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Language may evolve but this is going too far

POSTED BY: MAGONSDAUGHTER
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 09:03
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Sunday, May 8, 2011 5:56 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


SLANG terms, including "innit", "thang" and "grrl", have been added to the official list of words that can be used in the popular board game Scrabble.

Technology-related words such as "webzine", and "Facebook" are also among the 3000 new words added to the latest edition of the Collins Official Scrabble Words book, compiled by staff in Glasgow, the Scotsman said.

The Muslim term "fiqh" - meaning an expansion of Islamic sharia law - is also included.

The publishers said it was the "most comprehensive Scrabble wordlist ever produced," but some are likely to upset traditionalists.

The last edition of the word list for the crossword-style game, which is sold in 121 countries across the globe, was published in 2007.

For those unfamiliar with "innit", the Scotsman explained it is UK street slang for "isn't it" - but it can also be used to replace any negative tag question, as in "You like this song, innit?" One of its best-known users internationally is Ali G, comedy alter ego of funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen.

Use of "innit" will earn a Scrabble player a score of five points.

Hardly worth the bother, innit?

Read more at The Scotsman.

I am outraged!!!

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Sunday, May 8, 2011 7:24 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


I don't think Grrl should count for anything, I don't play scrabble but that word doesn't have any vowels in it.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, May 9, 2011 3:58 AM

DREAMTROVE




Bananagrams
That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Monday, May 9, 2011 4:01 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Hello,

It was not so many years ago that I failed to find the word 'Realtor' in the official scrabble dictionary. I'm surprised at this slang.

--Anthony



_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Monday, May 9, 2011 7:45 AM

STORYMARK


Hmm. Way better things to get outraged over.

And hey, that's what house rules are for.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Monday, May 9, 2011 8:04 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Many years ago, I used the word "quim". When asked to explain what it meant I hemmed and hawed and said it was an old-fashioned word for a current vulgar word beginning with the letter "C". In our lunchtime Scrabble bunch, we had challenge rules, but nobody dared challenge me bc I looked too darn confident! Good thing, too, because the word was not in any of the dictionaries at-hand. Not on the internet either.

I was finally validated by an episode of Firefly, when Captain Mal used the word- which, btw can now be found on the inet. (But prolly not in the new Scrabble dictionary)

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Monday, May 9, 2011 11:08 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quim is a lovely word. I wish it would come back into common usuage.

Story, I'm not really outraged. Should have put some emoticons after that word. But in this complex, difficult often cruel world, sometimes I'd prefer to think about scrabble.

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Monday, May 9, 2011 2:56 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


When does Mal say quim? I'm curious because I don't remember this.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, May 9, 2011 4:17 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


It's just a fookin' game, innit?

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Monday, May 9, 2011 7:27 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Originally posted by Kwicko:
It's just a fookin' game, innit?



LOL>

Actually, it's taken very seriously in part of my family. Clearly not by me, because I have trouble spelling as you may have noticed, but I have observed the deadly serious nature of a seemingly innocent game of scrabble.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 4:14 AM

BYTEMITE


I think any article by something called "The Scotsman" probably doesn't have much grounds to complain about abuse of the English language.

Compare.

Scottish English: "We twa hae run about the braes, and pu’d the gowans fine."

Jabberwocky (nonsense verse poem by Lewis Carrol):
"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."


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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 4:24 AM

BYTEMITE


Riona: Mal never said it, but the word is in Firefly. The corrupt fed in The Message called the post guy that when he was making his threats.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 7:42 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Quote:

Originally posted by Bytemite:
I think any article by something called "The Scotsman" probably doesn't have much grounds to complain about abuse of the English language.

Compare.

Scottish English: "We twa hae run about the braes, and pu’d the gowans fine."

Jabberwocky (nonsense verse poem by Lewis Carrol):
"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."




Hello,

The interesting thing about the Jabberwocky and its contemporaries is that the poet was able to invent words that meant nothing, but which seemed to mean something, and in some cases you could discern the idea of what they meant because they sounded right for a particular idea.

"The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head he went galumphing back."

We do not necessarily need to know the words vorpal, snicker-snack, or galumphing in order to create a mental image of the scene. I like that.

So maybe the inclusion of invented slang in language isn't so bad, because all words are invented at some point. If they are in use, they are part of the language.

I still lament the absence of Realtor in that scrabble dictionary. It cost a challenge!

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 8:40 AM

BYTEMITE


Oh, I like the Jabberwock. It's just some forms of English are in fact incomprehensible.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 10:57 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Originally posted by Bytemite:
I think any article by something called "The Scotsman" probably doesn't have much grounds to complain about abuse of the English language.

Compare.

Scottish English: "We twa hae run about the braes, and pu’d the gowans fine."





Oh lordy, you are leaving yourself wide open there, Byte, since the Scots you have quoted above is an older form of Englisg than standard modern English and would, by many Scottish people at least, consider it to be the more legitimate form of English. So you might prefer to consider that English is an abuse of Scots. :)

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 11:00 AM

BYTEMITE


Heh, true enough.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 11:03 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Quote:

Originally posted by Bytemite:
I think any article by something called "The Scotsman" probably doesn't have much grounds to complain about abuse of the English language.

Compare.

Scottish English: "We twa hae run about the braes, and pu’d the gowans fine."

Jabberwocky (nonsense verse poem by Lewis Carrol):
"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."




Hello,

The interesting thing about the Jabberwocky and its contemporaries is that the poet was able to invent words that meant nothing, but which seemed to mean something, and in some cases you could discern the idea of what they meant because they sounded right for a particular idea.

"The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head he went galumphing back."

We do not necessarily need to know the words vorpal, snicker-snack, or galumphing in order to create a mental image of the scene. I like that.

So maybe the inclusion of invented slang in language isn't so bad, because all words are invented at some point. If they are in use, they are part of the language.

I still lament the absence of Realtor in that scrabble dictionary. It cost a challenge!

--Anthony



Carroll introduced a number of words into the English language, including portmanteau - combining two words to create a new one, chortled - a strange sort of laugh, and my favourite, galumphing - as in 'take your boots off and stop galumphing around the room'.

Shakespeare allegedly intriduced 1700 new words into English, including

# accommodation
# aerial
# amazement
# apostrophe
# assassination
# auspicious
# baseless
# bloody
# bump
# castigate
# changeful
# clangor
# control (noun)
# countless
# courtship
# critic
# critical
# dexterously
# dishearten
# dislocate
# dwindle
# eventful
# exposure
# fitful
# frugal
# generous
# gloomy
# gnarled
# hurry
# impartial
# inauspicious
# indistinguishable
# invulnerable
# lapse
# laughable
# lonely
# majestic
# misplaced
# monumental
# multitudinous
# obscene
# palmy
# perusal
# pious
# premeditated
# radiance
# reliance
# road
# sanctimonious
# seamy
# sportive
# submerge
# suspicious

kind of contradicts my original point, innit

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 2:21 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


What is quim, exactly? I didn't catch the hint dropped earlier when the word was first brought up.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 2:54 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Quote:

Originally posted by RionaEire:
What is quim, exactly? I didn't catch the hint dropped earlier when the word was first brought up.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya



Hello,

A quim is a vagina in my personal usage.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011 3:10 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


thanks, news to me.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 9:03 AM

JAYNEZTOWN


Wetin dat sheeeiiit dem bixnood we knows bout di dem dat death o dat Parasite dem actors n Korea fur realz n sheeeeeeiit

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/c902k19pgwzo

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