According to a new study by Lancaster University, the English language is becoming more informal in the UK & some traditional ways of speaking are “on the brink of extinction”.
Researchers analysed 100M+ words in spoken language, academia, newspapers & e-lingo. The 39th-most common word? ‘Yeah’! It’s throwing shade at its formal cousin ‘Yes’, being 4 times more popular.
The study also revealed some interesting facts about the food & drink preferences of the Brits. For example, ‘cake’ is three times as frequent as ‘salad’, & ‘tea’ is six times as frequent as ‘champagne’🍾.
If you want to learn more about the most common words, expressions & trends in British English, check out the new book by Prof Vaclav Brezina & Dr Dana Gablasova, A Frequency Dictionary of British English. A guide to the top 5,000 words in everyday use.
Online lingo is leaving its mark. ‘Awesome’ is 7 times more awesome in e-language! 2,000 words dominate 80% of our chats, with American culture & online lingo crashing the language party.
Meanwhile, words like ‘like’, ‘dunno’, & ‘innit’ are partying hard in spoken language, infiltrating society’s glossary like linguistic influencers.
Almost makes you feel a bit nostalgic for modal verbs like ‘must,’ ‘may,’ & ‘shall’. They’re headed for linguistic extinction!
🤔 is the same trend underway in other languages you know?
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