In the year 2000, Professor Drinka and students within the linguistics department created a time capsule for words and dialects they predicted would become part of the U.S. jargon in 2025. On Jan. 25, professors, alumni, students and the local community gathered to unearth said linguistics department time capsule.
In attendance were Helen Petry Stowe, class of Dec. 1999, and Rebecca Blankenship, class of 2000.
When asked about some of the guesses they may have made 25 years ago, Blankenship responded, “I have no idea. Hopefully, nothing embarrassing.”
The capsule was divided into four subsections of linguistics: slang, word formation, sound changes and semantic shifts. Amongst some of the predictions made were the use of the term “a clint” in lieu of a lie, a functional shift for “emote” from a verb to a noun and a division between the electronically literate and illiterate with the latter becoming the underclass. Many were influenced by the onslaught of technology, the phenomenon known as Y2K, Bush v. Gore and President Clinton’s affair — note the creation of “a clint.”
Not all of the predictions were a success but some proved prophetic. One student in 2000 predicted the slang creation of “cell-watch” to describe a watch that is also a phone or computer.
Shifts in sound changes were also highlighted. One attendee prophesied mumbling being at the forefront of dialect due to the popularization of mumble rap, while another user hypothesized an uptick in Kermit the Frog voice as a means of immortalizing “The Muppets.”
While the 2000 time capsule brought participants together, the real attraction of the night was to create the 2025 linguistics time capsule that will be opened in 2050. Attendees received mini-lessons on the aforementioned linguistics subsections, and they created their own predictions in a Padlet.
Projections were inspired by current political and social climates as well as social media jargon, including “trumping” — a term for making a fool of oneself with no self-awareness — and a shift in the definition of “Ohio” into meaning a utopia and Idaho being used to deem somewhere a dystopia. User Kellman predicted the revitalization of “childish” into the slang of those living in 2050.
“Because of Google glasses and Apple Vision, I’ll scan it,” predicted Rusafa Hussain, an English graduate student studying to earn linguistics certifications. “When it comes to non-English, it’s slang. A curse word might take off, or maybe some Korean words, because of K-dramas and K-pop.”
The night concluded with a flurry of guesses being submitted into the 2025 time capsule through paper and a Google survey, which is open until Feb. 5.
