Word Changes and Slang

You are an awful bimbo!

Did you know that I just gave you a compliment? Well -- it would have been a compliment hundreds of years ago.

Today, the word awful means very bad or unpleasant, but this was not always the case. Likewise, calling one a bimbo did not always imply a promiscuous lady, a whore, or someone with limited intelligence.

Until the early nineteenth century, awful was used to describe something as awe-inspiring, impressive, or majestic. The second, more negative, meaning of the term was developed around the mid-sixteenth century, and gradually grew to be used as the dominant slang term for something very unpleasant.

While awful has been used the way we know for quite some time, bimbo held a different meaning up until around the mid-1900s. Before then, calling someone a bimbo would be calling them a chap, a fellow, or one of the gang.

So when I say that you are an awful bimbo, I am, in fact, saying that you are an awe-inspiring chap of mine.

Why did the meanings of these words change or grow over time? Why does this utterance, which could have once made someone so happy, hold such a different implication today than in the past?

Words often begin as metaphor. Someone, at some point in time, needed to communicate something to someone else and came up with a way to do so. Words are not often designed or planned. A good way to examine the change of words over time is by looking at speakers as artists. Artists create art; fashion or style are just one form of it. Fashion and style change over time, just like language. Language variation occurs in response to variation in society. Language is synchronized to the culture it is used in.

A word may undergo different levels of change. Semantic change is when the meaning of a word changes over time. Examples of this are the words mentioned previously: awful and bimbo. Spelling change occurs when a language has previously lacked a fixed system of orthography or spelling; this is usually seen when analyzing texts from over a century ago. Lexical changes take place when a language adopts words from other languages or reforms/recycles words to create new meanings for them. A good example of this is using an acronym for something or blending two words together to create one new word.

No part of language changes faster than slang. Slang is the product of a cultural identity and often driven by youth; it shows language vitality. If a language were not undergoing constant variations or growth, it would indicate the community using it was not either. Interestingly enough, many words considered slang are not actually new at all, but terms which have undergone aforementioned lexical changes. LOL, for example, had a previous meaning of Lots of Love, before it was rejuvenated to mean Laughing out Loud. What about the term Hip-Hop, which is used to describe a genre of music? This term has been around for over three hundred years, used to denote with a hopping movement.

These are just a few of the countless examples that show slang is typically drawn from words that are already part of the English language, whether the user realizes it or not.

While language itself changes very slowly and over time, technology, specifically the internet, has accelerated this process so they may be visible even over a brief period of time. Language games, as they are sometimes called, can occur when people use the internet to morph words differently, create new words, or use language in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be acceptable. The majority of the changes of language happening online are related to what is called “text-speak”, where words are shortened or mutated into vowel-free acronyms or clever abbreviations.

Linguists and anthropologists have been studying the reasons slang spreads for decades, and social media sites have opened new doors into analyzing these questions. Facebook, Twitter, and countless blogs have created an environment of communicating where words travel not only across countries, but around the entire world, within a matter of weeks. Because of the internet’s capability to spread word use, new slang terms may be potentially produced when people choose to modify meanings or create ‘new’ words.

What qualifies something as slang? An important factor in a word sticking around and being practiced within a language is the longevity and reach of its use. For slang, this means that it must be relatable to current culture, easy or fun to use, and/or catchy in some other manner. Because the internet has provided the world with such a fast-paced mode of communication, it’s no surprise that language undergoes a rapid rate of change online. One of the places that these word and language changes are readily noteable is within the world of fandom.

Fandom is the ‘state of being a huge fan of something or someone’, and this is not just a recently developed term. Even before Beliebers (Justin Bieber fans), The Beyhive (Beyoncé fans), Swifties (Taylor Swift fans), Directioners (One Direction fans), or Little Monsters (Lady Gaga fans), there were Apple Scruffs (Die-hard Beatles fans) and Trekkies (Star Trek fans). While being part of a group of devoted fans may not be entirely new, the use of slang and word-mutation within the world of fandom on the internet is -- and it is only growing. Social media and other online hubs provide the perfect canvas for “artists” of language to produce new uses of words.

