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Use of language: Dutch vote "Shame" as Word of the Year

2019-12-28T13:26:12.234Z


Garbage, exhaust gases, meat consumption - current debates about ecology make many Dutch people feel guilty. So much so that "shame" became the defining word of the year.



Car shame, garbage shame, cruise shame - in view of such terms in the climate change debates, "-schaamte" (shame) has been chosen as the word of the year 2019 by the Dutch association "Onze Taal" (Our Language). Word combinations such as "vliegschaamte" (Flugscham) or "vleesschaamte" (Fleischscham) would briefly express the growing discomfort that people feel about climate-damaging behavior, it said on Saturday as the reason.

Around 20 percent of the 2200 participating members of the language association voted for "-schaamte". With 17 percent, the word creation "brexitmoe" (brexit tired) came in second place, followed by "stikstofcrisis" (nitrogen crisis). Among other things, "treintrots" (rail pride) for consciously climate-friendly travel by train was nominated but less successful.

In Sweden, the verb "tagskryta" has recently been used, which means "to brag" and is used when you travel by train rather than by plane for the sake of the environment. There are also a number of new expressions that deal with the topic of climate, as the Swedish language council Sprakradet announced on Friday.

Source: spiegel

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