In a universal release, The Global Language Monitor (TLGM) has proclaimed that Twitter is the Top Word of 2009. This was a result of its yearly survey of the English language throughout the English-speaking world, which, the group says, now numbers more than 1.58 billion users. In fact the word has morphed into various usages and permutations — “tweet” (a verb), “tweetered” (a verb in past-tense form), “tweeteree” (a noun, the recipient of a tweet).
In the study, Twitter was trailed by “Obama,” “H1N1,” “stimulus” and “vampire.” Then came the omnipresent suffix, “2.0,” followed by “deficit,” “Hadron,” “healthcare” and “transparency.”
In a press statement, Paul JJ Payack, president of The Global Language Monitor, said, “In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the after-effects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words. Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters. Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds.”
Let’s look at the Top Words of 2009 individually.
• Twitter. The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters. It is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages, known as “tweets.” The limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging, and has brought to the web the kind of shorthand notation and slang commonly used in SMS messages. Jack Dorsey created it in 2006 and since then the word has gained notability and popularity worldwide. To many, Twitter delivers to people the best and freshest, most relevant information possible. They believe that it’s not just a social network, it is, more importantly, an information network because it tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world in an instant.
• Obama. Now that Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th president of the United States, the first African-American to hold the office and the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, his name is iconic enough to become a stem, transforming into scores of new words like “ObamaCare.” Obama’s name resonates in the healthcare-reform debate in the USA, which has reached a stage where legislation is now before Congress. The main elements of the debate focus on coverage, cost reduction, insurance reform and the appropriate extent of government involvement. Such a debate is something we ought to have in the Philippines, considering that most Filipinos are exposed to all sorts of diseases and other health concerns.
• H1N1. The formal (and politically correct) name for swine flu. It is a subtype of influenza A virus and the most common cause of flu in humans. In June 2009, the World Health Organization declared that the flu, due to H1N1, a new strain of swine origin, was responsible for the2009 flu pandemic. The scary disease hit the Philippines as well and has recorded quite a number of affected individuals.
• Stimulus. In physiology it is something external that influences an activity. In psychology it is a behaviorism concept. In the context of TGLM it is the $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy. It is the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, an Act of Congress providing for several kinds of economic stimuli intended to boost the United States economy and to avert a recession.
• Vampire. Very much “in,” vampires are now the icons of unrequited amore. They are mythological or folkloric beings that live by feeding on the blood of living creatures. They often visit loved ones and bring tomfooleries or bereavements in the communities they dwelt in when they were still alive. They wear cloaks and appear distended with reddish or murky expressions. The mega-hit movie Twilight brought the fascination with vampires back. From its success, other successful TV series like the Vampire Diaries and True Blood came. I wouldn’t be surprised if pretty soon, the local audience will claim its share of the phenomenon and adapt it to the Pinoy experience.
• 2.0. The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of anything. It came from Web 2.0, which is classified both as a practice and an expertise standard. It’s an anthology of technologies, business strategies, and social trends, and is seen to be more dynamic and interactive than its predecessor, Web 1.0. It allows users to both access content from a website and to be able to contribute to it. It is an overarching term covering several new technologies that tap the web in a more interactive and collaborative fashion. Bookstores are now peppered with titles that carry 2.0 — from PR 2.0 to Accounting 2.0. Maybe somebody should write Government 2.0, which could serve as an interactive guide for people who would like to lead the country after the May 2010 elections.
• Deficit. “Lessons from history are dire warnings here,” TLGM states. The word is usually associated with budgets, and a budget deficit occurs when a firm or a country spends more money than it can afford. On the other end is a budget surplus, which corporate creatures or citizens (particularly Pinoys) always pray for during every budget review.
• Hadron. Ephemeral particles that are subject to collision. It is the object of a study on a new “atom smasher.” In physics it is defined as a particle made of “quarks held together by the strong force.” The word came to people’s consciousness because of the “Large Hadron Collider (LHC),” considered the world’s largest and highest-energy particle, which is expected to address the most basic questions of physics, hopefully allowing progress in understanding the deepest laws of nature. The LHC, Wikipedia reveals, lies in a tunnel 27 kilometers in circumference and as much as 175 meters beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.
• Healthcare. The direction of this is the subject of intense debate in the US. It is the treatment and management of illnesses of the elderly, and the preservation of well-being via services offered by the various health and medical professions. Healthcare encompasses all the goods and services designed to promote health interventions — preventive, curative and palliative — directed to individuals or to a populace. Healthcare is a “hot” issue in most countries, which now leads to public debates since it is closely related to economic development and wealth distribution. This should be a hotter issue now in the country with PhilHealth and certain hospitals hogging the headlines again for some alleged anomalies.
• Transparency. An elusive goal towards which many 21st-century governments are striving. It is a governance approach in which, ideally, all decision making is carried out publicly. Documents, arguments for and against a proposal, the decision-making process itself, and final pronouncements are all publicly accessible and remain publicly archived. Real, radical transparency is something we need in the Philippines, which when implemented properly can lessen — if not eradicate — corruption, especially in government offices.
Other words listed in the top 15 are “outrage,” in response to large bonuses handed out to “bailed-out” companies in the USA; “bonus” — not the one given out during Christmas but the incentive pay packages that came to symbolize greed and excess; “unemployed,” “underemployed,” “foreclosure” and cartel.
If we run a localized survey, I wonder what words will come out in the list. Would it include “Ondoy,” “Pepeng,” “floodwaters,” “climate change,” “rubber boats,” “Sagip Kapamilya,” “Gloria,” “deal,” “corruption,” “Pacquiao,” “Krista,” “poverty,” “deprivation,” “Hayden Kho,” “sex video,” “Villar,” “Ninoy,” “Cory,” “Noynoy,” “Kris,” “Ampatuan,” “Maguindanao,” “Christmas” and “Bro”?
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