Of course, before diving into some of the hip fandom slang of today, it’s important to consider the origins of the word fandom. You may think fandom is a new word for today’s young people, but the Oxford English Dictionary (a premier 150-year old dictionary by the Oxford University Press) lists fandom as appearing in the English language as early as 1903!

Fandom can be broken down into two parts - fan + dom. Fan, in the meaning we know it today as “someone who regularly enjoys a sport/art/media/celebrity,” made its debut in the English language in 1682. This was a shortening of the word fanatic, which traces its origins to 1525; back then, fanatic was used to describe a frenzied, mad person, and derives from the Latin word fanaticus, roughly meaning “religiously inspired by a temple.” Given these origins, the modern usage of fan makes sense - someone so wrapped up in their interest that they act a bit mad. Spend a few minutes online, and you are sure to find eager commenters and bloggers keysmashing or typing in all caps to express their frenzy.

The second part of the word, -dom, is a suffix commonly used to express something under control of a person of rank. The word kingdom, for example, refers to the domain ruled by a king. Similarly, a fandom can be thought of as the domain of a fan community. Within this domain the fan community comes together to celebrate their shared interest, and it is in this celebration that they can coin new words. Such examples are covered below.

The drag community of the hit show RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) has popularized a particular jargon of drag (which is hard itself to define but is usually a performative entertainment-industry work done almost exclusively by gay men and trans community members). Some popular terms used include:

1. Clock: point out what someone is trying to hide, especially a flaw; also, to uncover the truth of a situation/ someone’s gender (from a fanmade wiki): "You can't clock a lace-front wig!"

This is in line with some of the Oxford English Dictionary’s assignations, but the OED lists these as always slang. Its pejorative, newest usage on RPDR in the above definition includes taking a look, but adds additional meaning components: to stare AND point out/ uncover something covert. Here is the OED’s definition by comparison:  “To watch or observe; to look at, notice. slang (orig. U.S.).” Another example:

2. Fishy: in drag, resembling a biological woman so closely/convincingly as to be mistaken for a woman; e.g. “There’s something fishy about that girl.”

From the OED, one entry of fishy: Of dubious quality, unreliable, questionable, ‘shady’.

It makes sense that it could be a semantic extension of this OED meaning (see quote above), although the online resource used noted it could be extended from a more pejorative slang term for women. Interestingly, one can also backform into fish: “Ohhh...she’s serving up pure fish!” This makes sense in the performance aspect of gender/this industry, but also interesting in a metaphorical sense.

The community surrounding Sherlock, a BBC Show starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, has grown immensely since it began in 2010. Tumblr, a popular microblogging social networking site, has aided the creation and spread of slang terms relating to the television show. These words are not specific to Sherlock fandom, but it is interesting to note changes in meanings or variants of old words adapted in the context of Sherlock fanspeak.

One of the more popular slang terms is the term “ship”:  

1. Ship: This is both a noun and a verb, an abbreviation of the word “relationship”. It means to support a pairing of a relationship whether it is characters within the same canon or a crossover. The term can apply to any pairing and does not discriminate sexual orientation.

An example of a tumblr post with multiple blog reposts wrote: “‘There was a man on BBC news called Dr. John Holmes. Dr. John Holmes.’ ‘Well someone’s parents shipped it like Fedex.’”

Shipping in and of itself is a huge phenomenon in fanfiction culture and is stipulated to have originated from the relationship between Captain Kirk and Spock from Star Trek in the 1970s. Fans of the show began to create their own alternative universes where they desired the characters from the show to have a fictional romantic and/or sexual relationship.

