“Russia-Ukraine” became the most used word in South Africa this year in 2023.
To celebrate Dictionary Day on 16 October, the Pan-South African Language Board (PanSALB) announced ‘Russian-Ukrainian’ as the country’s word of the year for 2023.
Dictionary Day celebrates the birth of Noah Webster, an American author best known for publishing his first dictionary in 1806 and continuing to expand it over the next 27 years.
PanSALB shortlists candidate words based on actual language usage, and media research firm Focal Point tracks keywords used in authoritative print, broadcast, and online media from October 2022 to 2023. We analyzed frequency statistics up to September. “Russia/Ukraine” was chosen over “interest rates,” “Brix,” and “geopolitics.”
“‘Russia/Ukraine’ was the most dominant keyword, accounting for 44% of total clips and mentions, followed by ‘British countries’ at 27%,” PanSALB said.
“The prominence of the Russian-Ukrainian war in South Africa’s public discourse is
This is due to a variety of factors, including the country’s official stance on the war, the mediation envoy of African leaders led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the influence on hosting the BRICS summit, and political pressure to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin. it is conceivable that. ”
PanSALB’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Ntombentor Hulhulu, said: email and guardian South Africa’s word of the year was divided into two categories to accommodate social media and ‘Kuning’.” Selected from a shortlist including “danko”, “Seema”, “Ivaale Mfana”, “Baton”, and “10 Past 4”.
“A lot has happened this past year, and what’s important is how people express their feelings as they reflect on the past year,” Furufuru said.
“As you can see, the shortlisted words have social issues and are very representative of what’s going on in our country and our political climate.”
Additionally, social media is a platform for expression, and people borrow terms from other languages to create new meanings, she said.
“Words like ‘baton’ have always been known as Sesotho/Setswana/Sepedi expressions, but social media has given them a whole new meaning,” Furhulu said.
“Kunin” “bathong” followed at 27%.
“Kunin” “It means ‘a lot’ in IsiZulu and is often used by social media users to describe feeling overwhelmed with too much information or dealing with multiple tasks at once.” SALB stated.
“Other words and terms considered include ‘inflation,’ ‘hita-fulla,’ ‘zama-zama,’ ‘rockweed,’ and ‘yaw.’
