Communication at best is the approximation of meaning and how the sender and the receiver interact with the exchange of messages within different conventions of style, such as, oral, written and nonverbal communication. However, as creatures of habit, human beings are mostly lazy and are always looking for the shortcut or the fastest solution to almost anything, even communication, which can result in turning verbal expression into something personalized and processed within the social contours of our existence. Communication is a universal influence with a purpose for all human life, it defines us as individuals. The groups we work, live and play in somehow form our language into words, phrases and even sentence structures, which are, in ways, common with those people around us. We use a form of communication on a daily basis without thinking about how informal the process actually may seem or sound to others; do we really care? No.
The discourse in which we communicate with on a daily basis, our own ritualized jargon and or slang, if you will, is a developed characteristic of our psyche and a language footprint of our social surroundings. Moreover, the language or dialect in which we choose to speak within our social network is a personalized interpretation of who we are and who we want to be associated with. An example of a social group who defines a whole sub-culture on a global platform and who have developed their own language within their social realm is surfers. Surfers are a very territorial breed of agro water enthusiasts who, over the last 50+ years, have developed their own lexicon in the United States influenced by the sport they love so much, which is deeply embedded into the fabric of their cultural quilt, surfing; the sport of kings.
Surfing was originated in the Polynesian islands, with much speculation, and soon crossed over like a tsunami washing up on the beaches of the Hawaiian Islands. Anthropologists can only guess at the origin and evolution of wave-riding and surfboard construction in Polynesian culture, since there's no certainty about the timeline and movements of the Polynesians. Around 2000 B.C., the migration of humans out of Asia and into the eastern Pacific began, and Polynesians established themselves within a large triangle, with Aotearoa (New Zealand) at the south point, Tonga and Samoa along the western boundary and Tahiti and the Marquesas to the east. Forced to migrate into the vast region by the push of population and the pull of the horizon, the first Polynesians arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in the fourth century A.D.
The Polynesians who made the arduous journey from Tahiti and the Marquesas to Hawaii were exceptional watermen and women who brought a deep love and knowledge of the ocean with them. More importantly, they brought Tahitic language along with them. Tahitian language is one of two languages spoken in the Society Islands which include Tahiti. The language is closely related to that of the ‘Olelo Hawai'i, (Hawaiian language). This migration not only saturated the land with another cultural identity but also allowed a full pollination of language in the Hawaiian culture, which gave birth to a pidgin language. Pidgin is a language that develops between two cultures who do not share a common knowledge of one particular language as a means of communicating and this occurred when Polynesians came to the islands, merging two verbal languages (Hawaiian and Polynesian) with a soulful, non-verbal language, such as, surfing.
Furthermore, pidgin in Hawaii is not the native speech but a second language which is still used in the 21st century. Within this pidgin language there is jargon, which is associated with and related to the specific activity of professional surfing. Jargon, much like slang developed as a quick response to our laziness as human beings and our verbal shorthand of communicating within a particular social (professional) group, in this case, surfers. Surf jargon developed over 100 years ago on the Hawaiian Islands and then spread with the traveling surfer to remote corners of the globe, such as, Polynesia, South Africa, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ireland, France, Bali, Costa Rica, Panama, Jakarta (Indonesia), California, Florida and up the entire Eastern Seaboard continuing up through Canada and Nova Scotia. In short, wherever there were waves to ride the language evolved.
The surfing communities around the world were involved in a growing phenomenon which resulted in a sub-culture that adopted a new language derived from each individualized lexicon, dialect and socio-economic background, which spawned from the Hawaiian Pidgin languages of the islands which can be traced all the way back to Polynesian natives who eventually flooded the Hawaiian Islands in the fourth century A.D. Acknowledging the mass immigration into the Hawaiian Islands is a historical tattoo, which can define a sub-culture's beginnings and true roots. The language brought forth by this merge was no surprise and more of a natural process, which can be seen in the evolution of the English language from the beginning of the study of linguistics from Old English to Modern English. The point is it doesn't matter who is accredited with this merging of the language, it happened naturally.
Surfing jargon continuouslymerged and spread all throughout the world with no signs of slowing down, in short, the beast has been given birth. The phenomena of this growing language which is deeply rooted in the depths of the sport of surfing has grown tremendously over the years in which case it has an evolving lexicon of slang/jargon embedded into American culture as an American sub-culture. To better understand this new beginning of a language, which is rooted in the cultural fibers of the sport of surfing is to understand another American sub-culture, who also incorporated their own language to express themselves. The beat Generation not only changed American Literature with written language but gained the status of an American sub-culture that incorporated an entire lexicon of beat jargon and slang.
