Larpers and Shroomers
Are you aware of your latte factor? Have you been reading a dodgy dossier? Do you enjoy Google bombing, bookcrossing or flash mobbing? Do you know any retrosexual men?
In larpers and shroomers: the language report, Countdown's Susie Dent chronicles our shape-shifting language, focusing particularly on what's new for 2004. She draws together highlights from the language of politics, TV, and chat rooms, and charts the new trends in grammar, pronunciation, and punctuation.
Here, Susie Dent answers some of our questions about her new book.
Q: What has been your most surprising discovery about the English language in 2004?
A: English surprises all the time. It is the fastest-moving language in the world, and its ability to adapt to fit our new experiences is often astounding. As far as very recent developments are concerned, I think the most unexpected for me was more to do with our view of language than any single linguistic change itself. There has been a marked return to a desire for rules - in punctuation and grammar particularly - and for the equivalent in language of 'firm government'.
For me, the most important rule is that we need to get our message across and to be understood, and that doesn't always mean adhering to strict principles of usage. I'm also not convinced that a golden age, where rules were rules, ever really existed: every age has had its linguistic controversies. The way we use language is in fact remarkably circular: ain't used to be a word of royalty, and in the 18th century it was correct to say you was rather than you were. The same principle is in my view true of punctuation: as long as it is used positively, and communicates effectively, it is doing its job.
Q: What is the big buzzword of the moment?
A: I think it has to be chav, even though it's a word I personally dislike. It has become one of a whole variety of class-conscious labels to have emerged in the 2000s, alongside the adjective 'council' to describe anything working class and the equivalent of the American term 'trailer trash'. I think 'chav' might well provide a good example of how language evolves, and would not be surprised if in a few months' time it has become more positive a label than negative, particularly in relation to fashion.
Q: Many of your references about new words come from chat-rooms - is that where a lot of new words originate?
A: Chat-room language, like SMS or text language, is still at an early stage in its revolution. Nonetheless it is already making its mark and, as is the case with most of our new virtual worlds, shows a lot of linguistic creativity. Language play, particularly in real-time chat-room conversation, is routine, and whole new 'languages' such as leetspeak have emerged which operate as a code to be used between members and those in the know.
Aside from the conventions used within chat rooms - highly abbreviated language and a disregard for standard punctuation (with at the same time an excessive use of some forms of it, such as !!!! or ????) - many new words have emerged to describe chat-room users themselves. Lurkers, newbies, regs, flamers, and lamers are all labels for a certain kind of chat-room participant.
Q: Are there any areas of language that seem to be moving faster than others?
A: Language inevitably reflects what is happening around us, and it is as influenced by trends and fashions as every other aspect of our lives. So alternative health and sport, food, and computing are evolving particularly quickly at the moment. In the case of health and food, many of the new terms coming into English have been assimilated from other languages: mallakhamb, a form of yoga which has come across from India, performed on a rope against a clock, and nigiri sushi, a recent Japanese import of pieces of sashimi served on a bed of rice, are two nice cases in point.
Q: Has the Internet transformed the way you can now monitor language?
A: Certainly for me, in researching the book, the Internet was invaluable. A quick search online can provide immediate evidence of how widespread a new word is, of its geographical distribution, and of all the contexts in which it is used. This is particularly true for slang and other areas of informal language, which are not easily picked up elsewhere - words which are bubbling under the surface can be tracked in ways which weren't available to us before now. The primary research tool for larpers and shroomers, however, was Oxford's language monitoring programme, which is continuously tracking our language and which provided concrete and hugely varied evidence of how it is being used.
Q: Do you have a favourite word (or favourite new word)?
A: There are lots! Some of the new slang terms are particularly fun: a pash for a kiss (and a pash and dash for a kiss and run, for example, or co-inkydinky for a coincidence. There are also hundreds of examples of the versatility of English and our creativity with it - buttlegging (the smuggling of cigarettes), frankenboo (an ugly boy- or girlfriend), and retrosexual (someone who cares nothing for their appearance, in a backlash against metrosexuals) are all terms which take a bit of the old and build on it. Probably my favourite word of the moment is shibby, which is used in so many different ways that it becomes as individual as the person who uses it: the one constant being its use as a term of approval, meaning 'excellent' or 'cool'. It can be a noun, adjective, verb: almost whatever you want it to be in fact.
Q: What is your biggest language bugbear?
A: I'm not alone in this, but my biggest pet hate is the use of 'less' in front of a plural noun instead of 'fewer'. 'Less' is now becoming quite commonplace ('less people', 'less items'), but it still rankles every time.
Q: Finally, you are best known for your appearances on Countdown. Have you ever made a mistake while in Dictionary Corner?
A: Too many to mention I'm afraid! We have exactly the same amount of time as the contestants to come up with the longest word we can from the random selection of letters, and to look up words which are offered by the contestants. We also don't use any computers. Mistakes do happen as a result, and range from seeing letters which aren't there, to laughing out loud when you're caught out by a complicated definition or by something horribly unpronounceable. In some ways I think that's the beauty of Countdown: it's a very simple, honest show and the occasional spot of fallibility isn't always a bad thing. At least I hope not!
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LARPer noun (from 'Live Action Role Playing') a person who re-enacts fantasy scenarios by dressing up and assuming character roles.
shroomer noun a person who takes hallucinogenic ('magic') mushrooms.
Chav
The precise origin of chav is a matter of debate, but most people agree on its geography, namely that it probably began in Chatham, Kent, where it was best known until it gained its recent high profile. It seems that the word itself began as a derogatory label for an older underclass, gypsies, many of whom have lived in that area for generations. Language expert Michael Quinion surmises that chav may well come from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. Later in the same century it was apparently used as an insult to an adult man, after which it fell into obscurity before its revival today. - Susie Dent, larpers and shroomers
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Susie Dent
18/10/2004
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