The Global Language Monitor - The Top Word Lists for 2005

The Top Word Lists for 2005:
‘Refugee‘, ‘Outside the Mainstream‘ and ‘(Acts of) God‘
Top Word, Phrase and Name of the Year
San Diego, California (December 16, 2005) Refugee, Outside the Mainstream, and (Acts of) God were selected as leading the Top Word, Phrase and Name Lists of 2005, released earlier today by the Global Language Monitor in its annual worldwide survey. The Global Language Monitor (GLM) publishes Year 2005 lists regarding: The Top Words, Top Phrases, Top Names, Global Youth Speak, as well as the Top Word Spoken on the Planet.
"2005 was the year we saw a convergence of a number sometimes contradictory language trends: the major global media became more pervasive yet actually less persuasive; the language spoken by the youth of the world is converging at an ever-increasing rate; and the Political Correctness movement become a truly global phenomenon," said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor (GLM).
The year has been a vibrant one for language, rife with examples that have been nominated by the GLM抯 Language Police, volunteer language observers from the world over.
The Top Ten Words of 2005:
1.  Refugee: Though the word was considered politically incorrect in the US, ‘refugees‘ were often considered the lucky ones in streaming away from a series of global catastrophes unmatched in recent memory.
2.  Tsunami: From the Japanese tsu nami for ‘harbor wave‘, few recognized the word before disaster struck on Christmas Day, 2004, but the word subsequently flooded with unprecedented (and sustained) media coverage.
3.  Poppa/Papa/Pope: (Italian, Portuguese, English, many others). The death of beloved Pope John Paul II kept the words on the lips of the faithful around the world.
4.  Chinglish: The new second language of China from the Chinglish formation: CHINese + EngLISH.
5.  H5N1: A looming global pandemic that could dwarf the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages (and AIDS) boggles the comtemporary imagination.
6.  Recaille: A quick trip around the Romance languages (French jargon, scum; Spanish, rabble or swine; Italian, worthless dregs) illustrates the full freight of the word used to describe youthful French rioters of North African and Muslim descent.
7.  Katrina: Name will become synonymous with natural forces responsible for the total and utter descruction of a city.
8.  Wiki: Internet buzzword (from the Hawai‘ian wiki wiki for ‘quick, quick‘) that describes collaboration software where anyone can contribute to the on-going effort.
9.  SMS: Short Message Service. The world‘s youth sent over a trillion text messages in 2005. Currently being texted are full-length novels, news, private messages and everything in between.
10.  Insurgent:  Politically neutral term used to describe enemy combatants.
Last year the Top Words words were incivility, Red States/Blue States, and Blogosphere.
The Top Ten Phrases of 2005:
1. Out of the Mainstream: Used to describe the ideology of any political opponent.
2. Bird Flu/Avian Flu: the H5N1 strain of Flu that resembles that of the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic where 60 million died.
3. Politically Correct:  Emerges as a worldwide phenomenon.
4. North/South Divide:  In the US it might be Red States and Blue States but globally the ‘haves‘ and ‘have nots‘ are divided by a geographical if not psychological boundary.
5. Purple Finger/Thumb: The badge of honor worn by Iraqi voters proving that they voted in their ground-breaking elections.
6. Climate Change: (Or Global Warming.) No matter what your political persuasion, the fact remains that New York City was under 5,000 feet of ice some 20,000 years ago.
7. String Theory: The idea that the universe is actually constructed of 11-dimensional, pulsating planes of existence.
8. The Golden Quatrilateral:  India‘s new superhighway system that links the key cities of the Subcontinent.
9. Jumping the Couch:  Apparently losing complete emotional control; made popular by the escapades of Tom Cruise on the Oprah television show.
10. Deferred Success: The idea introduced in the UK that there is no such thing as failure, only deferred success.
Last year the Top Phrases were Red States/Blue States, Moral Values, and Two Americas.
