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News from the frontline of language creation and recreation in London, reported in today’s The Times of London by columnist Richard Morrison:
Yes, we do speak English in Hendon. But the baffling and wonderful thing about 21st-century English is that it is both the premier tool of global communication and also the language you use if you want to bamboozle completely your next-door neighbour. […] English, it seems to me, occupies the same position today as Latin 1,600 years ago. It is a lingua franca on the verge of splintering into half a dozen entirely separate tongues. […] When my son says “you chat bare breeze”, he means I am talking rubbish. That’s not so difficult to work out, perhaps, once you realise that “bare” is used in the sense of “unvarnished” or “undisguised”. But “you’re gay, man”, which you now constantly hear as a term of abuse in London playgrounds, did once offend and puzzle me – wishy-washy liberal that I am. The fact is, thought, that the word “gay” has changed its meaning radically for the third time in 50 years. To our grandparents it meant happy. To middle-aged adults it is respectful slang for homosexuals, replacing the offensive “queer”. But to young teenage boys it means outdated, old, useless – since they use the Ali G phrase “batty boy” (itself derived from Jamaican slang for buttocks) to mean homosexual. Meanwhile, ironically, among some progressive gay activists, “queer” seems to be an acceptable label again.
I still think he is probably misjudging the mood in that last sentence but. fwiw, in the rural western marches of Wales my bilingual 15 year-old son confirms that in his age range gay still equates to homosexual but also has the additional inversion of meaning "sad" (but not neccessarily "old, useless") - a bit like cool = hot, bad = good, no doubt.
Bingley's comment makes sense.
but what on earth are you still only practising for, Bingley?! :)
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Nowt as queer as folk modestgoddess 08/03/03 07:12 PM Re: Nowt as queer as folk maverick 08/03/03 08:38 PM Re: Nowt as queer as folk Faldage 08/03/03 09:35 PM Re: Nowt as queer as folk modestgoddess 08/04/03 02:23 AM Re: Nowt as queer as folk Buffalo Shrdlu 08/04/03 02:59 AM Re: Nowt as queer as folk Bingley 08/04/03 03:05 AM Re: Nowt as queer as folk Faldage 08/04/03 10:54 AM different strokes vbq 08/04/03 01:41 PM Re: different strokes modestgoddess 08/04/03 08:15 PM Re: different strokes maverick 08/04/03 10:42 PM Re: different strokes Jackie 08/05/03 01:54 AM Re: different strokes Bingley 08/05/03 01:59 AM Queer Bobyoungbalt 08/05/03 03:23 PM Re: Queer maverick 08/05/03 10:15 PM Gay and Grateful Hearts Father Steve 08/13/03 10:15 PM
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