Wednesday 4 June 2014

A Plague of Euphemisms

All four of our children have in their time come up with some highly amusing (and at times pretty damn clever) alternative terms as young children will. From "Hot Boots" for slippers, going for a "Bike-Walk" ie a bike ride with Daddy, to the more extreme "Woomarrer" (Sp???!) for Lawnmower (A) and "Coconut Vegetables" for, well, just about anything (H) we now have quite an extensive Thompson nomenclature. So extensive is it that R and I can be found chuckling to ourselves most days using a totally alternative Thompson dialect. The current resurgent favourite is the absurd "Woomarrer" word for lawnmower, spawning "Extreme Woomarrer-ing" for a variety of mowing techniques. Bizarre I know. But you had to be there. Honestly.

On a more serious note it occured to me how so many groups in society are now guilty of the same thing. Certainly my IT Director husband knows "Geek Speak" or "Tecchie Babble" or whatever you want to call it, and the ridiculous jargon used in business to "flag up" and "Blue Sky" the main issues and tackle the "low-hanging fruit"...(Or "high hanging vegetables" according to A which could even be extrapolated to high-hanging coconut vegetables if desperate but like I said, it's a Thompson thing.)



This surge of social dialects is transforming society. Regional dialects still exist of course but the population is so mobile now they are considerably diluted. Social dialects like in the business world can seem exclusive and elitist, affirming your membership of whichever "club" you are in. But how to break in to the clique in the first place? It must be like arriving in deepest Yorkshire from Kent a hundred years ago - or the other way around. The same is true on the internet, social networking sites like Facebook have spawned hundreds of new euphemisms, terms, and alternative descriptions. Our current need to redefine everything we come into contact with goes deep and our daily interaction with modern technology has precipitated a lot of this.

So is social networking replacing economics and geography in providing our language, customs and mannerisms? Certainly the internet has a lot to answer for, Facebook and Twitter have transformed how many of us keep in touch, superseding even texting for many as a "one-stop interaction shop". It's a bit dry and cerebral though, I'm not sure a cyber hug makes such an impact as a real one but then so few of us have time for more on an average day. The virtual gifts of coffee and alcohol are tasteless but sin-free, the thought was there but the enjoyment was definitely not!

Whether it is through work or play there is no doubt there has been a huge surge in social dialects - in their creation and use. Ironically one of the side effects of this is isolation and the growth of new barriers in society. It's still incredibly difficult to get a job in a local or family firm, the task is no easier with social media, just different. And sunless you have sufficient funds and a strong enough case to approach the European Court of Human Rights your past history will always haunt you!

As well as knowledge and degree of understanding of appropriate nomenclature is essential - or you don't stand a chance. Breaking into a new social group, now often on the internet, poses similar difficulties. Many's the time I have abandoned a new discussion forum because I don't feel I "fit in".


The Exclusive "Game Cubing Club". Gaming IN a cube, on the Gamecube. 
Sisters not included - "She just doesn't "get" it apparently.

What it boils down to is this. Human beings are essentially a small group species. Challenge and redefine the Venn Diagram boundaries of society - and society will come up with new ones.

But it's important not to forget that the newer, possibly less obvious frontiers are no less prohibitive to those on the other side. We haven't actually come very far in terms of creating an open society, as fast as barriers are removed or pulled down, new ones appear. And human beings really don't work well in groups naturally. Why else are we still teaching adults to work together like our toddlers at home? Are we banging our heads on the proverbial brick wall? As R will often quote:-
"There's no "I" in "Team" but there's a "me" if you look hard enough!" 
Which may well be true, but to join the "team" you need to know the language.


This action is a reference to the film "The Matrix", or more precisely our nervous 
black cat Oscar IN the Matrix, implying the current surroundings are
overwhelming and distorting. Of course. 

Which leads me to my final point.
As the parent of an Autistic child I can see these new social dialects becoming new barriers, in an otherwise liberating online world. In the past - if you liked football, watched the right shows - you had a chance of fitting in. Now however, with yourself on view to the world via social media in a way never known in history you risk utter alienation. Thank goodness then that  H has enough charisma, a warped sense of humour and sufficient intelligence to create his own social nomenclature. And he doesn't care which side of the circle you are on - it works for him.



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Family Friday

30 comments:

  1. A really interesting post. I haven't thought about this before, but am now pondering it all. I hope it doesn't become a barrier

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  2. Great post and view. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. when i used to work in a bank I have noticed that half of the words we used in Marketing department were slang word of abbreviations, acronyms which was a bit weird for me at first

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  4. haha boxes make the kids soo happy my son came out of school literally standing inside of a huge box , he hadnt done anyhting to it but said it was his car he had fun x

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  5. This is such a thoughtful post - and so true - it's very easy to feel on the outside if you don't have the correct lingo. Not caring which side of the circle you are on is a brilliant characteristic to have - along with his charisma and warped sense of humour of course!

