'Yo' 'Son' and other Slang terms (Curses included)

[DarkElf27]

To be honest, I think rap has a significant impact on it. Think about it; horrible grammar, lots of slang, swearing, and in the public spotlight? Lands squarely on rap.  

[Shrocomemos]

DarkElf27

To be honest, I think rap has a significant impact on it. Think about it; horrible grammar, lots of slang, swearing, and in the public spotlight? Lands squarely on rap.

Also, since it's catchy, kids learn the words and start singing the songs all the time. 3nodding

 

[[Amonie]]

Shrocomemos

Excuse my ignorance, but what's Ebonics?

Basically it's a dialect typically used by 'black people'.

For example:

Fo'shizzle.

Is Ebonics. It may not be a language of its own, but it;'s a dialect and therefore is not wrong.
 

[NighthawkMS]

Personally, I'd have to agree with a lot of what is said here. However, I know I go into a slangish speech when I'm conversing with friends in a lighthearted manner, but I personally hate rap music as it currently is made today. I think some of the problem is that the media in general has latched onto this as a hip way to attract younger people. For instance, I just saw a PSP commercial that used this type of grammar, and while it annoys me, I can see how others would enjoy it, as something they can relate to in their personal teenage world. I think that the school system in general has allowed it to happen, either through not caring too much about it or fear of being seen as too strict.  

[Shrocomemos]

[Amonie]

Shrocomemos

Excuse my ignorance, but what's Ebonics?

Basically it's a dialect typically used by 'black people'.

For example:

Fo'shizzle.

Is Ebonics. It may not be a language of its own, but it;'s a dialect and therefore is not wrong.

Ah. Thanks.

 

[Mutturqueen]

Shrocomemos

[Amonie]

His point with the school work is that they're going for quantity over quality. In other words it's not effectively instructing students on how NOT to ******** up a language.

Apparently it's 'cool' to speak like that in some places. I've been in areas where people have actually made me the target of their idiocy (they were making fun of me) just because I can speak proper english. Though that's not how they saw it.

You do have to be fair when it comes to some things. For example, Ebonics. You can't tell somebody who speaks Ebonics that they suck at english. Because it's Ebonics, it's different. Though some people of non Ebonics-based heritage find it cool, so they adjust their own lives to speak that way. Which confuses me.

To each their own I suppose.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's Ebonics?

I also use slang a lot, but just around my friends because it's fun to say. Like when literate people start using n00b talk purely for the fun of it. I'll also use 'baka' a lot because then I can insult someone and they won't know it. whee Except, my friend started shouting it at people once and pronouncing it totally wrong. I was so embarrassed. >.< Especially after I learned that it can mean more than just 'idiot'.

Ebonics is kinda like the nice way to say "black talk". Like, in the bible, Jesus says, "I be he." That would be ebonics.  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

I see "Ebonics" as the corruption of the English language, nothing else. The PC liberals can dress it up as a "dialect" or the "evolution of the language", but the bottom line is it differs too much from proper English and trashes the rules of grammar too much to be a dialect.

A true dialect such as the Southern drawl comes from being isolated in a part of the country, picking up that dialect from one's parents, peers, teachers, etc., until the dialect is part of the culture. It's a natural evolution. Ebonics was created in the modern world to give black people a "separate identity", so they wouldn't have to talk the way "whitey" does.

This isn't intended to be a swipe at a race or a culture. I'm the furthest thing from a racist, but when I see my language being trashed in popular culture as the English language is, I will point my finger at a source of blame. I do blame so-called Ebonics and pop culture that makes it seem stuck up to use proper grammar. It's not stuck up. It's intellectual.

If being intellectual and literate gets me labeled as "stuck up", then so be it.  

[Melchom]

I agree with a lot of what I'm hearing. I think the media (Rap, etc) Is mainly to blame but it's really the childs fault, it's their choice to listen to it. I know kids who listen to music and I tried to listen in a bit and basicly it was a guy saying his gun was his friend and he shoots people...heh? I didn't understand why anyone would listen to it.  

[Sachiko13]

Melchom

I agree with a lot of what I'm hearing. I think the media (Rap, etc) Is mainly to blame but it's really the childs fault, it's their choice to listen to it. I know kids who listen to music and I tried to listen in a bit and basicly it was a guy saying his gun was his friend and he shoots people...heh? I didn't understand why anyone would listen to it.

basically, because it's really catchy. i personally don't believe the music is to blame-i listen to it myself, and am able to speak perfectly. then again, i enjoy reading books published when my mom was a kid, so that really helps my grammar and spelling. it is impossible to be a member of my family and not love to read. i frequently get annoyed when a really good book is only about 100 pages long, because i end up taking only half an hour to read it, and then am bored (this may be why i love Harry Potter and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. they're really long.)  

