| Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular
social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. Slang is a type of sociolect aimed at excluding certain people from the conversation. But that's not all. It develps with ordinary
interaction in a subset of ordinary language development. Slang initially functions as encryption, so that the non-initiate cannot understand the conversation, or as a further way to communicate with
those who understand it. Slang functions as a way to recognize members of the same group, and to differentiate that group from
the society at large. Slang terms are often particular to a certain subculture,
such as drug users, skateboarders and
musicians. Slang generally implies playful, informal speech. Slang is distinguished from jargon, the technical
vocabulary of a particular profession, as jargon is (in theory) not used to exclude non-group members from the conversation, but
rather deals with technical peculiarities of a given field which require a specialized vocabulary.
Functions and origins of slang
The use of slang is simply a way of circumventing social taboos. The mainstream
language tends to shy away from explicitly evoking certain realities. Slang, and also the informal forms of language, permit one
to talk about these realities in a special language stripped of the usual connotations in the normal register. Slang vocabularies
are particularly rich in certain domains, such as sexuality, violence, crime and drugs.
There is not just one slang, but many varieties – or dialects – of slang. Different social groups in different
times have developed their own slang. The importance of encryption and identity
vary among the various slangs.
Slang must constantly renew its process of expression, and specifically its vocabulary, so that those not part of the group
will remain unable to understand the slang. The existence of slang dictionaries, of course, cancels the effectiveness of certain
words. Numerous slang terms pass into informal mainstream speech, and thence sometimes into mainstream formal speech.
Originally, certain slang designated the speech of people involved in the criminal underworld, hooligans, bandits, criminals,
etc. Therefore, their vocabulary carried very vulgar connotations, and was strictly rejected by speakers of "proper" language.
Other groups developed their own slangs, in general, groups on the margins of mainstream society who were excluded or rejected by
it.
Use and purpose of slang
Slang is often particular to a brief period of time, with common usage ranging from decades to only a few months. Slang widely
used and understood at one time, may not have the same connotations later. The elderly are a group of people who have the most
problems with this colloquial form of language.
For example, a good thing may have been swell in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, groovy in the 1960s, and cool in the 1970s. And although the
term cool may still be accepted today, swell and groovy have fallen out of favor. This fluid quality is
typical of slang, since it changes more rapidly than other parts of language.
Another mean by which slang is quickly extinguished is a word's passage into standard speech, at which point it ceases to be
slang even though the word itself may still be used in the same context. For instance, the English language has long used phrases
like "hot-tempered" or "heated debate", and in contrast the word cool came to mean something akin to "calm". This usage
became popular in the 1950's, and by the 1970's had evolved into a slang term along the lines of groovy. The modern use of
the word is something in between, often meaning "alright" or "inoffensive" (non-heated). Such non-standard uses have caught on so
heavily that even prestigious sources like Roget's Thesaurus reaffirm them, and will likely soon become standard definitions. An
historical example is the English word swart (derived from the Old
English sweart, also see Norse: svartr, German: schwarz), which originally meant "black". It soon evolved into a slang term (among poets) for any "dark"
shade. Today, the English word swarthy means "very dark brown"; this is considered the standard use of the word, and the
older definitions have passed almost entirely into disuse.
Slang is often used to with regard to semi-taboo subjects, such as
Slang terms sometimes use nonstandard spellings to give an existing word a new meaning. For example, what a youth of the 1960s
might have described as groovy, a youth of 2002 might call phat.
Examples of slang
Historical examples of slang are the thieves' cant used by beggars and the
underworld generally in previous centuries: a number of canting dictionaries were published.
A famous current example is Cockney rhyming
slang in which, in the simplest case, a given word or phrase is replaced by another word or phrase that rhymes with it.
Often the rhyming replacement is abbreviated further, making the expressions even more obscure. A new rhyme may then be
introduced for the abbreviation and the process continues. Examples of rhyming slang are apples and pears for
stairs and trouble (and strife) for wife. An example of truncation and replacement of rhyming slang is
bottle and glass for arse (ass). This was reduced to bottle, for which the new rhyme Aristotle
was found; Aristotle was then reduced to Aris for which plaster of Paris became the rhyme. This was then
reduced to plaster.
Backwards slang, or Back slang, is a form of slang where words are reversed. English backwards slang tends to reverse
words letter by letter while French backwards slang tends to reverse words by syllables. Verlan is a French slang, that uses backwards words, similar
in its methods to the cockney back slang. Louchebem is French butcher's slang,
similar to Pig Latin.
Nadsat is a form of slang used in the book A Clockwork Orange, which borrows words from Russian and from various types of English slang.
Polari is an interesting mixture of Italian and Cockney back slang (i.e. common
words pronounced as if spelled backwards e.g. ecaf for face, which became eek in Polari). Polari was used in London
fish markets and the gay subculture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s,
becoming more widely known from its use by two camp characters, Julian
and Sandy, in Round the Horne, a popular radio show.
Procedures for developing slang
A social group may use several different methods to develop its own slang. The most important is lexical: the slang is associated with a particular unique vocabulary. There can also be a modification of
syntax, but this is of less importance.
Slang is always known for its vocabulary, but that doesn't mean that it follows the regular syntax, grammar, phonetics, pragmatics, etc. of the standard language. The formation of sentences, pronunciation, intonation, gestures, etc.
can be very different from the normal official language, and therefore assist with the differentiation of the slang group.
Nevertheless, these elements of slang other than vocabulary are in general not limited to the slang: they are typically elements
of more widespread informal or vernacular speech.
The lexical development may be of two types: semantical (modification and play
with the sense of words), or formal (creation or modification of words). When the lexical development is formal, it often is a
deconstruction of mainstream language: the slang deforms, mixes,
destructures, cuts, etc. the words, and breaks the rules. This deconstruction leaves transparent the will of the social group to
reject the mainstream society and demarcate itself from it.
- Syntactic procedures
- Lexical procedures
- Semantics
- Formal
- Lexical composition.
- Derivation or resuffixation of existing words with popular suffixes (-ist, -ism, -ic, etc.)
- Apocope : truncation of one or
several ending syllables of a word.
- Apheresis : truncation of one or several initial syllables of a
word.
- Doubling of a syllable, possibly before truncation
- Reversal : simply reversing the letters in a word. This is particularly popular in French verlan slang.
- Abbreviation : denoting a word by only several of its component
letters.
- Assimilation : absorbing words from other languages and incorporating them into the slang vocabulary. Popular in
multilingual areas.
This list is inspired by the classification of Marc Sourdot.
Various jargons are also loosely considered to be slang:
External links
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