‘Cease-fire’ is the French-speaking word of the year 2024 due to its omnipresence in the media, indicates the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). It precedes ‘consent’ and the playful interjection ‘quoicoubeh’.
If the expression ’13th annuity’ was the favorite of the list, due to the plebiscite of French-speaking people during the federal vote on March 3 on the AVS, it ultimately failed at the foot of the podium. The jury meeting in Lausanne voted almost unanimously in favor of a ‘ceasefire’, an expected respite in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and elsewhere. The linguists wanted to recall the role of the good offices of the Confederation, writes the ZHAW on Tuesday.
Inventiveness of young people’s oral language
In second place, the term ‘consent’ recalls sexual violence against women. According to the jury, it is time to reconsider, in this way, the proverb ‘He who says nothing, consents’. This paradigm shift is underway in our society.
Third, ‘quoicoubeh’ convinced with its youthful freshness. The interjection without any real meaning, launched on the social network Tiktok, enjoyed success as abrupt as it was ephemeral with teenagers. The latter used it to trap their comrades when they say the word ‘what?’ in reaction to incomprehensible comments.
The jury thus pays tribute to the inventiveness of oral language among young people and their ability to enrich – even ephemerally – the French language.
Outre-Sarine: fraud on popular rights
In German-speaking Switzerland, the word of the year is ‘Unterschriften-Bschiss’ (cheating in the collection of signatures). This expression came before ‘divers’ (various, to emphasize diversity) and ‘Murgang’ (massive debris). In Italian Switzerland, ‘non binario’ (non-binary) has overtaken ‘allerta meteo’ (weather alert) and ‘nomofobia’ (from the English ‘no mobile phobia’, fear of being separated from one’s mobile phone).
In the Romansh valleys, ‘segundimorant:a’ (secondary resident) won, ahead of ‘vegliadissem’ (neologism equivalent to ‘ageism’) and festivitads (festivities).
To determine the words of the year, ZHAW scientists analyze the Swiss speech database Swiss-AL and establish, for each national language, the 30 words that were used more frequently or significantly differently in 2024 than previous years. A jury of professionals then chooses the three most striking words from this list, from the public’s proposals and on the basis of their own experience.
/ATS
