9/27/2023 0 Comments Reflector 2 virus![]() “Making a word part of the lexicon is a big step toward normalizing a completely abnormal situation.” “It will be interesting to look back in 20 years to see what stuck and what didn’t,” Beltrama said. ![]() Will the vernacular of the pandemic disappear when normalcy (hopefully) returns? We have a clear snapshot of how language is shaped.” “This is a social, medical, psychological, political and economic situation that affects us around the globe. What is different is the scale of it,” said Andrea Beltrama, a sociolinguist at the University of Pennsylvania. We are also using language to relieve the awfulness of pandemic life, embracing slang, puns, catchphrases, acronyms, memes, and goofy new words that blend the sounds and meanings of existing words. And King’s College London slang specialist Tony Thorne has a Lockdown Lexicon.īecause of a microscopic new germ, our daily speech is now full of medical and epidemiological jargon such as “viral load” and “contact tracing.” “No mask, no entry” warnings are as ubiquitous as “No turn on red” signs. The Canadian government has compiled a pandemic glossary, from antigen to zoonosis. The eight-month-old pandemic has had such a huge impact on the English language that editors of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary have so far issued two special updates to document it. Now, it’s as clear as a plexiglass shield. ![]() If we have to lock down to flatten the curve again, it would be a coronapocalypse.Ī year ago, that paragraph would have been unintelligible. After all, we aren’t covidiots, and we sure don’t want a second wave. We’ll meet outdoors, so no need for PPE, but we’ll still social distance. It will be nice to be together in person, since we all have Zoom fatigue. (TCA) - This weekend, I’m having quarantinis with my quaranteam. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.īy Marie McCullough | The Philadelphia Inquirer 785 Alissa Eckert, Dan Higgins/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) particle is pictured in this illustration provided by the U.S.
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