The beat movement in America arose from the conservative post World War II culture of the United States, introducing a new form of consciousness to the American literature genre of the time. Introduced by a handful of young ambitious writers who considered themselves to be beat, meaning “down and out” and or “tired” the beats single-handedly turned the term beat into something of a more spiritual definition meaning beatific and holy, which is represented in the writings of these authors. The beat movement eventually caught up with the surfers mixing into the California surfing culture in San Francisco, which spread across the United States like wild-fire. I am merely suggesting a parallelism between the Beat Generation, which made great contributions to the cannon of American Literature using a specific language and the surfing culture, which continues to affect language in the 21st century.
Furthermore, the subject matter of which they wrote about seemed to go against the grain of societal norms and leaned towards a more liberal way of thinking in terms of being an American of that time period. Analyzing this theory, I inject that surfers are more liberal in terms of their thinking and are known to go against the grain of societal norms in the 21st century. Moreover, the beats introduced cultures from around the world by means of: experimental drug use, alcohol, homosexuality, lesbianism, spiritual entities and Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Taoism, the beat writers created a sub-culture within the existing conservative culture that was America at the time. At the same time surfing introduced new cultures and new languages to the world by evolving as a sport, showing evidence of this movement when the French Polynesians flooded the Hawaiian Islands.
This new culture defined as the surf culture formulated a new way of speaking to express and to render thoughts through writing, speaking and surfing, which greatly represents the communication model of written, verbal and nonverbal language.
Surfing is one of the fastest growing sports of the 21st century and with it, the surfer lexicon is exploding upon the masses in all facets of media and environments such as, print, commercial, radio, classrooms, theater, and even fine arts; especially the arts. On determining if the language associated with surfing is a slang or jargon, we must first recognize what slang is and how it differs from jargon. Slang, although informal, are expressions used to describe a condition and or an object. If a surfer describes a wave as, “that was full-on”, it would be considered slang.
If a surfer had to describe the particulars of surfboard dimension to a surfboard shaper, for instance, “I need a low-entry rocker on the nose and high carved rails that will add a double reverse concave throughout the bottom leading to a thumb tail which will allow more maneuverability in the tube”, would be considered jargon; speaking about the profession of surfing. To further my understanding of slang I read Krassimira Charkova's research study, A Language Without Borders: English Slang and Bulgarian Learners of English. According to Charkova's study on English slang, the most frequently mentioned functions of slang include the following: “slang is often used as a replacement of conventional terms in order to create a more vivid or original effect”, “ slang often includes taboo and vulgar words and expressions, and for this reason, it is unlikely to be used in high-status contexts”, furthermore, the research stated that, “slang significantly reduces the dignity of formal speech or writing” and “speaking a particular slang is governed by an individual's desire to identify with a specific speech community or a fashionable trend in society” (Charkova, 2007).
Acknowledging the research and Charkova's definitions of English slang I believe that only a surfer would recognize the fine line between the vocabularies used to replace conventional language (slang) and the more technical vocabulary used when speaking as part of a profession (jargon), which is most definitely the case with most human beings and their chosen lexicons considering their socio-economic background and other factors, such as education and the natural environment of development. Charkova explains that the understanding of slang usage comes from a variety of sources and cultures alike.
She states that, “because of its informal status and unstable nature, changeable according to age, gender, social class, geographic location, time, and so forth, slang is usually not taught”, moreover, “Slang acquisition happens naturally, governed by various motives of sociopsychological nature such as a person's desire to identify with a particular group of people or a faddish trend or to express oneself in a less conventional way”. (Charkova, 2007) Knowing this, I think about how the transition from the Society Islands to Hawaii was natural for the Polynesian peoples and how, when they arrived, a pidgin was formed, which brought forth a whole lexicon of slang words. I can see the evolution of this language element and have been affected personally because I have been part of many different social groups where the language changes.
More specifically, I have been surfing since I was five years old and as I grew up I witnessed the evolution of the surfer slang and how it was embedded into my life. The most interesting aspect about the surf slang/jargon is that it changes from country to country, from state to state and city to city, from town to town, and from beach to beach no matter where you live. Moreover, being a New Jersey native I have experienced this transition in surfer slang/jargon from beach town to beach town, which sometimes is only 25 minutes away from the island where I live. The difference in dialect and pronunciation effects the language in different areas but the meaning is usually the same, semantically as a whole, we can understand each other no matter where we are in the world. If you are part of the global tribe of surfers, the surfing lexicon is a universal communication in both slang and jargon.
In conclusion, language has developed many interesting realms of all communication styles and the most interesting, in my opinion, is the origins of slang and how it is used to mainstream language for a better semantic understanding within a culture or social group. The group I am interested in and have been apart of since the age of five is the sub-culture of surfers in the United States as well as, globally. We are a tight knit group who all have one thing in common, the love of the ocean and a passion for riding waves. Furthermore, our language, even though it may come in different dialects considering geographical location, plays an important role in the universal understanding of this passion for riding waves. I have learned a great deal while researching the surfer slang/jargon and realized that when it comes to social groups, I wouldn't want to change my lexicon for the better or worse because I love where I come from and what my language represents.
