Slang-a-lang-a-ding-dong

There are four essays on slang words in Geoffrey Nunberg's The Way We Talk Now: "An Interjection for the Age", on buzz words; "Generation Z and Counting," on when people use slang; "The Decline of Slang," on the history of some slang terms, and "The Rebirth of Cool," on how slang has been used. I have decided to talk about all of these in two posts for two reasons:1) they are interrelated, and I am always in search of literary brevity (sadly it eludes me often, see other posts in this blog for proof of same), and 2) I have not had opportunity to post in a few weeks, and thought I would "catch up" a bit with this one.

The first one, "Interjection," began with a discussion of a generational shift in slang interjections. Most people under 30 for at least a portion of the 1990's is familiar with the term "whatever," which Nunberg describes as "the signal [of] your sublime indifference to what your interlocutor is trying to say to you." (p.27) Nunberg was not aware of the hand-signal that went with it, though, as those of us who have seen Clueless (Amy Heckerling's send-up of Jane Austen's Emma) no doubt were. He goes on to talk about the ages of interjective slang: the 50's had solid, the 60's had far out, and the 70's had "yo!" He argued that "whatever" lacked warmth, and was the sign of a disaffected adolescent tendency which is often associated with us Gen-X'ers. To this, I have to say, he has a point. There are a lot of people in my generation who have little going on in the belfry that I would call deep, and those same folks have some amazing apathy. BUT (*author about to preach, you have been warned*) I will take my generations general ennui over Generation Y and M's utter self-centeredness and learned helplessness any day of the disaffected week. We make ourselves miserable with apathy, but do not try to harm or annoy others.
I digress. My younger sisters, who are both in their early 20's and part of this generation, are not like this, although they do use the "whatever," moreso than I do. But it raises an interesting question -- what do our slang choices say about us? And what would you think of my Gramma, who would have been 86 last week, who was fond of saying, "whatever blows your skirt up?"

Generation Z and Counting

This piece was an insightful essay on how modern slang is being used to sell itself back to the young people that originally used it. Marketing nowadays is so aimed at the 15 to 39 age group, with a heavy emphasis on the lower end of that clump, that, argues Nunberg, "you can still find people who deplore the way kids dress and talk nowadays, but it's a safe bet they don't work for Ford or Nike or the Gap. " So I decided to conduct a little experiment -- I watched television for ten minutes, or two commercial breaks, and counted the slang terms used.
Terms I might consider slang include: (slang in this case meaning they make sense to an English speaker who lives in the culture they are used, but would confuse in translation)
Look out: as in step aside world, here I come -- selling RA medication
showing someone the moves: selling laser levels
"it" -- whatever it is, get it on e-bay
beats all you ever saw : meaning the best ever, from the Dukes of Hazzard theme, used to sell ring tones
right -- used as a repetitive affirmation, US cellular
that's (y)our thing : UPS
Baby, I love your way : Wendy's new order how you like it system

Now, I was watching Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl on TNT late at night -- so the demographic for these commercials was decidedly older. So I decided to torture myself a bit and watch programming aimed at tweens and teens. The difference is noted; slang is used in nearly every commercial, and on Comedy Central, often the programs use bleeped expletives. I don't watch a lot of this because if the TV is on during the day, my 3-year-old is around.

More than this, a more learned student of psychology would probably explore the idea that having so much aimed at this demographic -- the members of which are not all what society considers mature as yet -- is influencing more than consumerism. Consider the dilemma we have in the classroom with Generation M -- the "gotta have it my way, and gotta have it now" kid who openly thumb their nose at authority, citing their "rights." Are we going to end up teaching all of them and their progeny English as a kind of second language?
Like, I hope not. What- ever.

Deep Thoughts: From the Fuzzy Memories Series

With apologies to Jack Handy....

Once a flee wys stukke yn the ful hare vf my scool techre. We laghed ys she tryd to bat it. At last I biseched all, "no more bug murthre!" and I cutt her hare uff. An "a" that gaer was deffended me.

Now, in modern English:

Once a fly got stuck in the hair of my teacher. My class laughed as she tried to bat it away from her. At last I begged her, "no more bug toture!" And I cut off all her hair. I was denied an "A" that year.

Based on a true story, all but the abrupt haircut part.