"Artificial intelligence", "assemblage" and "time shelter" are the most frequently used words for 2023

"Artificial intelligence" with 45%, "assemblage" (the word frequently used to refer to the cooperation between the power holders in the government – WCC-DB and GERB-UDF) with 37% and "time shelter” (the title of the book by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, that won the International Booker Prize 2023) with 35% of the votes are the words and phrases for 2023 for Bulgaria.

This is the people's choice in what has become a traditional survey "Words of the Year" of the platform kaksepishe.com (Kak se pishe? meaning How is that spelled?, the organisers of the survey said.

The campaign aims to use language attitudes to track public opinion on what were the most important topics in the past year.

An analysis of the most used words and expressions by the Bulgarian media examined 10 million and 600,000 publications in 9,730 online news sources between January 1 and December 31, 2023.

It shows that the 20 most frequently mentioned words were "Bulgaria", "Russia", "Ukraine", "Europe", "USA", "child", "aid", "war", "politics", "minister" and "cost". It is noteworthy that of the nouns, the word that tops the ranking is "child" and its use has increased in absolute value compared to 2022, while the values of almost all others have decreased.

For the first time, a ranking of the most mentioned personalities in the media is also presented. Boyko Borisov is in the top position, followed by Vladimir Putin, Rumen Radev, Nikolay Denkov, Ivan Geshev, Kiril Petkov.

The word winner "artificial intelligence" connects us with global trends. Its use has increased almost 5 times compared to 2022, note the organizers of the initiative - Dr. Pavlina Varbanova, founder of "How to write?", and Dorothea Nikolova, a teacher of Bulgarian language and literature and journalist.

For the first time, the survey included a ranking of the most mentioned personalities in the media. The name of the GERB-UDF leader and former PM, Boyko Borisov is in the top position, followed by Vladimir Putin, Rumen Radev (Bulgaria’s President), Nikolay Denkov (PM), Ivan Geshev (Former Prosecutor Genenral), Kiril Petkov (co-leader of “We Continue the Change”, former PM)..

The winner is the phrase "artificial intelligence". Its use has increased almost 5 times compared to 2022, noted the organisers of the initiative - Dr. Pavlina Varbanova, founder of Kaksepishe, and Dorotea Nikolova, a teacher of Bulgarian language and literature and journalist.

"This year we have seen something positive, namely a breakthrough in political topics through two more words that made it to the final ten. They are from the sphere of culture - "time shelter" and "Booker", and are related to the novel by Georgi Gospodinov," Dr. Varbanova points out.

It seems that by voting for "artificial intelligence" and "time shelter" we are trying to extricate ourselves from the clutches of the political, she adds.

In 2022, "war", "inflation", "Ukraine" and "elections" were at the top of the list. And in 2021, the top three words in the poll were the non-keyword "judge," "anti-vaxxer" and "scraping off."

Source: BNR