The oldest form of this slang term was a colloquial clipping of the word companionship as “ship.” The earliest recording of this is listed in the OED in 1875:

J. Southward Dict. Typogr. 18: “The best ‘ship’ is kept going with work from the others, rather than be suffered to stand still.”

Later, in 1996, it was recorded to have been used to abbreviate relationship. The OED defines it as “a romantic pairing of two characters who appear in a work of (serial) fiction, esp. one which is discussed, portrayed, or advocated by fans rather than depicted in the original work; (also) fans who support a particular pairing, considered collectively.”

Variations of ship also exist, such as shippers - the people who ship a fanfic relationship, and ship war - where two ships contrast and certain fans advocate one ship over the other. We believe the use of online communication has accelerated the growth of ship and allowed for different variations to spring up. Although this is just speculation, the term ship -- because it is coined in the OED and has taken on so many new forms recently -- is losing its status as a slang term, and is entering into the mainstream lexicon.

Similarly, there is specific subgenre found in fanfiction circles is known as the crossover genre. There doesn’t appear to be a definite origin for how crossover in this sense became a word, but according to Google Ngrams, the usage began to grow in the 1930s after the invention of the television, and made a large jump in the 1980s all the way to the early 2000s.

2. Crossover: Fanfiction that combines two or more canons or source materials. Often, characters from one source are relocated to or bound by rules of the setting in another source, or an “alternative universe”. Characters from different sources can interact on some type of common group.

The first introduction of the word had been crossed over, and became popularized when Star Trek merged with Battlestar Galactica; it continued to grow with mainstream crossovers such as Alien vs. Predator. A popular crossover within fandom is called “Superwholock,” a combination of three major tv show fandoms: Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock. The OED contains the noun cross-over, which was used to describe textiles, or a specific type of print/fabric that crossed over and this term was coined in the 1700s. The OED also includes variations on the verb “cross” that use the phrase “to cross over”, but does not define that meaning as one word,

This slang term didn’t have the purpose that it does today, leading to the actual creation of the word crossover used after the 1930s and onward. Before the introduction of television and regular access to the web, there wasn’t much need to label genres of fanfiction (even though the conception of fanfiction is something that goes back earlier in history, i.e. Sybil Brinton’s “Old Friends and New Fancies,” 1913 Jane Austen Fanfiction). The voice of fanfiction communities has grown in solidarity and maintained its relevance, therefore the term crossover remains pertinent in our society; we believe it will continue to exist as long as fanfiction stays mainstream. But because of the word’s purpose as a subgenre, and the fact that it is not a function word for everyday use, it categorically endures in the slang arena.

Finally, it’s worth taking a look at some of slang terms that have gained popularity and evolved in the context of Supernatural fandom.

1. Idjit: An endearing, yet exasperated appellation.

This is originally a slang term deriving from “idiot,” and is considered an insult outside the fandom. In fact, both Scottish and Irish have a similar term, eejit (ee·jit), which is a slang term meaning idiot, simpleton, one not possessed of all their mental faculties; or one who is unable to properly conduct their own affairs. Additionally, according to Google Ngrams, this spelling of the word has been in print as early as the late nineteenth century. Some of the sample books include this slang spelling, particularly in dialogue.

Another word is gank:

   2. Gank: Refers to killing something, particularly a monster or demon.

This is another slang term that has been reappropriated to fit within the show. The more common slang definition is: “to rob or defraud (a person), or to steal (property)”. This variant of the term originates from the word “gangster,” when the pronunciation shifted to “gankster”. Interestingly, the term gank was formerly a noun, meaning “soil lying in some Veins of a very Red or Yellow colour”. This meaning is no longer in use and has no relation to the slang term.

Although these examples of slang within fandom are just a minute amount of linguistic innovation on the internet -- or even within the English language -- they are still clear examples of continuous language variations. In any living language, just as in any living being, change or variation is inevitable; these changes can take place in many forms, be it spelling, meaning, or usage, but they will certainly happen. Some people, once reaching a certain point in life, have declared themselves opposed to language change and the way English is presently evolving. These people have existed in the past, and will continue to exist in the future.