The Top Ten Names of 2005:
1.  (Acts of) God: The world watches helplessly as a superpower is humbled as one of its great cities (New Orleans) is laid asunder (Hurricane Katrina).
2.  Tsunami snuffs out nearly 300,000 lives, and an earthquake takes another 200,000 (Kashmir). A Higher Power, indeed.
3.  Katrina: Greek (katharos) for ‘pure‘. Before the hurricane, the name was most famously borne by two saints, Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, and three of Henry VIII‘s wives.
4.  John Paul II:  The death of beloved Pope John Paul II kept his name on the lips of the faithful around the world.
5.  Wen Jiabao: Premier of the People‘s Republic of China since March 2003; leading perhaps the largest economic transformation in history.
6.  Saddham Hussein: Should re-read Karl Marx -- the first time is history, the second but farce.
7.  Dubya: Every more ‘weeble-like‘:  Dubya wobbles but he won‘t fall down.
8.  Oprah: Now a global phenomenon with an ever-expanding media (and charitable) empire.
9.  Shakira:  The Columbian songstress is captivating ever wider circles.
10. John Roberts:  New Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court.
Bonus:  Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad: President of Iran since August 2005; he has recently suggest that the Jewish Homeland be moved to Europe (or Alaska).
Last year the Top Names were Dubya Rove (W. and Karl Rove), Mel (Gibson) (Michael) Moore, and Saddam Hussein.
Top Global Musical Terms:
1.  Reggaeton (pronounced Reggae-TONE): Part Latin, part hip hop, with liberal helpings of Dancehall and Caribbean music thrown in for good measure.  Several Reggaeton radio staples this year made their way into the public consciousness.
2.  Baile (pronounced Bye-Lay) Funk:  Brazilian dance music that has gained popularity worldwide, championed by such trend-setters as Norman Cook in the UK, and Philadelphia DJ Diplo.
3.  Podcast:  New broadcast medium; think of it as Tivo for your radio. Even your nighbor is podcasting.
4:  Rootkit: Thanks to an overzealous copy-protection scheme, thousands of music fans who tried to encode Sony artists‘ music onto their computer unwittingly installing a malicious piece of code that exposed their computers to attack. After intense media scrutiny and public outcry, Sony recalled the CD‘s from shelves and offered free downloads of the affected albums.
5.  Live 8:  Millions of people tuned in to the sequel to Sir Bob Geldoff‘s1985 Live Aid benefit, this time to raise awareness of poverty and Third World debt and to pressure countries in the G8 to do something about it.
The Top Ten Global YouthSpeak Words:
1. Crunk: A Southern variation of hip hop music; also meaning fun or amped.
2. Mang: Variation of man, as in "S‘up, mang?"
3. A‘ight: All Right, "That girl is nice, she‘s a‘ight"
4. Mad: A lot; "She has mad money"
5. Props: Cheers, as in "He gets mad props!"
6. Bizznizzle: This term for" business" is part of the Snoop Dogg/Sean      John-inspired lexicon, as in "None of your bizznizzle!‘
7. Fully: In Australia an intensive. as in ‘fully sick‘.
8. Fundoo: In India, Hindi for cool
9. Brill!  From the UK, the shortened form of brilliant!
10. "s‘up": Another in an apparently endless number of Whazzup? permutations.
Southern California YouthSpeak Bonus: Morphing any single syllable word into 3, 4 or even 5 syllables.
Last year the Top YouthSpeak terms were: Word, Peace (or Peace out), and Proper.
The Most Frequently Spoken Word on the Planet: O.K.
(Popularized by US President (1837 -1841) Martin Van Buren‘s nickname, Old Kinderhook from his birthplace in New York State.  His re-election slogan was ‘Martin Van Buren is O.K‘.  Didn‘t you ever wonder why a simple word can be spelled in capital letters followed by periods? Though the undoubtedly word appeared earlier, this is the event that solidified its position in the language.)
The Number of Words in the English Language: 977, 671
(estimate Saturday, December 31, 2005 8:27 AM Pacific)