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| Image credit: Lilian Hill |
By Lilian H. Hill
Some words are unique to regional culture, foods, and traditions. Language use can also be understood as an indicator of race, ethnicity, social class, and immigration status. While this can contribute to social disparities, the continuous integration of immigrants and their families contributes to a vibrant, ever-changing culture, and a varied lexicon or vocabulary (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015). The process of immigration takes time and can be considered a two-way street in that it offers benefits to immigrants and the people of the country.
People who come to the U.S. from other countries will have an accent as will people who move from one region of the U.S. to another. Keep in mind that it is easy to believe that the way you speak is “normal” and that only other people have accents. The truth is that we all will have an accent when away from home, and some people who learned a second, third, or fourth language after the age of 12-14 will always have an accent in the newly acquired language. If they remain away from their place of origin for a significant length of time, they may develop an accent in their first language, too, because our speech is influenced by where we live.
It can be very frustrating to be asked where you are from, when returning to where you feel is home! This can even happen within a single language. I have lived in the southeastern U.S. for more than 39 years, and when I return home to English-speaking parts of Canada I am often asked where I am from. However, I retain some Canadian speech habits so in the South I am also asked where I am from. People can overcome accents with intensive speech therapy and coaching; however, this choice tends to be made by people who are very self-conscious.
Different cultural traditions within the country will have specific vocabulary and habits of speaking. While it is easy to make negative judgments when you hear someone speaking differently than you; in fact, different speaking traditions have their own vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation. In other words, they are recognized as languages. Your employer will want you to speak, read, and write Standard English, even if you may speak very differently among your friends and family.
Unfortunately, because of racism and discrimination, only some people are asked to “code-switch” from one tradition of speaking at home to Standard English at college or work. Code-switching refers to altering your speech style including its volume, speed, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar as a way of fitting in. This can be accompanied by changing appearance, clothing styles, expression, and even body language to make other people feel more comfortable, counter common stereotypes, and gain employment (McLuney et al., 2019).
Creating New Words
Everyone creates new words and phrases (Anderson, 2018; Boyle, 2019). Several processes are involved:
- Loanwords: borrowing words from other languages.
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Compound words: combining words to
make a new one (heart + broken = heartbroken; sand + castle - sandcastle).
- Formation: combining words but
letting parts drop off (e.g., sleazy – y = sleaze; dork + adorable = adorkable).
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Repurposing: Taking a word from
one context and applying it to a different one. For example, the crane, a
long-necked bird, lent its name to mean a large lifting machine.
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Conversion: changing a word’s
function from one part of speech to another (having a friend [noun] but also
friending [verb] someone on Facebook).
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Derivation: adding prefixes or
suffixes, e.g., preteen, hyperlink.
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Eponyms, meaning a name or
place becomes the common description, e.g., sandwich named for the Earl of
Sandwich or Kleenex instead of facial tissue.
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Abbreviations and
acronyms
(e.g., ICYMI stands for “In case you missed it.”).
- Nonce words: words taken out of the air (e.g., bling (source unknown), or “on fleek,” coined by celebrity Kayla Newman.
Sometimes the meaning of a word changes altogether. For example, the word “nice” was used between 1300-1600 to mean silly, foolish, or ignorant. Then it acquired the meaning of meticulous, attentive, or sharp, while since the 18th century, it has been used to mean agreeable and pleasant (Herman, 2015).
It also means that you can create a word that may end up in a dictionary if enough other people start using your word.
- Creating new words
allows you to convey specific meaning and express your creativity. New words
attract your listeners or readers’ attention and help them focus on your
meaning. For your new word to become recognized, other people must adopt and
use it, so that the new word spreads.
- Some authors create new languages and when the books
become extremely popular, some of that language enters common vocabulary.
Think of the invented game called Quidditch from the Harry Potter
books written by J. K. Rowling or the species called Orcs from Lord of the
Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
- New words are created to describe new experiences. Some
of these experiences are the result of technological innovation. For
example, the word telephone comes from tele, meaning far away, and phon,
meaning sound. In other words, telephone is a compound word made up of two
root words. Television, smartphones, and email are similar examples.
- Our impatient world is always looking for speed and
efficiency, so words are often shortened. So, phone is short for
telephone, personal computers are called PCs or Apples, computer
applications are known as apps, and so on.
- To meet length limitations. For example, texting and tweets restrict the number of characters that can be used. This prompted the use of single characters used in place of words (R U ready?) and more extensive use of acronyms that then entered our spoken vocabulary.
This continual process of language reinvention will result in many new words being invented within our lifetime. Some other words will not be used as often and will fade away.
