I just re-realized something..

[conuly]

All those once-cool slang words, like phat, rad, groovy, bees knees... somebody made them up. Somebody came up with this word they wanted to use to mean... well, in this case, cool.

But seriously. Linguistic change happens because individuals, not groups, use certain words in certain ways. Eventually, an individual quirk is picked up by a larger group... and it might even spread throughout the entire language, like "cool" did.

I COULD CHANGE THE FACE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

I really could. Just by using words in a set way. I'm already making a tiny impact in the virtual world... I know people other than myself who say *gigglesnorts* online, though I don't know if they do that when not on NC.

But what if I could make a larger difference? What if I could, say, start using thee and thou again? Youse and y'all aren't used much outside of certain regions... but thee and thou, those are universal, if somewhat obsolete.

Or what if I could invent a gender inclusive third person pronoun that people actually use? Not by promoting it, just by using it? Heck, I could go even more exotic... proximate and obviate pronouns! (Basically, the obviate third person is like a FOURTH person... "He kissed his wife", if "his" is the 4th person singular, you know he kissed somebody else's wife, not his own) Or inclusive/exclusive we! (Inclusive: me and you. Exclusive: me and somebody else, not you).

Yeah... okay, I'm getting a little hyper here. So I'll restrict myself to a few smaller goals, which I've already started using in my own speech and writing:

1. *gigglesnorts*
2. "Mihi" and "tibi" instead of "to me" and "to you" ("it seems loud mihi" instead of "it seems loud to me")

I'll make a deal. You post your words-to-be-popularized, and if I like them, I'll try to use them. And vice versa, of course.

(edit) I realized something else, just now! Other people say "bedgoing" (and variants). I mostly just say that on aim, to be sure, in real life I strive to say "going to bed" so as to not appear ignorant, but I use it often on aim... and I know I've seen other people do that as well. I'm also fairly certain that these people did not do that until I started doing that. I'm just too cool :)

Comments

[phibby.livejournal.com]

I'll help you out, mainly because mihi sounds so cool and you've finally posted what it meant. (Man, I was wondering!)

Anyway, mind helping "glurge" get in the dictionary? Such a perfect word.

[conuly]

You should've asked! Actually, I thought I had posted what it meant, but it might've been hidden in a stream of Latin. Sorry :(

Glurge, you mean that isn't already there? Maybe it's your dictionary, and another will have it....

[phibby.livejournal.com]

No, pretty sure it's not. Even checked Dictionary.com, nothing. Heck, I doubt I would've heard about it if I wasn't a Snopes junkie. I don't think they're as big as you'd think, so I don't know if one of their words could get in the dictionary so quickly. If I had to explain it to a ton of Neocolours members, then my work is far from done. ^_~

I used mihi in a PPT post and an LJ comment! Yay! :D *huggles* And I didn't even have to think about "Oh, gotta use 'mihi'", just did it since it sounded right. :)

Oh, and another: Smoo. Can really mean anything. Sort of use it as an etc., like, "He's bringing a sleeping bag, canteen, matches, smoo." ^_^ Always thought it sounded right in any situation.

[conuly]

I used mihi in a PPT post and an LJ comment! Yay! :D *huggles* And I didn't even have to think about "Oh, gotta use 'mihi'", just did it since it sounded right. :)

That's why I use it! Latin has ruined me. In case you're curious, there's dative-of-reference for all the pronouns:

Nobis-to us
Vobis-to y'all
ei-to him/her/it
eis-to them

But none of them have the ring of mihi and tibi.

Smoo. Smoo. Nice word... kinda like the noun form of smurf, eh?

[xreferenced.livejournal.com]

I like *gigglesnorts* and have already used it not in writing, but upon verbalizing my thoughts internally. Which I do almost exclusively in English, BTW - it must be that I learned English at a later age, when I knew a lot more about emotions and all that social-ness as when I was learning my mother tongue as little baby girl Dvora. I tried writing a weblog in my mother tongue, but it invariably ended up as a cheap translation of English. And I have to proofread my fiction to weed out Englishisms. Geez. So, what I meant to say with this tangent is, this is almost like real writing, as I usually think mostly in pictures and only in words when I want to write something down for a later stage. (A LiveJournal, possibly.) Even when I'm writing fiction, I have to go pictures-first.

Uh, I dunno how much of the above made actual sense... *eeps* In short, it means it'll seep into my writing pretty soon, or maybe it has already happened.