Fan culture is thriving and also has a future. As long as people enjoy things, communities will form and develop all sorts of new words in their frenzies. Our challenge to you is to see the beauty in the art of language change, and applaud online fandoms for their striking abilities to manipulate the English language in new and exciting ways.

The fact of the matter is, the internet has provided the world with a vessel in which we can explore these changes through experimentation. Being able to observe and analyze these changes is something we have never been able to do in the past at such a pace, which is very exciting. The impact this may have on the English language are presently unknown, but hopefully it will be awful.

Rupaul's Drag Race • r/rupaulsdragrace. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2017, from https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/

Blog Post ~ Phonological Change

Lily Price:

It's true that pronunciation tends to vary across the many different accents and dialects that English features, which could contribute to the supposed "messy" state of English. I would first consider, for example, how dialects change written language. As an example, the Northern, Eastern, and Southern Middle English dialects often caused a vast difference in writing that, though readers may not have recognized one dialect while were able to identify with another, was discernible enough to at least recognize different dialects and therefore impart, sometimes, socio-economic class and what such a trait would contribute to the character who spoke that dialect (in literature) (A History of the English Language, van Gelderen).

In terms of accents, it is often these variations that become most stigmatized and are accused of being related to socio-economic class when, in fact, it's not just how rich or poor someone is but rather where they grew up or have spent the most time and with who, an influence based the most on geography and community. With examples of phonological changes, there are numerous cases that have affected some of the "standard" features of English phonology: syncope has occurred with Wednesday where the 'd' is no longer pronounced though we still spell it the same with respect to Woden, the Norse god the day is named after, and in spite of many people still having to sound out the way it's spelled in order to spell it correctly; due to their French origins, many words that used to have silent 'h's in them (hospital, humor, horrible) recently have begun to be pronounced, which causes [l] in the middle of words to become silent – ‘folk’ becomes /fok/ – or change the way they’re pronounced before labial consonants – ‘wolf’ becomes /wƱf/.

Still, it’s important to recognize that it’s accents which create these variations – the pronunciation of the velarized ‘wolf,’ for example, is often attributed to African American Vernacular English and certain Southern accents. Knowing that various accents and dialects cause variation in pronunciation can help validate them and create acceptance of them, at the very least, especially in helping to eradicate discrimination and stigmas against certain groups of people, even entire regions, and ideally eliminate stereotypes in relation to language.

Thus, if anything were to contribute to language change, it seems overwhelmingly that it would be the integration of accents, and then dialects, into the language - so it may become acceptable for words affected by velarization (like the stigmatized 'wolf') to become more visible and no longer hold negative connotations. The social perceptions of those accents and dialects would then become obsolete, though realistically they might move on to target another community or region, for imperialism has historically proven to be never-ending.

But in the mean time, when faced with linguistic discrimination , "Who ya gonna call? PHONOLOGICAL BUSTERS."

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Edith Meija

Pronunciation of well

/wɛl/ /wʊl/: well

I have heard people say “well” at the beginning of a sentence sound like they are saying ‘wool’. I found this interesting and researched why people use it as a starter for a statement in the first place.

"Well" does not serve any grammatical usage in this sentence. That's because, in this context, "well" is an interjection, a word that expresses emotion. Depending on how it is enunciated, "well" could indicate impatience, surprise, nervousness, and a variety of other emotions.

However, here it seems to function as a filler, similar to "uh." It doesn't have any true meaning. People type it for the same reason as they type the interjections "oh" or "uh" - to convey emotion or to fill space while thinking of what to say.

It seems akin to an "um" or "uh", serving as a vocal void filler while the speaker collects their thoughts and puts their words together before actually speaking them. If that's the case, why do people actually type it? People clearly have time to think about what they're going to say before posting a comment on a blog or replying to an email (What, exactly, is the point of beginning a sentence with “Well…”?).

