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American Dialect Society

Society on linguistics

Society on linguistics

FieldValue
nameAmerican Dialect Society
bgcolor
fgcolor
imageAmerican-dialect-society-logo.png
size150px
alt
captionOrganization logo
map
msize
malt
mcaption
formation
extinction
typeNot for profit
status
purpose"Study of the English language in North America, together with other languages or dialects of other languages influencing it or influenced by it."
locationUnited States
coords
region_servedNorth America
membership550
languageEnglish
general
leader_titlePresident
leader_nameJoe Salmons
leader_title2Vice President for Communications and Technology
leader_name2Grant Barrett
leader_title3Executive Director
leader_name3Betsy Evans
main_organ
parent_organizationAmerican Council of Learned Societies (admitted 1962)
affiliations
websitehttp://www.americandialect.org/

The American Dialect Society (ADS), founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society publishes the academic journal American Speech.

Since its foundation, dialectologists in English-speaking North America have affiliated themselves with the American Dialect Society, an association which in its first constitution defined its objective as "the investigation of the spoken English of the United States and Canada" (Constitution, 1890). Over the years, its objective has remained essentially the same, only expanded to encompass "the English language in North America, together with other languages or dialects of other languages influencing it or influenced by it" (Fundamentals, 1991).

History

The organization was founded as part of an effort to create a comprehensive American dialect dictionary, a near century-long undertaking that culminated in the publication of the Dictionary of American Regional English. In 1889, when Joseph Wright began editing the English Dialect Dictionary, a group of American philologists founded the American Dialect Society with the ultimate purpose of producing a similar work for the United States.

Members of the Society began to collect material, much of which was published in the Society's journal Dialect Notes, but little was done toward compiling a dictionary recording nationwide usage until Frederic G. Cassidy was appointed Chief Editor in 1963. The first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, covering the letters A-C, was published in 1985. The other major project of the Society is the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada.

Membership

The Society has never had more than a few hundred active members. With so few scholars advancing the enterprise, the developments in the field came slowly. Its activities include a mailing list, which deals chiefly with American English but also carries some discussion of other issues of linguistic interest.

Word of the Year

Main article: List of American Dialect Society's Words of the Year

Since 1991, the American Dialect Society has designated one or more words or terms to be the word of the year. The New York Times stated that the American Dialect Society "probably started" the "word-of-the-year ritual". However, the "Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache" (GfdS) has announced a word of the year since 1977.

Special votes that they've made:

  • Word of the 20th Century: jazz
  • Word of the Past Millennium: she
  • Word of the Decade (1990–1999): web
  • Word of the Decade (2000–2009): Google (verb)
  • Word of the Decade (2010–2019): they (singular)

The society also selects words in other categories that vary from year to year, such as "most original", "most unnecessary", "most outrageous", or "most likely to succeed" (see: Word of the year).

A number of words chosen by the ADS are also on the lists of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year.

