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

[xreferenced.livejournal.com]

I meant the formalism part. This sort of detailed formal introduction, were it to occur in our culture somewhat regularly, would help me - I think - in social interactions. (Though less genealogy and more personal interests and little memorable tidbits would be even more appreciated on my behalf.)

[goddess588.livejournal.com]

Ah, I get it now. And if you were to ask specific questions it would be seen as intrusive, maybe. Try making up your own brief mihi and use it when you meet someone - they may respond much the same.

[xreferenced.livejournal.com]

Good idea. I'll try that. But what if they won't be able to define themselves concisely and become frustrated at their lack of ability? (I've seen something like that happen, when we were asked on a seminar "what do you expect from this seminar?" and I was the only one who could phrase it, the rest were like "um...dunno...never thought about it".) This would give me some sort of ironic revenge on the NT world, but is not too practical in interaction. But it might actually work, I can't overgeneralize from a single event that is only superficially similar to the situation we're talking about right now.

I'll give it a try.

(...why am I not Maori? ...well, Judaism has its shimmery neat parts when it comes to autism, too - rocking while praying is considered normative, for example. I was actually told once how good the way I was praying was, "it looks so natural! So authentic!". ROTFL.)