“People have always complained about the kids’ use of language,” Tagliamonte wrote, “but there are never going to be any changes in language, made voluntarily, that impede understanding.” According to Syracuse University’s Robert Thompson, “Even the ancient Greeks abhorred what they saw as the youthful degradation of their language. It’s called ‘colloquialization.’” And Tagliamonte added, “We’re using written language much more informally than before. Writing in general is becoming more colloquial and has been … since the 1950s.”
How come colloquialism’s ruled since I was born, yet I’m increasingly out of touch with the adoption of new words? When did cutting edge become curmudgeonly? Who can say since the origins of “curmudgeon” itself are shrouded in mystery. RandomHouse.com defines “curmudgeon” as “a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person,” and its “Word of the Day” feature lists some possible sources for the term. In 1600, Philemon Holland translated Livy’s “History of Rome,” and as a witticism Holland turned the Latin “frumentarius” (corn dealer) into “cornmudgeon,” with “-mudgeon” arising from the Middle English term “muchen,” (to steal). Holland’s jest was taken as genuine by etymologists for four centuries.
Samuel “Dictionary” Johnson defined curmudgeon’s origins in 1755 as a mispronunciation of “Coeur mechant, Fr. An unknown correspondent.” Generations of subsequent lexicographers mistook Johnson’s “Fr.” to mean “French,” and in that language “coeur” means “heart” and “mechant” means “bad.” However, Johnson meant only that he’d heard this explanation from “an unknown correspondent.”
My heart’s been good since the doctor’s worked on it a few years ago, but I do seem prone toward cantankerousness these days, like when I encountered a heart symbol among the Oxford Dictionary Online’s newly added words. Adding slang terms like “La-la land,” “OMG,” “LOL” (“laughing out loud”), and even “wassup” didn’t particularly bother me, but Oxford’s inclusion of “♥” (to heart) did push some buttons. It’s used for the famous “I ♥ New York” tourism campaign, but Oxford’s first evidence in print was a 1984 bumper sticker, “I ♥ My Dog’s Head,” written in response to a popular line of stickers featuring ♥s and pictures of the head of a favored dog breed.
George Orwell, who authored “1984,” didn’t specifically mention the ♥ in his 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language,” that decried “the abuse of language by politicians and the media,” but he might have, had it been invented then. His essay listed five rules for effective written communication: “Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print; Never use a long word where a short one will do; If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out; Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent;” and, best of all, “Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”
Although repeating that felt good, a recent Mobiledia.com (“News and Insights on Mobile Technology”) article by Margaret Rock reports on studies by Mexico City’s Institute of Anthropological Research on how young people in southern Chile are reviving Huilliche, a nearly extinct language, by using it in hip-hop videos posted on YouTube.com. It’s also a fad in the Philippines for teens to text each other in the endangered Kapampangan and Huave languages, since their parents have forgotten it.
Like wise old Cervantes said, “By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom.”
Greg Hill is director of Fairbanks North Star Borough libraries.
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