[Dasaretba]

This is something I've had a number of arguments about, and had those with PhD's agree with me while those of lesser standing than that tend to disagree (and, being unlettered, I have only my own experiences to draw upon).

Slang is necessary to keep a language living. While there are acceptable limits to slang that are, in fact, well-defined from a linguistic standpoint--and which differentiate "slang" from "dialect". Ebonics, cockney, Amerang, Queen's English, Aussie, and Pidgin are all dialects of English. Words like "yo" are derivative of English, and the word "yo" in particular is a derivation of "hey-ho" which is in itself slang.

It should be noted that William Shakespeare himself used some 150 new words in his plays and sonnets, which do not appear in printed form prior to his use, but which are based in the same Latin and Greek roots that English is based in, using the same roots with the same meanings that they had in other words. As such, the meanings were almost instantly recognizeable by common speakers of the day, though the words themselves had not been heard before.

Slang is not a problem to me; however, I will agree that it is overused and that people should learn the proper use of English if they are going to be expected to speak it. The same is true of French, Russian, German, Icelandic... pretty much any language out there except the dead ones.

And even then, proper grammatical structure and the use of accepted terminology is pretty much the key to being understood.

And here we come into a nice little section on how biology affects language. Apologies in advance to anyone who thinks I'm sounding sexist, but these are based on nothing more than my own observations over the past 17 or so years of studying English in the US:

1) Females of the human species tend to adapt slang more readily than us males do.

2) Males tend to cling to the definitions of words far more than females do.

3) Teens tend to use exclusionary tactics as they break away from overly-domineering parents, and so adapt to slang far more readily than adults do.

With these three facts, I have found that this fits in perfectly with animal behavior in nature. Primarily, the following:

A) Females of any species (us humans included) tend to try to limit the number of partners they have at a subconscious level. Women pit men against each other and drive us to either excel or fail. This appears to be true of all animal species including humans.

B) Males of any species tend to adapt to the wishes of the females, becoming what they want or need so that they can "prove" that they are the correct genetic material to make offspring.

C) The young of all mammals (humans included) tend to try to leave the care of the parents as quickly as possible, to the point that some (most notably, bears) will actually attack their parents and either be driven off or drive their parents off.

Interesting, eh?

Last point, I promise, as I know this post is a lengthy one:

When we try to analyze the behavior of any group of people, we fall into patterns of behavior. I ran into a document one time from Ancient Greece, from around 500 BCE (2,500 years or so ago), which says that children lack basic morality, showing as proof that their music was too wild, their hair was too long, they lacked respect of their elders, their speech was full of contradictory euphamisms, and they dressed far too immodestly. And this from toga-wearing philosophers. We should learn to accept that things are different, and that they will be. That which adapts and changes survives; that which does not dies.  

[lola_siannodel]

Dasaretba

This is something I've had a number of arguments about, and had those with PhD's agree with me while those of lesser standing than that tend to disagree (and, being unlettered, I have only my own experiences to draw upon).

Slang is necessary to keep a language living. While there are acceptable limits to slang that are, in fact, well-defined from a linguistic standpoint--and which differentiate "slang" from "dialect". Ebonics, cockney, Amerang, Queen's English, Aussie, and Pidgin are all dialects of English. Words like "yo" are derivative of English, and the word "yo" in particular is a derivation of "hey-ho" which is in itself slang.

It should be noted that William Shakespeare himself used some 150 new words in his plays and sonnets, which do not appear in printed form prior to his use, but which are based in the same Latin and Greek roots that English is based in, using the same roots with the same meanings that they had in other words. As such, the meanings were almost instantly recognizeable by common speakers of the day, though the words themselves had not been heard before.

Slang is not a problem to me; however, I will agree that it is overused and that people should learn the proper use of English if they are going to be expected to speak it. The same is true of French, Russian, German, Icelandic... pretty much any language out there except the dead ones.

And even then, proper grammatical structure and the use of accepted terminology is pretty much the key to being understood.

And here we come into a nice little section on how biology affects language. Apologies in advance to anyone who thinks I'm sounding sexist, but these are based on nothing more than my own observations over the past 17 or so years of studying English in the US:

1) Females of the human species tend to adapt slang more readily than us males do.

2) Males tend to cling to the definitions of words far more than females do.

3) Teens tend to use exclusionary tactics as they break away from overly-domineering parents, and so adapt to slang far more readily than adults do.

With these three facts, I have found that this fits in perfectly with animal behavior in nature. Primarily, the following:

A) Females of any species (us humans included) tend to try to limit the number of partners they have at a subconscious level. Women pit men against each other and drive us to either excel or fail. This appears to be true of all animal species including humans.

