From`Recessionista’ to `Stressurized’ – SpinVox Voxgeist Finds the Downturn Provides a Rich New Vocabulary across Canada

2000 words and phrases added to the SpinVox Speech to Text conversion system every month.

SpinVox, a global leader in voice to text messaging has just announced that 2,000 new words and phrases have been added each month to its Canadian language dictionary, or Voxgeist, over the past quarter.

New additions and multiple meanings used for everyday words are increasingly more common and the recession has unleashed a wave of verbal dexterity and inventiveness as people find new ways of describing the economic crisis and its effect on their everyday lives. Interestingly, there was only one French Canadian word coming through for the current situation and that is “La Crise” meaning crisis.

The SpinVox Voxgeist list of most referenced recession-related slang words and phrases are:
‘Recessionista’: noun – a frugal fashion follower who scouts around for bargains to save money but still manages to dress fabulously.
‘Staycation’: noun – a holiday in the country in which you live.
‘Austerity Chic’: phrase the ability to still look fashionable despite not spending more than a few pounds on items.
‘LinkedIntimidation’: noun – when people are bombarded with networking invitations by those in fear of losing their jobs.
‘Nightflight’: noun – sudden closing down of businesses and disappearance of owners
`Crunch’: noun – meaning money.
`CC’: abbreviation – credit crunch.
‘Clocking Real Mileage’: phrase – having a strong idea.
`Stressurized’: verb combining stress and pressurized as people fear losing their jobs and feel they have to work harder.
`Bailout’: noun – keeping the banks and failing industries functioning through Government cash injections.
`Winmarketing’: verb – selling goods at low prices (like the fashion retailer Winners).
‘NINKS’: abbreviation – no income, no kids.
‘Zombie Bank’: noun – a bank that has a negative net worth but continues to operate because of depositor’s insurance or other governmental intervention.
‘Decremental’: adjective – the act or process of decreasing or becoming gradually less; the amount lost by gradual diminution or waste.
‘Recession roadkill’: noun – a person who has been laid off because of recession.

SpinVox multilingual Voice Message Conversion System (VMCS) has ‘learned’ to understand these new terms so that voicemail messages sent via SpinVox can be accurately converted to text and sent either as SMS text messages ,emails, memos, blog posts, or even social network sites.

“Language is ever changing and the seismic shift in the global economy is generating in its wake a whole new vocabulary,” says Christina Domecq, SpinVox co-founder and CEO.

“Some of the new words demonstrate people’s attempt at black humour as they attempt to cope with the situation they are in, whilst others are inventive combinations of established words which create new meanings. Either way, it’s a rich new vein of language and we’ve found that’s contributing strongly to on average 500 new American English words that are being added to our system every week.

The convergence of voice and screen is a thoroughly fascinating moment in the progression of the way we communicate and what we choose to say, and we’re looking forward to adding a fresh new vocabulary when the economic upturn arrives,” adds Domecq.

Language is ever changing and SpinVox is witness to this on a daily basis, whether it’s French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese or English. The Voice Message Conversion System is learning new words and expressions every day. In fact only 30 percent of its vast vocabulary can be found in standard language dictionaries. The rest have been collated as a result of its amazing ability to learn new words at an average of 500 words a week. Creating the largest spoken language dictionaries – the SpinVox ‘Voxgeist`.

For more information on SpinVox voice to content services including voicemail-to-text, speak-a-text, blog posts, social network updates, blast and memo messages, visit www.spinvox.com.

About SpinVox:

SpinVox® is the world’s largest privately-held speech technology company, providing the only voice to text messaging services which are used daily by millions of people and whose user base has grown over twenty-fold in the last 12 months.

Through significant innovations in voice and network technologies which are protected by over 70 patents worldwide, SpinVox has converged the two most natural forms of communication – voice and text – to create the fastest-growing form of messaging: Voice-to-Content™.

SpinVox services are available directly on www.spinvox.com and through leading carriers and through new media, Unified Communications and other service providers globally.

Implemented as a carrier-class cloud service, SpinVox is proven to be able to easily create value from everyday user behavior using voice and deliver rapid and easy implementation of low input, sustained high reward services.

At the heart of SpinVox is its ground-breaking Voice Message Conversion System™ (VMCS), which works by combining state-of-the-art speech technologies with a live-learning language process. Developed by the Cambridge, UK- based SpinVox Advanced Speech Group; VMCS now serves users across five continents in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian.

SpinVox is now live with Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers Wireless, Telus, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa, Vodafone Spain, Movistar Chile, Skype, Vonage and Livejournal.

Contacts

SpinVox
For Media Enquiries:
Ema Linaker
M: +44 (0)7771 770317
Ema.linaker {at} spinvox(.)com