The pandemic isn¡¯t totally over yet, but it has certainly been all over us. And it has been all over the Japanese language, too.
Almost two years into life with COVID-19, this is perhaps a good point to look back and take stock of what the linguistic ¸±×÷Óà (´Ú³Ü°ì³Ü²õ²¹²â¨, side effects) have been so far.
It started with a nameless ÔÒò²»Ã÷¤Î·ÎÑ× (gen¡¯in fumei no haien, pneumonia of unknown origin), as first announced in the NHK evening news on Jan. 7, 2020. The thing itself was soon to be known as the ĞÂĞÍ¥³¥í¥Ê¥¦¥¤¥ë¥¹ (shingata koronauirusu, novel coronavirus) in news reports and official documents, but shortened to just ¥³¥í¥Ê (korona) in conversation, much like it would be shortened to just COVID in English.
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