Language is evolving at a much faster rate. This puts a lot of pressure on multilingual communication: How do you translate terms for which there is actually no translation?
The “Youth Slang Words of the Year” always draw criticism. Even young people have never heard of some of them. And even if they have, the ranking compiled by adults is a reason for young people to never use them again.
But even beyond youth slang, new terms are constantly emerging. Glow-up, FOMO, greenwashing, ghosting, and quiet quitting were virtually nonexistent just a few years ago. Today, they appear in presentations, campaigns, and internal communication guidelines as if they’d always been there. So people communicating internationally must work with a language that changes faster than any style guide.
And while companies carefully cultivate their brand language, the everyday language of their target audiences is evolving at a pace that dictionaries and translation tools can barely keep up with.
The drivers of language change – why language is evolving so rapidly today
Language change has always existed. As far back as antiquity, Titus Petronius Arbiter bitterly complained about the poor Latin spoken by the youth and the common people. The Vulgar Latin that bothered him so much already bore the first characteristics of modern Italian. What once took centuries now happens in a matter of years. The drivers and causes of language change can be clearly identified:
Social media & memes as accelerators of neologisms
TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube function like linguistic particle accelerators. A new term emerges in a niche forum, is picked up by influencers, mutates into a meme, and ends up in corporate communications just a few weeks later.
Global trends create new concepts and new vocabulary
Climate crisis, diversity, digitalization—every new social phenomenon comes with its own terminology. “Net Zero,” “intersectionality,” and “hybrid work” aren’t just buzzwords. They are terms that describe complex realities. And they continue to evolve: What everyone called “remote work” two years ago is now “distributed work” or “async-first culture.” Companies that operate internationally must not only know which terms are currently in use. They must also understand their connotations in different markets.
Technology as a word-coining machine
Every new tool or technology introduces its own vocabulary. “Prompten” wasn’t a German verb before ChatGPT. “Fintech” was a niche term ten years ago. Today, there is an entire industry built around it. “Web3,” “metaverse,” “generative AI”—some of these Anglicisms will remain in common usage, while others will fade away. But as long as they’re in circulation, companies must decide: Do we use them? Do we translate them? Do we leave them as is?
The consequence of these developments: Corporate language gets old. What was once considered modern terminology now comes across as unprofessional.
How new words are created—a look behind the hidden mechanics of language
So, how does word formation happen? Language change doesn’t happen by chance. It follows patterns that have stood the test of time over centuries. People who understand these mechanisms can better assess which terms will catch on—and which ones are merely short-lived fads.
Neologisms driven by trends & tech
When new phenomena require new names, genuine neologisms emerge. “Prompten” is a good example: The English verb “to prompt” has existed for a long time, but it wasn’t until the widespread adoption of AI systems that it became a German verb with its own conjugation.
Some of these neologisms are precise and useful. Others are marketing constructs that obscure more than they explain. Terms like “Cloud-native,” “AI-powered,” “blockchain-enabled” sound innovative but usually offer little practical value. For translators, this poses a challenge. Should a vague term be precisely translated at the risk of potentially altering its impact? Or is it better to leave it vague and risk it not being understood at all in the target language?
Semantic change – when old words take on new meanings
Semantic changes are even more fascinating than neologisms. Words that have been around for a long time are imbued with new meanings. Take the English word “cringe,” for example, which originally meant “to flinch”. Recently this verb turned into an adjective or noun that describes embarrassing, uncomfortable situations, which has also been adopted as such in German. The grammar behind this changed word doesn’t follow any rule you’d find in a textbook.
For international communication, semantic changes are a minefield. A neutral term in one region may carry negative connotations in another. “Aggressive growth” sounds like an ambitious strategy in English, but in German it sounds like recklessness. In Silicon Valley, “disruption” is a compliment. In Europe, it’s often a warning sign.