List of Words of the Year

YearWordNotes
1990bushlips(similar to "bullshit" – stemming from President George H. W. Bush's 1988 "Read my lips: no new taxes" promise)
1991mother of all –(as in Saddam Hussein's foretold "Mother of all battles")
1992Not!(meaning "just kidding")
1993information superhighway
1994Tie: cyber and morph(to change form)
1995Tie: World Wide Web and newt(as a verb: to make aggressive changes as a newcomer).
1996mom(as in "soccer mom").
1997millennium bug
1998e-(as in "e-mail").
1999Y2K
2000chad(from the 2000 Presidential Election controversy in Florida).
20019-11, 9/11 or September 11
2002weapons of mass destruction or WMD
2003metrosexual
2004red/blue/purple states(from the 2004 presidential election).
2005truthinesspopularized on The Colbert Report.
2006to be plutoed, to plutolast=Newmanfirst=Andrew Adamurl=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/business/media/10oxford.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22American+Dialect+Society%22+plutoed&st=nyt&oref=slogintitle=How Dictionaries Define Publicity: the Word of the Yearwork=The New York Timesdate=December 10, 2007access-date=February 19, 2008}}
2007subprimeurl=https://www.americandialect.org/subprime_voted_2007_word_of_the_yeartitle="Subprime" voted 2007 word of the yearpublisher=American Dialect Societydate=January 4, 2008access-date=March 30, 2019}}
2008bailout(a rescue by government of a failing corporation)
2009tweetlast=Barrettfirst=Granturl=https://www.americandialect.org/2009-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdfwork=Americandialect.orgtitle=Word of the Yeardate=January 8, 2009access-date=January 9, 2010}}
2010app
2011occupy(in reference to the Occupy movement)
2012#hashtag
2013because(introducing a noun, adjective, or other part of speech: "because reasons," "because awesome")
2014#blacklivesmatter
2015they("gender-neutral singular pronoun for a known person, particularly as a nonbinary identifier")
2016dumpster firean exceedingly disastrous or chaotic situation
2017fake newsdefined by the ADS in two ways: "disinformation or falsehoods presented as real news" and "actual news that is claimed to be untrue"
2018tender-age shelter("government-run detention centers that have housed the children of asylum seekers at the U.S./Mexico border")
2019(my) pronouns"Recognized for its use as an introduction for sharing one's set of personal pronouns (as in 'pronouns: she/her')."
2020Covid
2021Insurrectionreferring to the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
2022-ussy(suffix from pussy)
2023enshittification
2024rawdog"Defined as 'to undertake without usual protection, preparation, or comfort,'" a generalization of the earlier meaning, 'to have sex without a condom'.
2025slop"Recognized for its widespread use for low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI."

