James Dening [email removed] writes:
> I agree. I mean, here in England where we speak English (Can I get away
> with saying 'properly'? On a US-dominated list. Probably not. Damn....)
I believe most US people would not deny that the British speak "proper"
English. Retentively prim & proper, to be precise. Unless you're from
Liverpool. We have relatively local culture (British Columbia) which may
feel it is more "proper" than England!
> I cite the 'rave' culture as one in point.
In Eugene we have a Deadhead culture (fans of 'The Grateful Dead'), on
which there was a Linguistics article in the local newspaper. Dialects
seem to spring up spontaneously as a means to cohesively bond a group of
people together who do not wish to be part of the mainstream, whether
this be for religious, moral, political, professional, or other reasons.
The dialect allows easy recognition of those who are 'in', vs. those
that are 'out'. Recall the special language you shared with your
High-school friends that adults or other high-schoolers would look at
you quizzically about. Most TMLers, I wager, would recognize what "'tis
but a scratch" refers to, but the majority of the US citizenry probably
does not.
I just watched 'Demolition Man' last night. The future Police woman has
studied the 1990s slang, and still comes up with 'let's blow this guy'
instead of 'let's blow this guy away', to the amusement of the audience.
Dialectical faux pas like this demonstrate the powerful 'in' vs. 'out'
recognition effects that a counter-cultural dialect can precipitate.
Deadheads use specialized words: 'Dosing' and 'Cid' for LSD. They refer
to the Dead band members by first name, and the use the venue rather
than the city to refer to a particular performance. They use 'show'
rather than 'concert'. Example: "Went to the Autzen show. Jim was really
happenin'. I was dosin' heavily." translates as "I attended the Eugene
concert at Autzen Stadium. The guitar player gave a very satisfying
performance. I had taken LSD." If you had said it the second way, the
Deadheads would know in four words that you were not clued in to the
life of a Deadhead.
James