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  6. New words and phrases seem to be coming up all the time. It was hard enough to 'fit in' when I was at school, I dread to think what it will be like for my children growing up!

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  7. Love the fact you have your own family words, we do too!

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  8. I hadn't really stopped and thought about the different uses of language online, but thinking now, there are lots that I "get" yet my husband doesn't. I have to be careful of what I say when I say something completely random, which I know I'll find amusing or whatever, but he'll look at me ablank. I try and stay up to date with the lingo, simply because I've got a 15 year old and I hear lots of different things coming out of his mouth, yet I know what he's talking about since I make the effort to know what is going on! (a rambling I know, but I know what I mean!!)

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  9. nice to hear you view, and think about this for a change x

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  10. My kids also had some childhood works that have stuck in our household.I love "Woomarrer" it has nice ring.

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  11. I do think that it is sad that we don't have such a common culture anymore. We don't all watch the same television shows, listen to the same Top 10 and watch the same films. You do have to work harder to find common ground but one thing I have learnt from my travels is that we are all human, we all have families, we eat, we sleep, we like to laugh so hopefully we will always be able to find ways to get along x

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  12. I do think it is sad that we don't have a common culture anymore but hopefully we can all still find some common ground x

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  13. It is lovely that you have 'family' words. Love the picture of them in the box, so cute x

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  14. Ooooh lots of big words! I am the youngest of four children. My sisters LOVE taking selfies!! ;)

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  15. It's certainly very interesting. I remember with my first job feeling rather confused by a lot of the terms they used; my manager would "reach out to HR" about something for example and there were a LOT of acronyms thrown about. Language and it's use is really quite fascinating. I love that you have family words; we have a few as well now with Harry, who I suspect has a slight language delay.

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  16. It's hard - language is what can make us feel like we are part of something and by that same merit can make us feel like such an outsider. Even to teenagers now and some of the words they use I can feel a generation gap. It makes me think of my 2 year old who for the longest time talked about "tommy-drivers" and would get really frustrated when we didn't understand what he meant. We eventually worked out he was talking about wheelbarrows! It was such a simple thing but the frustration he went through trying to get us understand something he clearly knew what he was talking about gives me an insight into the problems language barriers can cause.

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  17. My eldest loves boxes! When I asked what he was doing he said "creating memories!" Love that you have family words, this was a great read x

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  18. We all call pushchairs wheelbarrows in our house now because that's what our youngest calls them and it's kinda stuck.

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  19. We have our own family words as well and my husband still even uses words his grown up children used to use when they were little, for example, Calpol was mistakenly called pompom by one of them and it stuck! Now our girls call it pompom as well :)

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  20. Great post and I love kidisms. I agree that someone with autism will find the slang/dialects a complete challenge. My oldest daughter who is now a teen called flamingos , mimingos and still does.

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  21. Interesting how these words come in and out of vogue though isn't it? I for one can't keep up with them all! Wonderful that your son has such confidence and charisma. Love the pic too!

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  22. I have never heard the ending 'but there's a ME is you look close enough'! Genius! I'm a terrible grump with any new words that come along like 'thats totes good'!

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  23. Being a foreigner here in the UK I have lots of time felt that I dont belong in discussion. Like in my past work I was bullied for not joining in conversations. It is not because I cant speak English but because they are talking about things that I am not familiar with. More about age gap rather than language but I was bullied nonetheless. Your post is interesting and so true. I personally feel that I need to keep up. I hope I can. #pocolo

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  24. Interesting post and I sometimes feel out of the 'club' too!

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  25. It's certainly food for thought. I know I have trouble keeping up with all the new fangled words on social media. And don't get me started on corporate jargon - urgh!

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  26. It's certainly food for thought. I know I have trouble keeping up with all new fangled words on social media. And don't get me started on corporate jargon - urgh!

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  27. An interesting post which has given me a lot to think about so thank you :-) #FamilyFriday

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  28. Nice post. It reminds me that as a toddler I used to refer to wrestling as "wret-wret" - a fact that my mum never tired of telling me growing up! Thanks for linking up #FamilyFriday

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  29. It is hard to keep up with all new terminology which is coming out every day... and sometimes it is so hard to understand it... did you grasp a text speech? it is really a nightmare

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  30. Great post - I love the family words, its so special to have those sacred family things. :)

    I know in a few years time Noah and Isla will be coming out with words that I have never heard of... at the moment I can be the cool one! ha-ha.

    Love the ME in team comment though, you do make a huge part of a team...

    Thanks for linking up to the blogsRus linky x

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Many thanks for taking the time to comment, I really value your responses.

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