4 ms·
Before smartphones, television, etc, language was a much more significant source of entertainment in itself, and so people invested much more time in word play,
by wahern 4y ago
Before smartphones, television, etc, language was a much more significant source of entertainment in itself, and so people invested much more time in word play, or employing more descriptive and emotive vocabulary and phrases. I think this is why, for example, not too long ago you typically saw more colorful language in rural areas, especially before television became such a ubiquitous past-time, but after more modern entertainment like film became common in the cities and suburbs. This seems still somewhat true in less developed areas around the world, where "back country" folk sometimes have a peculiarly rich vocabulary and manner of speech compared to their counterparts from more urban, modern areas.
Imagine if we spent (intentionally or unintentionally) all the time we spend today learning to identify and applying pop-culture references to instead improving our vocabulary or using more expressive speech patterns. Or to put it another way, before mass consumer popular culture, expressive speech was the popular culture--stories, jokes, songs, turns-of-phrase, or just gossiping, but unlike those things today you had to add the flourish.
Maybe it's just all in my head, though.
- LAC-Tech 4y agoMaybe it's just all in my head, though. What you said makes perfect sense to me.
- brazzy 4y agoDoesn't mean that it's true, though.
- LAC-Tech 4y agowhat would you offer as an alternative explanation?
- tshaddox 4y agoThat unfamiliar language usage sounds more complicated or embellished simply because it’s unfamiliar.
- LAC-Tech 4y agoI disagree. We rarely have that reaction to obscure accents of dialects of English we're unfamiliar with. Usually the instinct is to laugh or belittle. Yet we hear this and we all know instinctively that it's a higher form than what we currently speak. Surely there's a reason for that.
- cholantesh 4y agoBecause of their association to period dramas and high culture.
- Foobar8568 4y agoBefore the 60s/70s, most interactions were through either radio or books. Then TV and now internet. Check the vocabulary used in these different eras and generations. At least, as a French, I can see large differences across generations. The downfall of book sales and libraries marks the end of good literacy.
- cosmodisk 4y agoHaving watched some interviews with people around that time or just tv programmes, it's just sad how we managed to go from eloquent language to dumb, three word expressions dominating today's world.
- rowanG077 4y agoWhy? For entertainment sure. But I fail to see the advantage of using "pretty" words when they don't convey additional meaning.
- henriquemaia 4y agoProbably because it sounds different, even foreign. If that was their language reality, they'd be out praising other way of speaking -- perhaps contemporary simplicity. You know, the greener grass is always where you're not.
- Supernaut 4y agoI think the advantage of the "pretty" words is that they can, in fact, convey additional meaning. It seems to me that people in general used to be have a far richer vocabular at their disposal. This allowed for fantastic nuance in conversation. The careful (but wholly instinctive) choice of words enabled a speaker to express complex thoughts and opinions through intimation and subtext. Nowadays, sarcasm is frequently employed for a similar purpose, but it's a much blunter tool. Note also the ubiquity of hyperbole: anything that people want to express approval of, no matter how banal or quotidian, is declared to be "incredible", "amazing", "game-changing". If something genuinely amazing comes along, how are we to describe it?
- littlelady 4y agoThere has certainly been a shift from the verbal to the visual in the last century, which undoubtedly impacted the "common man's" verbal fluency. Vocabulary has shifted from the "emotive" and "rich" descriptors to a verbal shorthand; like you I've found rural people have better preserved speech. While vocabulary and cadence are very obvious differences, I particularly notice how speakers in the past were able to construct a story--even in a casual manner. The difference in verbal skill between an adult from the 1950s and early 2000s is massive. Even news programs from the 1990s sound much more formal and precise than now. Personally, I've struggled since childhood with verbal coherence and cohesion and our "rapid fire" way of speaking limits practice opportunities.
- dustingetz 4y agocity folk trade more and salespersons relentlessly simplify language to increase reach - also managers as they scale become increasingly under attack and are forced to communicate defensively which means using common language. watch videos/podcasts of any successful CEO, elon musk for example communicates in memes
- praptak 4y agoLanguage is a class shibboleth even in the present days, even moreso in the Victorian era.
- _carbyau_ 4y agoIt's all just meme referencing.