I think that people might be pronouncing it as “wool” because of the vowels in um or uh because these fillers express uncertainty or doubt most of the time. When someone is stuck on what to say next the position of the mouth might probably be in favor to the back close/near close vowels especially when the moth is open. I also ear it when news reporters switch to another reporter on the scene. "We now go to John Smith, our reporter at the scene--what's happening, there, John?" "Well, George, we're at the site of..." It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the context of doubt because people start with it in conversations, telling stories, etc.

a. Used for replying to someone when you think that there is something slightly wrong with what they have said; Well, I wouldn’t have put it quite like that.

In most sources it is described as emphasizing something, pausing(Well, let’s see now, I could meet you on Thursday.), accepting a situation, showing surprise/ anger, final remark, expressing doubt, changing something, and continuing a story.

I did not find much on how it’s pronounced and how it has evolved its vowel pronunciation. But I know in the OED there are several definitions, it is an early old English word meaning a spring of water rising from the surface of the earth. It is definitely pronounced this way in the northwest (Washington, Oregon, California etc.)

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Ezra Owen-Kloor

The letter "h" and its pronunciation has been contentious in Romance languages and English for hundreds of years. Although in modern American English the presence or absence of /h/ in pronunciation is not often a loaded or social issue, in England and even in ancient Rome people have been criticized for either including or dropping the sound.

The phone originally came into Latin from Greek through Greek colonies, and ever since this poor glottal fricative has been trouble for Romance language speakers the world over. Michael Rosen, author of Alphabetical, found in his research that in Rome /h/ insertion was considered unfashionable. Catullus, a poet writing around 50 BCE, wrote a derisive poem about a contemporary of his named Arrius (though in the poem Catullus called him Harrius) who added /h/ to words beginning with vowels, apparently because he wished to sound more Greek. Fast-forward to the the late 19th century, when the New York Times described people to dropped their /h/'s as "h-less socialists". In the interim, /h/ as been alternatingly included and omitted at various times. Currently in Britain, even the pronunciation of the letter's name ("aitch" in General American) is a source of contention. The h-less variety is considered posh and prescriptively correct, and the h-yes pronunciation is considered undesirable. In Northern England these two varieties were even associated with religion-- "aitch" was used by Protestants and "haitch" by Catholics. Using the wrong variety in this circumstance could have had greater consequences than simply not sounding posh.

H in Modern English generally fits into one of four categories: missing (able, from Latin habile), silent (heir, honour), formerly silent and now vocalized (humble, humor, herb), and unetymological.

Adding h in orthography and/or pronunciation has often been done for the sake of "etymological correctness." However, the newly h'ed form is not always closer to whatever etymon people were trying to emulate. So, in Modern English we have words that are spelled and pronounced with h that historically never were: hostage and hermit are good examples of this unetymological phenomenon.

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Kila Hogan

The traditional “ae” sound is changing. Words like “bag” and “lag” are going through a phonological shift; generally “correctly” or commonly pronounced with an “ae” sound, younger speakers of English are starting to pronounce such words with more of an “e” sound.

Nicole Rosen, a linguist in Canada, says that this change is happening much faster in urban areas, and in Calgary specifically, the change is led by young women. She points out that rural communities tend to be tight-knit, leading to less changes. According to her estimates, “bag” and “beg” will become homophones within a few generations, similar to “marry” and “merry” in many dialects.

These changes happen without us even realizing it. The Northern Cities Vowel Shift is the shift happening from about New York to Milwaukee. In an experiment done by Rice University professor Nancy Niedzielski, 50 NCS speakers were exposed to a recording of a Michigan native pronouncing the word “bag”. However, none of the 50 participants said that that person sounded like they were speaking the way someone from the NCS area would. Dennis Preston, a linguist at Oklahoma State University, hypothesized that this is because people believe they speak “normally,” and reject being told that they are different.

