Andy’s Wordshop

More on neologisms. I'm going to stick my neck out here (risking a fall of the guillotine for being provocative) and say that I think neologisms have a better chance of getting established in English (British or American, and possibly more so in the latter) than in Slovak. If only I had a tanner (sixpence) or a dime (ten cents) for each time I've heard someone here say “Ale to sa tak nepovie, taký výraz neexistuje v slovenčine”… I blame the Ľudovít Štúr Institute for Slovak Language and teachers of Slovak language in schools for this situation, making Slovak people more conservative in their reaction to neologisms. I can just imagine people saying “Čože?! ‘Mäkké zručnosti’?? Čo to má byť, do paroma!?”, or something similar. OK, they've never heard the expression before; the question is, are they willing to give it a chance?

Tricky Words in this week‘s OVI

Neologisms are newly-created words or expressions, typically emerging to fill gaps which “suddenly” appear in the general vocabulary of the language due to developments in various areas of life, especially in technology, but also for example in sport, politics and corporate management. It should be a natural process starting from the “grass roots”, meaning ordinary people using their language creatively to supply their needs in terms of what they want to express. Most often neologisms are picked up and then established through the media, especially by journalists and nowadays more and more through the social media. There's an example here in the Internship piece: “soft skills” in English, translated literally (and I would say aptly) as “mäkké zručnosti” in Slovak.