Monitor". The Times.  London: Languagemonitor.com. 2009-03-25. http://www.languagemonitor.com. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  9. ^ Austin lands Global Language Monitor: Finally, something good comes from California
  10. ^ [[http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/12/tim-tebow-tebowing-officially-recognized-as-a-word/1
  11. ^ The Global Language Monitor » History of the Top Words of 2009 – 2000
  12. ^ Top Words Of The Decade 2000-2009: Most Popular Words
  13. ^ url=http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Business-Intelligence/Most-Confusing-Tech-Buzzwords-824874/ Most Confusing Tech Buzzwords
  14. ^ "Hooray! ‘SOA’ voted most ‘confusing acronym of the year’ | Service-Oriented Architecture | ZDNet.com". Blogs.zdnet.com. 2007-11-05. http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=996. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  15. ^ "The Global Language Monitor releases global study of top 10 most confusing yet widely used high tech buzzwords for 2007". Nanowerk.com. 2007-10-17. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=2968.php. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  16. ^ By  John D. Sutter CNN (2009-06-10). "'English gets millionth word on Wednesday, site says'". Edition.cnn.com. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/10/million.words/index.html#cnnSTCOther1. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  17. ^ Winchester, Simon (2009-06-06). "1,000,000 Words!". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5454273/1000000-words.html. Retrieved 2010-05-03. 
  18. ^ Millionth English word' declared'}
  19. ^ Enumerating English, Geoffrey Nunberg, NPR
  20. ^ a b Word Count, Jesse Sheidlower, Slate, April 10, 2006
  21. ^ a b "Language Log » The “million word” hoax rolls along". Languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=972. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  22. ^ Enumerating English,
  23. ^ [1], Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent, The Telegraph, December 16, 2010
  24. ^ ‘One millionth English word’ is ‘Web 2.0’, Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 12, 2009
  25. ^ Harlow, John (2006-02-05). "Chinglish – it's a word in a million". The Sunday Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article726906.ece. Retrieved 2009-01-14. "According to Payack, the one millionth word is likely to be formed this summer" 
  26. ^ Macintyre, Ben (2006-08-11). "We're all speaking Geek". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article606196.ece. Retrieved 2009-01-14. "According to Paul Payack, who runs the Global Language Monitor, there are currently 988,974 words in the English language, with thousands more emerging every month. By his calculation, English will adopt its one millionth word in late November." 
  27. ^ "From Babel to Babble . . . Everyone is Speaking English". Kensington books. http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/finditem.cfm?itemid=11244. Retrieved 2009-01-14. "in the spring of 2007, the English word count surpassed a million—over ten times the number available in French. At the crest of this linguistic tsunami surfs Paul J.J. Payack, aka the WordMan. As president of the Global Language Monitor" 
  28. ^ ""A Million Words and Counting" How Global English Is Rewriting the World". Market Wire. May 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200805/ai_n25368946%0D. Retrieved 2009-01-14. "according to author Paul J.J. Payack, the founding president of the Global Language Monitor ( www.LanguageMonitor.com ), English will adopt its millionth word in 2008" 
  29. ^ Walker, Ruth (2009-01-02). "Save the date: English nears a milestone". The Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0102/p18s01-hfes.html. Retrieved 2009-01-14. "It's April 29, 2009 – plus or minus a few days. That is when the English language is expected to acquire its millionth word. This prediction comes from Global Language Monitor, an organization in Austin, Texas" 
  30. ^ "English gets millionth word on Wednesday, site says", CNN
  31. ^ [2], Discover
  32. ^ "GLM Criteria". Languagemonitor.com. http://www.languagemonitor.com/no-of-words/faq-million-word-march/. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  33. ^ The Power of Words
  34. ^ The Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), GLM website
  35. ^ English language is Barack 'Obamafied', Catherine Elsworth, Los Angeles, Telegraph.co.uk, 26 Feb 2008
  36. ^ "'FAQ on GLM Methodology'". Languagemonitor.com. http://www.languagemonitor.com/no-of-words/faq-million-word-march. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  37. ^ [3], Huffington Post, September 9, 2011
  38. ^ [4], International Business Times, August 8, 2011
  39. ^ The Morning File: To find the Word of the Year, follow the money, Gary Rottstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 12, 2009

External links