And this could very possibly be true. We subconsciously judge people based on their pronunciations of words, but it can be a totally different story to turn that scope in on ourselves. And so maybe next time you are at the grocery store, you can listen to the cashier ask you “would you like a bag?” and  be able  to notice the similarities and differences with your own pronunciation, and what that might mean.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/why-bag-and-beg-are-starting-to-sound-the-same-and-calgary-is-an-epicentre-for-linguistic-shifts

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2012/08/northern_cities_vowel_shift_how_americans_in_the_great_lakes_region_are_revolutionizing_english_.html

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Elizabeth Rimar

Phonological Change occurs on a scale that is impacted by the diversity in peoples and languages they use. It is important to look into pronunciation, sound, and change and the social attitudes that arise alongside changes. English in its various forms is a treasure trove of phonological change, and American English is a form that holds tons of variation as well.

A particular place to look for phonological change and its influence is in features of English language and Creoles used in Southeastern United States. An instance of distinct Pronunciation feature in regions of Southern United States English, known as Southern American English, is non-rhoticity.    Rhoticity is the pronunciation of /r/ in a word. (Ex. 1) A rhotic-speaker might say, “Dear old Sally is comin’ over.””dear =/ dɪr/; over= /ˈoʊvər/”.

A non-rhotic speaker might say, “Dear old Sally is comin’ over.” “dear= /dıə/ ; over= /oʊvə/”.

Rhoticity is part of a Phonological feature of various pronunciations in Southern English and works into the picture of what a “Southern Drawl” could sound like. The phenomenon of a drawl is also a feature of Phonological change; its impact on sound, variation, and social spheres makes for a fascinating research project.

Another feature in Southern American English variations is vowel change at the end of certain words with long /o/, that is also a phonetic element of Appalachian English.

(Ex.2) Considering long /o/; words /potato/, /tomato/ may be pronounced /tater/, /tomater/.

+note+ Words with long /o/, like /cameo/ or /patio/ may have different pronunciation rules by speaker or community.

A third example of a phonological feature variation is the pronunciation of /well/.

(Ex. 3) Some General American English pronunciations of “well” may include /wʊl/;/wɛl/.Some pronunciations in Southern American English variations could have in internal glide such as /weːɪl/, or /wejəl/. This is associated with vowels inside the word.

+A note on accent and social attitudes+

Appropriation is not synonymous with appreciation! To appropriate, in this case, is to change a feature into a trend, joke, or style that could possibly diminish people associated with the usage of a social feature. Making fun of accents can be easy to do, but it is damaging as well. In many cases, such as Southern American English, the speech and its styles can be associated with class working systems as well as ethnic or racial identity. People speak with generalized and specific “Southern Accents”, and communities have variations of speech and language that are closely tied in to lifestyle systems into the present. Some speakers who may seem to use phonological features in a speech system may be speaking Creoles or Dialects of English. People who use American Sign Language may also utilize distinct features inside a regional dialect. Confusing speech or sound pattern features in accents inside a region such as the American South is not usually meant to be a direct jab at the users; yet if a particular accent is negatively associated with a social stereotype it could become a mockery. Standardization of accent is a current social issue that impacts media and broadcast communication. Like in showbiz, a “more general American” accent might be preferred--speech experts may be called in to coach the person “out” of an accent. When is it okay to “have” versus “lack” an accent? Will it impact the future of communication and social media?

It is important to understand the features that show the changes in phonology of language to understand the values of language diversity.

+Further Reading

dialectblog.com

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_American_English

www.atlas.mouton-content.com

+Sources & References:

van Gelderen, A History of the English Language

David Graddol, Dick Leith, and Joan Swann. English history, diversity and change

Ethnologue online

Oxford English Dictionary online

American Heritage Dictionary online

438 ENG Class Materials