Loanwords & portmanteaus – when languages merge
Two terms merge to create something new: “Staycation” (Stay + Vacation), “Cybersecurity” (Cyber + Security), “Greenwashing” (Green + Whitewashing). These portmanteaus maximize semantic efficiency: They condense complex concepts into a single, memorable term.
But not all portmanteaus work internationally. “Handy” is a pseudo-anglicism in German, but in English, the word means “practical” or “handy,” not “cell phone.” Translating a German campaign featuring a “Handy” into English will cause confusion. Conversely, there are English portmanteaus that don’t work in German: “Workation” (Work + Vacation) sounds like a flexible work culture in English, but in German, it sounds like self-imposed exploitation.
The result in everyday life – when dictionaries are no longer enough for translating neologisms
The mechanisms of language change are fascinating. But for companies that communicate internationally, they are a major headache. That’s because dictionaries and translation tools can’t keep pace with reality. The Duden (Standard High German dictionary) is published in a new edition every few years, but language continues to evolve daily. Also, while a dictionary defines terms, it says nothing about their connotations, their cultural context, or their shelf life.
Marketing, HR, legal & technology – slogans full of buzzwords for international campaigns
A German software company is advertising with the slogan “Empower your team.” Sounds good, right? In English, however, “empower” is a term strongly associated with social movements, particularly the empowerment of minorities and marginalized groups. In a B2B context, the term can come across as contrived, like a calculated marketing spin on a political movement.
“We’re looking for a rockstar developer”—a job posting that might still fly in Berlin seems out of place in Japan. Not only because “rockstar” has different connotations there, but because the overall tone doesn’t fit the corporate culture. In Japan, modesty is valued, while self-promotion tends to be viewed critically.
Here is another example: “Digital Native” in a job posting. Still common in Germany, but increasingly frowned upon in the U.S. The term implies that people born before a certain year cannot understand digital technologies—an assumption that is not only false but also discriminatory. Anyone still looking for “digital natives” today is signaling: We haven’t engaged with current diversity debates.
“AI Act,” “DORA,” “NIS2”—new EU regulations introduce new terms that haven’t been uniformly translated into all languages yet. Is “AI Act” translated into German as “KI-Gesetz” or “KI-Verordnung”? Should “resilience” in the DORA Regulation be translated as “Resilienz” or “Widerstandsfähigkeit”? These are not merely academic questions. They have legal consequences. A misinterpreted term in a contract can lead to liability issues.
The translator’s dilemma—and why professional agencies work differently
“What happens if a client gives us a word that isn’t in any dictionary?” Professional translators grapple with this question daily. And the answer is: It depends on the context, the target audience, the brand, and the market. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for translating neologisms, but there are strategies.
Strategy 1: Leave it as is or adapt it
Some terms can’t be translated because they’re already established in the target language. “Laptop,” “smartphone,” “cloud”—no one would think to translate these terms. They’re internationally known and have become standard.
But where do you draw the line? “Prompting” is a borderline case. In German, there is no established verb for interacting with AI systems. “Eingeben” (input) sounds too technical, but “fragen” (query) is too vague. So “prompten” is adapted to German, including conjugation: “Ich prompte,” “du promptest,” “wir haben geprompted.” Grammatically questionable, but functional.
Strategy 2: Creative reimagining (transcreation)
Sometimes a literal translation isn’t good enough. That’s when transcreation is needed—a creative reimagining that captures the meaning and impact of the original term in the target language.
For example, the English term “quiet quitting” describes the phenomenon where employees do only the bare minimum without actually quitting their jobs. A literal translation of this term sounds odd in German. A better option would be “Dienst nach Vorschrift” (Working to Rule), a term that already exists in German and describes the same phenomenon. But “Dienst nach Vorschrift” sounds old-fashioned and too bureaucratic. “Quiet Quitting,” on the other hand, evokes a sense of the modern workplace, Generation Z, and self-care. The transcreation team must decide: Do we want to maintain the modern tone—and risk the term sounding foreign in German? Or do we want to use an established term—and risk that the connotation will be different?
