Slang: The poetic word of people

Indrani Sarmah

(The writer is an MA in Linguistics, NEHU, Shillong. She can be indranisarmah55@gmail.com)

Our generation has been forced so much into negative thoughts that most of us forged our mindset from positive thinking. Not to forget is it the society that is to blame or the inhumane minds within us? Well, let us take our minds for an enlighten tour to broaden our thinking and pave the light into the very virtuous term or say expression 'SLANG'. Let us save our minds from the devils to concentrate on the words we use such as ROFL, LOL ,LMAO, BFF, lowkey and highkey, bloody, epic, etc., as 'Slang is a vocabulary of unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way.' The often famous OMG (Oh My God or Gosh) belongs to the category of slang. Linguistically, it is particularly an informal register that is used between people who belong to the same social group and who know each other well. In the early 17th century the expression 'slang' was employed to 'low' or 'disreputable' people but by today's date and meaning slang defines to be highly creative. Slang is mostly written in emails and text messages than spoken. For instance, the word "chicken" we use it in the sentence 'It's just a spider, you chicken!' to mean someone who is timid or coward.

To be precise, every language has their own slang which is especially used amongst youngsters or people from a particular age. Will it be wrong to describe this production and consumption of slang words as a ravishing art among the emerging phase of people? Well, because it is only used between people who belong to the same social group or with loved and closed people of ours. 'We are BFF (Best Friends Forever)'. Anyways, the use of Slang goes back to centuries back where there it was used by the people who belonged to the low status of the society but in this 21st century, it is used to explain the youngsters and adults belonging to both the high and low class to sound or look cool. You will sometimes consider an airhead if you aren't familiar with those slang words used in instagram hastags. Oh yes, we are evolving so why not set our minds in the positive things than referring to negativity while uttering the word 'slang' or turning our heads upon hearing that word. 'COOL! Shall we ponder into some outdated examples of slang words exempted from our literature course' TBH (To be honest) it surprises me too that the English Renaissance period or the Victorian period were also familiar with the positivity of slang words but Alas! They thought it to be shoddy to be used by the high class people. 'Don't be a cow Mother' used to calm someone down. Okay, we are all familiar with the word 'Bromance' used which is the combination of 'brother' and 'romance' ; combining two existing words to form an existing meaning called Portmanteau slangs. BAE (before anyone else) gives you the wrong idea Bromance refers to the friendship between two straight men. Go for a party and upload a photo in instagram with the various hastags with various slang words like hastag the party was 'lit' (super cool), hastag 'GOAT'(Greatest of all times) hastag 'YOLO' (you will only once). This slang words connect us to like-minded people who understand our terms and we are then labelled for being 'cool' where we enjoy that societal status.

Often we incorporated foreign slang words into our vocabulary of slang words like 'Tio' from Spanish to refer to a 'dude' or 'buddy'; often the Korean slang 'Daebak' (this is crazy!) is used to mean 'big hit or success' with the rising wave of Kdrama and Kpop. Not to forget, the expanding rap culture has a lot of contribution to the emerging of slang words. With the contemporary and indie artists coming up and making their distinguished place in the industry, India has been prone to a lot of newly produced Hindi rap songs with Hindi rap lyrics. Remember the much appreciated movie 'Gully Boy' with the song 'Apna Time Aayega' where if you study the lyrics it's all mostly used of slang words. Most of the Indians find the American culture amusing for its ever-changing use of the slangs. The constant use of flux in slang is the only exciting thing in language with the wealth of words. Well to state, slang is an exciting and evolving poetic word of the people shifting towards positivity. Slang may be more treated as an optimistic way of life, where some little phrases and words carry around a lot of emotional positivity which deeply connects us to people who understands those emotions. Hence, slang as the poetic word of people correlates with positivity.