6 ms·
Since no-one else mentioned it yet in this subthread, the phenomenon you are discussing is called a sociolect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolect https://
by henrikschroder 11y ago
Since no-one else mentioned it yet in this subthread, the phenomenon you are discussing is called a sociolect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolect
Basically, since class is culture, and cultures have language, a sociolect describes the language of a class, the ways you have to talk to perform that class.
And, naturally, this goes both ways. Someone talking the sociolect of a certain class is seen as performing that class, and therefore belonging to the class.
It should also be noted that the original article is itself a class performance! The author uses more complex words and grammar than necessary, thereby signalling academia or professional class. (Someone in the comments on that page wondered why this article had a more complex language compared to other articles by the same author, but didn't connect the dots...)
- WalterBright 11y agoBack in the middle ages, when the French conquered Britain, the ruling class spoke French and the peasants spoke English. A lot of French words flowed into English as a result. But even today, if people use the words of French origin rather than the old English words, one is regarded as being from the upper class, such as using 'purchase' instead of 'buy'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_French_origin#Historical_context https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Frenc...
- benpbenp 11y agoThe tendency to use "fancier" vocabulary has actually been noted as a tendency of the non-Upper class. Cf. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English
- radiowave 11y agoThe language of aspiration. I like to think that "re-architect" is non-U.
- rwjwjuwjudf 11y agoPeople also use something like that to mask a lack of knowledge / experience / understanding / intelligence. Once in a while someone uses big words so well it's poetry, but those people are the exception.
- WalterBright 11y agoTechnobabble is a prime example of that. (Star Trek TNG is a hilarious example of pseudo-science jibber jabber.)
- wizardforhire 11y agoTech the tech!
- 13of40 11y agoIt's interesting to watch how, in a big tech project, a director or architect will occasionally start using a word like "corpus", "idempotent", "assert", etc. and it will trickle down the layers of the team. By the time the keypunch guy is using it, it's gone out of fashion, like last year's suit.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- wizardforhire 11y agoKnowing this, it's fun to purposely mispronounce words to see if it will catch on...
- facetube 11y agoGo all the way IMO: make up the words and see if they catch on.
- wizardforhire 11y agoAbsolutely! I'd like to add, high culture is also used as a term for cultures that are insular and use lots of culturally specific vocabulary. The Southern Culture and accent is actually considered high culture by many anthropologists! By the same token... So is tech culture... Even when it's really annoying stupid fat lazy and mysogonistic and repeating the same problems in a different language that were solved before computers were even invented!!! Wrap your head around that one! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-_and_low-context_cultures https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-_and_low-context_cultur...
- your_ai_manager 11y agoI never thought I'd say that rare pepes are elements of high culture.
- IkmoIkmo 11y ago> Back in the middle ages, when the French conquered Britain, the ruling class spoke French and the peasants spoke English. This features quite a bit in War and Peace, too. As tensions increase between France and Russia as Napoleon takes over much of Europe and war between the countries looms, you'll find Russian nobility taking Russian language classes, because their first language is French!
- kyllo 11y agoCultures vary from country to country, but the elites, they're all one and the same.
- JetSpiegel 11y agoThat's the reason for the animal/meat duality, right? Such as pig/pork, beef/cow. The working classes spoke English and dealt with the live animals, the elites just ate them.
- cmurf 11y agochicken, duck, goose, pheasant, squab / poultry?
- davidgay 11y agoOne of those doesn't belong before the /: Pheasant: from Old French fesan. (the current french is faisan).
- CWuestefeld 11y agoThis is a funny aspect of English. In general, we distinguish the meat of mammals (beef, pork, venison, mutton, ...), but non-mammals are their meat (fish, chicken, ...). But I don't think this is well explained by a class distinction. I mean, the classes of people who raised sheep weren't so different from the people who raised chickens.
- Ended 11y agoHowever this comes with the interesting caveat that the English upper classes don't like to appear too French, especially when it comes to pronunciation, where using the foreign pronunciation can be considered rather lower class. This is reflected in class shibboleths such as: Upper class: valet [val-ett], fillet [fill-ett]. Middle class or lower: valet [val-ay], fillet [fill-ay]. Upper class: claret [clar-ett] (from French clairet). Middle class or lower: Bordeaux.
- 762236 11y agoI could see the author choose more complicated vocabulary (superfluously) as she progressed through her introduction, and I took it as a demonstration of what she was talking about.
- adambard 11y agoIt may have been intentional or it may not have; I could hardly fault her for subconsciously "performing" given the context.