The discourse in which we communicate with on a daily basis, our own ritualized jargon and or slang, if you will, is a developed characteristic of our psyche and a language footprint of our social surroundings. Moreover, the language or dialect in which we choose to speak within our social network is a personalized interpretation of who we are and who we want to be associated with. An example of a social group who defines a whole sub-culture on a global platform and who have developed their own language within their social realm is surfers. Surfers are a very territorial breed of agro water enthusiasts who, over the last 50+ years, have developed their own lexicon in the United States influenced by the sport they love so much, which is deeply embedded into the fabric of their cultural quilt, surfing; the sport of kings.
Surfing was originated in the Polynesian islands, with much speculation, and soon crossed over like a tsunami washing up on the beaches of the Hawaiian Islands. Anthropologists can only guess at the origin and evolution of wave-riding and surfboard construction in Polynesian culture, since there's no certainty about the timeline and movements of the Polynesians. Around 2000 B.C., the migration of humans out of Asia and into the eastern Pacific began, and Polynesians established themselves within a large triangle, with Aotearoa (New Zealand) at the south point, Tonga and Samoa along the western boundary and Tahiti and the Marquesas to the east. Forced to migrate into the vast region by the push of population and the pull of the horizon, the first Polynesians arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in the fourth century A.D.
The Polynesians who made the arduous journey from Tahiti and the Marquesas to Hawaii were exceptional watermen and women who brought a deep love and knowledge of the ocean with them. More importantly, they brought Tahitic language along with them. Tahitian language is one of two languages spoken in the Society Islands which include Tahiti. The language is closely related to that of the ‘Olelo Hawai'i, (Hawaiian language). This migration not only saturated the land with another cultural identity but also allowed a full pollination of language in the Hawaiian culture, which gave birth to a pidgin language. Pidgin is a language that develops between two cultures who do not share a common knowledge of one particular language as a means of communicating and this occurred when Polynesians came to the islands, merging two verbal languages (Hawaiian and Polynesian) with a soulful, non-verbal language, such as, surfing.
Furthermore, pidgin in Hawaii is not the native speech but a second language which is still used in the 21st century. Within this pidgin language there is jargon, which is associated with and related to the specific activity of professional surfing. Jargon, much like slang developed as a quick response to our laziness as human beings and our verbal shorthand of communicating within a particular social (professional) group, in this case, surfers. Surf jargon developed over 100 years ago on the Hawaiian Islands and then spread with the traveling surfer to remote corners of the globe, such as, Polynesia, South Africa, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ireland, France, Bali, Costa Rica, Panama, Jakarta (Indonesia), California, Florida and up the entire Eastern Seaboard continuing up through Canada and Nova Scotia. In short, wherever there were waves to ride the language evolved.
The surfing communities around the world were involved in a growing phenomenon which resulted in a sub-culture that adopted a new language derived from each individualized lexicon, dialect and socio-economic background, which spawned from the Hawaiian Pidgin languages of the islands which can be traced all the way back to Polynesian natives who eventually flooded the Hawaiian Islands in the fourth century A.D. Acknowledging the mass immigration into the Hawaiian Islands is a historical tattoo, which can define a sub-culture's beginnings and true roots. The language brought forth by this merge was no surprise and more of a natural process, which can be seen in the evolution of the English language from the beginning of the study of linguistics from Old English to Modern English. The point is it doesn't matter who is accredited with this merging of the language, it happened naturally.
Surfing jargon continuouslymerged and spread all throughout the world with no signs of slowing down, in short, the beast has been given birth. The phenomena of this growing language which is deeply rooted in the depths of the sport of surfing has grown tremendously over the years in which case it has an evolving lexicon of slang/jargon embedded into American culture as an American sub-culture. To better understand this new beginning of a language, which is rooted in the cultural fibers of the sport of surfing is to understand another American sub-culture, who also incorporated their own language to express themselves. The beat Generation not only changed American Literature with written language but gained the status of an American sub-culture that incorporated an entire lexicon of beat jargon and slang.
The beat movement in America arose from the conservative post World War II culture of the United States, introducing a new form of consciousness to the American literature genre of the time. Introduced by a handful of young ambitious writers who considered themselves to be beat, meaning “down and out” and or “tired” the beats single-handedly turned the term beat into something of a more spiritual definition meaning beatific and holy, which is represented in the writings of these authors. The beat movement eventually caught up with the surfers mixing into the California surfing culture in San Francisco, which spread across the United States like wild-fire. I am merely suggesting a parallelism between the Beat Generation, which made great contributions to the cannon of American Literature using a specific language and the surfing culture, which continues to affect language in the 21st century.
