This is fun: brand new words invented yesterday. The Norwegian Newspaper Corpus scrapes newspaper content from online versions of Norwegian newspapers, matches all the words against words used previously in this and other electronic corpuses (corpi?) they have access to, and lists words never used before. Norwegian, like German, uses compound words, so while the English “jazz festival” is two words, in Norwegian it’s “jazzfestival” — so lots of the new words are freshly created compounds. Some are misspellings, others are anglicisms. (from Gisle Andersen’s presentation — this is a Bergen-based project.)


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6 thoughts on “words invented yesterday

  1. Lars

    Hooray! One of yesterday’s new words is from Finnmarken: HelnestrÂl. Unfortunately, it’s just a boat name, and an old one at that. Guess we have to try harder.

  2. Jill

    Ooh, yes, game the system!!! Great idea!

  3. lesley

    corpora?

  4. […] ng it from online newspapers. Working with Knut Hofland here in Bergen. Generates lists of new words. Material is used by lexicographers, good tool for studying emergence and spread of new words. Political eve […]

  5. Jamie

    The plural of corpus is corpora (cuz u asked)

  6. Stephen Shimanek

    Longman gives stress on the first syllable in English, something I can’t seem to get into my head.

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