By Zuko Komisa
The Phala Phala farm of President Cyril Ramaphosa and load-shedding, arguably the worst nightmare for the nation, have made it to the final selection of the country’s 2022 Word of the Year.
Yesterday, the Pan SA Language Board (PanSALB), in collaboration with the media research firm Focal Points, released the five competing words.
These include gaslighting, “phala phala”, “load shedding”, “xenophobia”, and “inganekwane” (fairy tale).
2022 SA WORD OF THE YEAR
— @PanSALB (@PanSALB) October 14, 2022
Researchers selected a term or statement for the competition that they felt best reflected the changing linguistic year.
A phrase or word must have evidence that its usage has considerably increased over the past 12 months across a variety of media in order for it to be taken into consideration.
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The contest started in 2017. State capture, land expropriation without compensation, the Zondo Commission, lockdown, and immunization are a few of the phrases that have triumphed.
The top five shortlisted words, according to PanSALB, “captured the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of 2022.”
“The SA Word of the Year shortlist gives a glimpse of the social issues that have been the preoccupation of our discourse and conversations on matters that affect us in the country. Social media has also brought that fun element of language use to the fore and subsequently made trans-languaging more prominent” said PanSALB CEO Lance Schultz.
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