Furthermore, the subject matter of which they wrote about seemed to go against the grain of societal norms and leaned towards a more liberal way of thinking in terms of being an American of that time period. Analyzing this theory, I inject that surfers are more liberal in terms of their thinking and are known to go against the grain of societal norms in the 21st century. Moreover, the beats introduced cultures from around the world by means of: experimental drug use, alcohol, homosexuality, lesbianism, spiritual entities and Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Taoism, the beat writers created a sub-culture within the existing conservative culture that was America at the time. At the same time surfing introduced new cultures and new languages to the world by evolving as a sport, showing evidence of this movement when the French Polynesians flooded the Hawaiian Islands.
This new culture defined as the surf culture formulated a new way of speaking to express and to render thoughts through writing, speaking and surfing, which greatly represents the communication model of written, verbal and nonverbal language.
Surfing is one of the fastest growing sports of the 21st century and with it, the surfer lexicon is exploding upon the masses in all facets of media and environments such as, print, commercial, radio, classrooms, theater, and even fine arts; especially the arts. On determining if the language associated with surfing is a slang or jargon, we must first recognize what slang is and how it differs from jargon. Slang, although informal, are expressions used to describe a condition and or an object. If a surfer describes a wave as, “that was full-on”, it would be considered slang.
If a surfer had to describe the particulars of surfboard dimension to a surfboard shaper, for instance, “I need a low-entry rocker on the nose and high carved rails that will add a double reverse concave throughout the bottom leading to a thumb tail which will allow more maneuverability in the tube”, would be considered jargon; speaking about the profession of surfing. To further my understanding of slang I read Krassimira Charkova's research study, A Language Without Borders: English Slang and Bulgarian Learners of English. According to Charkova's study on English slang, the most frequently mentioned functions of slang include the following: “slang is often used as a replacement of conventional terms in order to create a more vivid or original effect”, “ slang often includes taboo and vulgar words and expressions, and for this reason, it is unlikely to be used in high-status contexts”, furthermore, the research stated that, “slang significantly reduces the dignity of formal speech or writing” and “speaking a particular slang is governed by an individual's desire to identify with a specific speech community or a fashionable trend in society” (Charkova, 2007).
Acknowledging the research and Charkova's definitions of English slang I believe that only a surfer would recognize the fine line between the vocabularies used to replace conventional language (slang) and the more technical vocabulary used when speaking as part of a profession (jargon), which is most definitely the case with most human beings and their chosen lexicons considering their socio-economic background and other factors, such as education and the natural environment of development. Charkova explains that the understanding of slang usage comes from a variety of sources and cultures alike.
She states that, “because of its informal status and unstable nature, changeable according to age, gender, social class, geographic location, time, and so forth, slang is usually not taught”, moreover, “Slang acquisition happens naturally, governed by various motives of sociopsychological nature such as a person's desire to identify with a particular group of people or a faddish trend or to express oneself in a less conventional way”. (Charkova, 2007) Knowing this, I think about how the transition from the Society Islands to Hawaii was natural for the Polynesian peoples and how, when they arrived, a pidgin was formed, which brought forth a whole lexicon of slang words. I can see the evolution of this language element and have been affected personally because I have been part of many different social groups where the language changes.
More specifically, I have been surfing since I was five years old and as I grew up I witnessed the evolution of the surfer slang and how it was embedded into my life. The most interesting aspect about the surf slang/jargon is that it changes from country to country, from state to state and city to city, from town to town, and from beach to beach no matter where you live. Moreover, being a New Jersey native I have experienced this transition in surfer slang/jargon from beach town to beach town, which sometimes is only 25 minutes away from the island where I live. The difference in dialect and pronunciation effects the language in different areas but the meaning is usually the same, semantically as a whole, we can understand each other no matter where we are in the world. If you are part of the global tribe of surfers, the surfing lexicon is a universal communication in both slang and jargon.
In conclusion, language has developed many interesting realms of all communication styles and the most interesting, in my opinion, is the origins of slang and how it is used to mainstream language for a better semantic understanding within a culture or social group. The group I am interested in and have been apart of since the age of five is the sub-culture of surfers in the United States as well as, globally. We are a tight knit group who all have one thing in common, the love of the ocean and a passion for riding waves. Furthermore, our language, even though it may come in different dialects considering geographical location, plays an important role in the universal understanding of this passion for riding waves. I have learned a great deal while researching the surfer slang/jargon and realized that when it comes to social groups, I wouldn't want to change my lexicon for the better or worse because I love where I come from and what my language represents.
No comments:
Post a Comment