References

References

  1. "The American Dialect Society.".
  2. (2012). "Constitution and Officers". American Dialect Society.
  3. [[American Council of Learned Societies]] (ACLS). (2012). "American Dialect Society". www.acls.org.
  4. Flexner, Stuart B.. (December 15, 1985). "One language, highly divisible". [[The New York Times]].
  5. Auroux, Sylvain. (2000). "History of the Language Sciences". Walter de Gruyter, 2006.
  6. Hall, Joan Houston. (2004). "Language in the USA: Perspectives for the 21st Century". [[Cambridge University Press]].
  7. (January 4, 2008). ""Subprime" voted 2007 word of the year". American Dialect Society.
  8. (2012). "ADS-L: email discussion list". American Dialect Society.
  9. Horn, Laurence. (January 29, 2003). "Re: Canadians in ADS". listserv.linguistlist.org.
  10. (13 January 2000). "1999 Words of the Year, Word of the 1990s, Word of the 20th Century, Word of the Millennium". American Dialect Society.
  11. [https://www.americandialect.org/2009_word_of_the_year_is_tweet_word_of_the_decade_is_google 2009 Word of the Year is “tweet”; Word of the Decade is “google”] – American Dialect Society. Published 8 January 2010. Retrieved 31 Mar 2019.
  12. [https://www.americandialect.org/2019-word-of-the-year-is-my-pronouns-word-of-the-decade-is-singular-they 2019 Word of the Year is “(My) Pronouns,” Word of the Decade is Singular “They”] – American Dialect Society. Published 3 January 2020. Retrieved 28 Mar 2019.
  13. Lea, Richard. (November 30, 2009). "'Twitter' declared top word of 2009". Guardian News and Media Limited.
  14. Merriam-Webster staff. (2009). "Word of the Year 2009". [[Merriam-Webster]].
  15. Ritter, Jim. (December 31, 1995). "1995's Word Of the Year: Either 'Web' – Or 'Newt'". [[Chicago Sun-Times]].
  16. (January 13, 1996). "1995 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  17. [[Associated Press]]. (January 5, 1997). "Linguists pick 'soccer mom' as 1996's word". [[The Philadelphia Inquirer]].
  18. (January 13, 1997). "1996 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  19. Smith, Sheron. (January 10, 1998). "Word! 'Millennium Bug' is picked as top phrase of 1997". [[The Macon Telegraph]].
  20. (January 13, 1998). "1997 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  21. Gallentine, Shana. (January 21, 1999). "1998: Our society defined in just a few short words". [[The Red and Black]].
  22. (January 13, 1999). "1998 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  23. Freeman, Jan. (June 18, 2000). "Steal this coinage". [[The Boston Globe]].
  24. Kershner, Vlae. (December 11, 2002). "Help us choose the 'Word of the Year'". [[San Francisco Chronicle]].
  25. (January 13, 2001). "2000 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  26. Scott, Janny. (February 24, 2002). "A nation challenged: Language; Words of 9/11 Go From Coffee Shops To the Dictionaries". [[The New York Times]].
  27. (January 13, 2002). "2001 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  28. [[Associated Press]]. (January 6, 2003). "'W.M.D.' voted word of year". [[USA Today]].
  29. (January 13, 2003). "2002 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  30. Newman, Andrew Adam. (October 10, 2005). "In Time of Studied Ambiguity, a Label for the Manly Man". [[The New York Times]].
  31. (January 13, 2004). "2003 Words of the Year". American dialect Society.
  32. [[Associated Press]]. (January 10, 2005). "Linguists' phrase of the year: 'Red state, blue state, purple state'". [[The Seattle Times]].
  33. (January 7, 2005). "2004 Word of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  34. Nash, Margo. (April 9, 2006). "Jersey Footlights". [[The New York Times]].
  35. (January 6, 2006). "Truthiness Voted 2005 Word of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  36. Newman, Andrew Adam. (December 10, 2007). "How Dictionaries Define Publicity: the Word of the Year". [[The New York Times]].
  37. (January 5, 2007). "'Plutoed' Voted 2006 Word of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  38. (January 4, 2008). ""Subprime" voted 2007 word of the year". American Dialect Society.
  39. (2009). "'Bailout' voted Word of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  40. Barrett, Grant. (January 8, 2009). "Word of the Year". Americandialect.org.
  41. (2011). "'App' voted Word of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  42. (2012). "Word of the Year". American Dialect Society.
  43. [https://www.americandialect.org/hashtag-2012 “Hashtag” is the 2012 Word of the Year] – American Dialect Society. Published 4 January 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  44. [https://www.americandialect.org/because-is-the-2013-word-of-the-year "Because" is the 2013 Word of the Year] – American Dialect Society. Published 3 January 2014. Retrieved 6 Jan 2014.
  45. [https://www.americandialect.org/2014-word-of-the-year-is-blacklivesmatter 2014 Word of the Year is “#blacklivesmatter”] – American Dialect Society. Published 9 January 2015.
  46. [https://www.americandialect.org/2015-word-of-the-year-is-singular-they 2015 Word of the Year is singular “they”] - American Dialect Society. Published 8 January 2016.
  47. [https://www.americandialect.org/dumpster-fire-is-2016-american-dialect-society-word-of-the-year “Dumpster fire” is 2016 American Dialect Society word of the year] - American Dialect Society. Published on 6 January 2017. Retrieved on 26 January 2017.
  48. [https://www.americandialect.org/fake-news-is-2017-american-dialect-society-word-of-the-year “Fake news” is 2017 American Dialect Society word of the year] - American Dialect Society. Published on 5 January 2018. Retrieved on 5 January 2018.
  49. [https://www.americandialect.org/tender-age-shelter-is-2018-american-dialect-society-word-of-the-year “Tender-age shelter” is 2018 American Dialect Society word of the year] – American Dialect Society. Published 4 January 2019. Retrieved 28 Mar 2019.
  50. (2020-12-18). "2020 Word of the Year is "Covid"".
  51. (January 7, 2022). "American Dialect Society". Americandialect.org.
  52. (2020-12-18). "2022 Word of the Year is "-ussy"".
  53. (January 5, 2024). "2023 Word of the Year is "enshittification"".
  54. (January 11, 2025). "2024 Word of the Year Is "Rawdog"".
  55. "2025 Word of the Year Is "Slop"".
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