6. The Origin of Slang

Slang is believed to have come to prominence in the early to mid 1800’s. It is frequently suggested that it began its life as a tongue of the street trader, perhaps in an attempt to conceal their often-illicit practices from the public or more importantly any illegal activities from the recently established police force.

Another area of speculation is how from being such a localized dialect it gained so much prominence; the suggestion here is that slang was adopted by the underworld, so it was the necessity of the police to learn this criminal language and by its subsequent publication in law enforcement manuals slang became widely known.

But the scholars consider slang to originate from the Standard English language itself. They mean that it was born as a well said thing, which would be wit in all languages.

Glossary

Kennings – Old Scandinavian and OE metaphoric circumlocutions, i.e. poetic compounds used instead of simple words: 3ūþ-wudu ‘battle-wood’ stood for spear, hēaþu-swāt ‘war-sweat’ for blood.

Slang – informal, non-standard words or phrases (lexical innovations) which tend to originate in subcultures within a society. In order for an expression to become slang, it must be widely accepted and adopted by members of the subculture or group.

Literature

A) Principal:

1. Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. – M., 1983. – Chapter XVI (P. 296-329).

B) Supplementary:

1. Залесская Л.Д. Пособие по истории английского языка для заочных отделений факультетов английского языка педагогических институтов. – М., 1984. – С.76-82.

2. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка… – С. 22-23, 35.

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