B) Males of any species tend to adapt to the wishes of the females, becoming what they want or need so that they can "prove" that they are the correct genetic material to make offspring.

C) The young of all mammals (humans included) tend to try to leave the care of the parents as quickly as possible, to the point that some (most notably, bears) will actually attack their parents and either be driven off or drive their parents off.

Interesting, eh?

Last point, I promise, as I know this post is a lengthy one:

When we try to analyze the behavior of any group of people, we fall into patterns of behavior. I ran into a document one time from Ancient Greece, from around 500 BCE (2,500 years or so ago), which says that children lack basic morality, showing as proof that their music was too wild, their hair was too long, they lacked respect of their elders, their speech was full of contradictory euphamisms, and they dressed far too immodestly. And this from toga-wearing philosophers. We should learn to accept that things are different, and that they will be. That which adapts and changes survives; that which does not dies.

Hmmm. Interesting. I don't think slang is so bad, but it does get over used. Most of the slang I used are kinda like insdie jokes, but not really. Like only certain people know it. Of course, that has more do to with cliques. For example, me and alot of the people I hang around use words such as "Smexy", or may ven use words that are either Japanese or rooted from it, like "Otaku". If you used, let's say, the word "Yaoi" to someone who's not an anime fan and do not hang around anime fans, they would probobly have no idea what it means. Of course, most teenagers (And by the way, the teenager thing in your little speech doesn't surprise me. Also, we want to fit with peers and copy our role models who use slang) use words such as "Ho", for they are usualy more into media (Shows, music, ext) that uses words like that. Sometimes, it does get annoying when someone uses the word "Yo" 50 times in one sentence. Usualy when I say a slang word that I'm used to, people go "Huh?" and then, usualy noticing that it's Japanese, will make a bunch of comments about it.  

[Wallpaint]

Dag yo, you all be trippin' ebonics is a vital part of the african culture...

Although, I am about the whitest person on the planet... so I only use ebonics around my friends when I feel like acting like an idiot.

Personally I use way too much slang, and swear like a sailor yet i don't listen to rap music or hip hop. Music can be a huge part of the way people choose to use which words they do, but on the other hand they don't have to use the word if they don't damn well mean to.


Oh... I think the downfall of language is SMS talk, or TXT TLK. God damn teenagers and their unwillingness to use vowels. WE HAVE VOWELS FOR A REASON! son of a b***h  

[lola_siannodel]

Wallpaint

Dag yo, you all be trippin' ebonics is a vital part of the african culture...

Although, I am about the whitest person on the planet... so I only use ebonics around my friends when I feel like acting like an idiot.

Personally I use way too much slang, and swear like a sailor yet i don't listen to rap music or hip hop. Music can be a huge part of the way people choose to use which words they do, but on the other hand they don't have to use the word if they don't damn well mean to.


Oh... I think the downfall of language is SMS talk, or TXT TLK. God damn teenagers and their unwillingness to use vowels. WE HAVE VOWELS FOR A REASON! son of a b***h

Alot of the text talk comes from chat rooms, I mean reall chat rooms, where you have to shorten your words in order to talk to everyone else. The first time I went into a chat room, I couldn't type fast enough, so I was pretty much ignored. That's why I like forums beter. I can be literate without having to worry about them talking about something else while I'm typing.  

[Bistrae]

I found this quote whilst browsing on the WOTC forums.
"'[F]o shizzle ma nizzle' is a bastardization of '[F]o' sheezy mah neezy' which is a bastardization of '[F]or sure mah *****' which is a bastdardization of "I concur with you whole[-]heartedly my African [A]merican brother[.]"
It apparently came from the AIM profile of cheeZe477.
Anyway, I greatly dislike people who use that type of slang, who constantly attempt to verbally abuse me.
In their jock(y) ways, they constantly ask me, "Do you like girls?"
I once replied, "I am heterosexual."
They replied, "So you're gay, right?"
Ergh.  

[lola_siannodel]

EonOmega

I found this quote whilst browsing on the WOTC forums.
"'[F]o shizzle ma nizzle' is a bastardization of '[F]o' sheezy mah neezy' which is a bastardization of '[F]or sure mah *****' which is a bastdardization of "I concur with you whole[-]heartedly my African [A]merican brother[.]"
It apparently came from the AIM profile of cheeZe477.
Anyway, I greatly dislike people who use that type of slang, who constantly attempt to verbally abuse me.
In their jock(y) ways, they constantly ask me, "Do you like girls?"
I once replied, "I am heterosexual."
They replied, "So you're gay, right?"
Ergh.

Ha ha ha. Yes. People's brains have been rotting away lately.