Strategy 3: Contextual paraphrasing
Sometimes paraphrasing is a more faithful rendering of the original text than a direct translation. “FOMO”—Fear of Missing Out—cannot be expressed in a single German word.
Professional translation agencies don’t follow a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, they ask: Who is the target audience? What is the brand’s tone? How is the term perceived in the target market? They research how other companies have translated similar terms. They present A/B variants. They document their decisions in terminology databases to ensure future translations remain consistent.
Why AI alone doesn’t solve the problem of language change
“Can’t AI handle that?” It’s an obvious question. Translation tools like DeepL or ChatGPT have become impressively good. They deliver translations in a matter of seconds that are grammatically correct and often stylistically appealing as well. But they have a fundamental problem: They rely on training data from the past.
An AI model trained in 2023 won’t recognize terms that emerged in 2024. It doesn’t know that “greenwashing” carries more critical connotations today than it did five years ago. It doesn’t know that “digital native” is increasingly considered discriminatory in the U.S. It doesn’t know that “empower” can come across as contrived in B2B contexts.
Even if AI models are updated regularly, they still can’t keep pace with reality. That’s because language evolves faster than models can be trained. A term that emerges today in a niche forum may appear in corporate communications in three weeks. AI models take months to reflect such developments.
AI reads dictionaries—native speakers read the world
AI is a powerful tool. It can speed up translations, ensure consistency, and reduce costs. But it cannot replace human expertise. After all, language is not just a system of rules. It is a living, constantly changing phenomenon. Comprehending this phenomenon demands full immersion in the target language, fluency in its prevailing discourses, engagement with its popular culture, and an acute awareness of its cultural sensitivities. This is precisely where native-speaking translators offer an immense advantage.
Processes at a translation agency – terminology management, style guides, client inquiries, A/B variants
Professional translation agencies do not work on an ad hoc basis. They have processes in place to ensure quality and consistency.
- Terminology management: Every term that is translated is documented in a terminology database. Once “Quiet Quitting” has been translated as “Dienst nach Vorschrift,” this term will be used in all future translations until further notice. This ensures that the brand’s voice remains consistent across campaigns, markets, and years. The database can be expanded and updated at any time.
- Style guides: How should the brand sound? Formal or casual? Technical or accessible? Innovative or reliable? A style guide defines the tone and provides translators with clear guidelines. This prevents a campaign from sounding serious in Germany but flippant in the U.S.
- Clarifying questions for clients: When a term is unclear, professional translators ask for clarification. What exactly do you mean by “empower”? Should the term have political connotations or be neutral? Should “quiet quitting” sound modern or established? Such clarifications take time, but they prevent misunderstandings.
- A/B variants: Sometimes there isn’t just one correct translation, but several possibilities. Professional translation agencies present A/B variants and explain the pros and cons. The expertise lies with the translation agency, but the decision rests with the client.
Language change or language decline? Language as a moving target
Language is changing faster than ever before. What was once considered modern terminology now comes across as outdated. A neutral term today may be loaded tomorrow. People handling international communications are working with a moving target.
Dictionaries and translation tools can assist, but they aren’t enough, because they reflect the past, not the present. They know the rules, but not the nuances. They translate words, but not culture.
Professional translation agencies do more than just linguistic work. They don’t just read dictionaries—they read the world. They understand the discourses, the trends, and the sensitivities. They know which terms are currently on the rise and which are already outdated. They ensure that texts are not only correct but also contemporary, coherent, and consistent with the brand.
Titus Petronius Arbiter was fighting a losing battle with his criticism of linguistic decline. The Vulgar Latin he so despised became the Italian language. The youth he resented created something new. And that is exactly what continues to happen today.
People dealing with international communications need partners who understand that language cycles faster than ever before—and that this is precisely where its vitality lies.