. Language and slang
The people I went to school with went to school in English. There was a chance to learn some French from grade 4 and there were entire classes of French language instruction in high school. However my cohort did not have public school chances to learn German, Spanish, Italian , Russian or Chinese. Kids who wanted to learn those other languages often learned them at home and in community settings like Hebrew school or Chinese language school. I always admired communities that prioritize having their kids keep the maternal tongue but who also enable them to learn the one that is dominant in their new community.
Most of those in my cohort spoke English well. In fact my cohort born in 1949 or so in Calgary often had had intense exposure to English from birth. We were bathed in it even in our lullabies and nursery rhymes.
What is interesting to notice though is that our parents did not just teach us songs of the 1950s They sang to us songs of their generation and even of their parents’ generation when we were babies. There seems a cultural bridge that links in that way what was done before with what is done for generations after. The common lullabies of the 1950s are often the same ones I sang to my own kids 25 years later. This means that language in lullabies is a powerful way that cultures are transmitted, that emotional reassurance is given and that a given language is made to sound very familiar to the ear of the young.
Here are some of the lullabies my parents likely sang to me. How do I know this? I remember them. They all sound very familiar. It is astounding how old these are.
1580 – Ding Dong Bell
1609 – Three blind mice
1642 – The grand old duke of York
1685 – Simple Simon
1728 – This little piggy
1744- Hickory Dickory Dock
1784 – Bye bye baby bunting
1785 – Rock a bye baby
1848 – All things Bright and beautiful
1850 – All the pretty little horses
1852 – Row row row your boat
1868 – Brahm’s Lullaby- Lullaby and good night
1870 – This old man
1907 – The Teddy Bear’s Picnic
1910 – Eeensy weensy spider
1913 – Danny boy
1913 – Too ra loo ra loo ra
1933 – I’m Popeye the sailor man
1935 – Animal crackers in my soup
1939 – When you wish upon a star
1939 – You are my sunshine
1940 – Give a little whistle
1940 – When you wish upon a star
1944 – Swinging on a star
1946 – Zip a dee do dah
1950 – Me and my Teddy Bear
1955 – Close your Eyes
1957 – Catch a falling star
1957 – Dream a little dream
Our parents’ language reflected their background. My dad was from a farming community in Saskatchewan and his mother was from Vermont. It is interesting to notice how many of his expressions actually are from those roots.
He’s knee high to a grasshopper, whoa Nellie, slow as molasses going uphill in January,
Hubba hubba, hit the hay, go to the hoosegow, make tracks, knock you into the middle of next week, hard row to hoe
Many of the parents in my cohort were from Saskatchewan as it turned out and a lot had been in the military. Their language was playful, full of metaphors, creative.
When we were young we were learning the language not creating it. The slang of the 1950s, however famous and nostalgic for some, was not our slang. It was for people who were teens and young adults then. We heard it in songs, heard of it in movies but I don’t think many of us used it.
Knuckle sandwich (punch in the face), bread (money), daddy-o (friend), the heat (police) my pad (home), split the scene (get out of here) square (boring) dig it ( like it) out of sight( amazing), wear threads, flip your lid, dream boat, wet rage, party pooper, drag race
But in the 60s we teens of course wanted to put our own mark on the language. We were influenced by songs, TV shows, movies and our role model actors and entertainers.
Slang is fascinating because using an expression marks a person as wanting to identify a certain way. You join a social group using some expressions, The hippie culture was not one we moved into when we were eleven for instance but might have been one some of us tried out when we were seventeen. This means that the expressions of the era were not all adopted by all of us. But some were:
Right on ( I agree), let’s jet (leave), grungy (shabby), cool ( good), don’t bug me, the boob tube, wear flip flops , the fuzz( police), a gig (job), lame ( disappointing), rap ( chat), shades (sunglasses) zits (pimples), don’t flip your wig (don’t get upset), don’t hog the road, lay it on me ( tell me), stuck up (conceited) ticked off (angry), uptight ( tense)far out, bummer, sock it to me, marvy, groovy, catch some rays, copasetic, crash here, be hip,
There are some odd things about slang. One is that the origin is not always easy to trace . Another is that the way it spreads is also mysterious. Word of mouth is of course the main means but people do choose who to imitate. Some expressions catch on and last for decades and others die a quick death. It is not clear why .
In the 1970s (we were now in our twenties) some of us were enthusiastically into hippie expressions but others were trying to adopt professional roles and more formal language of adults. Some of us used the newest slang a lot, or only a bit. Some did not.
let’s boogie, stick it to the man, space cadet, keep on turcking, sit on it, far out
It is fascinating to me that the words that sound opposite in some generations may have the same meaning. A person who is cool in one generation may be called hot in another and both mean approval. In my teens the word ‘neat’ just meant interesting, good. But when I used it in front of teens in the 1990s they laughed. I clearly was out of touch. Neat? What about it was neat?
In the 1980s (we were in our thirties) the new expressions were of little interest to me. I did not say something was rad or tubular or bodacious. I did not say’ gag me with a spoon’’ , “barf” or ask What’s your damage? I did not say ‘like’ at the start of every phrase and I did not say “take a chill pill’ and was hurt if someone said that to me.
I was amused in the 1990s when people said ‘talk to the hand’, whassup, props, spiffy, dweeb. I uinderstod when they spoke of bling, or said that something was all that. I did not call people losers or dodgy. I did not apologize saying “My bad” or praise something saying it was ‘sick’. It never seemed logical to me that the word ‘bad ‘ meant good. I was understanding these expressions, like a tourist.
It seems that a middle aged person trying to use teen slang or a school teacher trying to use slang of the students is not always admired for this. Trying to seem young and cooler than you are offends teens actually. It was not my language but theirs and I think it was respectful to let them have it.
Our slang is an area we get stuck in. The humor part is gone and taking the dogs out for a pit stop is not a clever expression any more but hey, it still amuses me. Such is the affiliation we have I guess with slang.
beverleysmith-cnjyv 