About "slang"

Very interesting topic, Gitaardocphil.

Here's my take:

Slang is one of the things that makes the American language such a cool medium.

We have so many ways of saying things. This, I would assume, makes "Americanese" harder to learn, but also adds to the poetic quality of the language. A writer can lend an emotion or a mood to a passage by the slang which is used. Much of our (American) slang is regional and its use can identify where someone is from.

For example, in the midwest, if you were thirsty, you might order a "pop". If you were from the south, you would order a "soda". If you ordered a soda in the north, you would be given an antacid (baking soda and water). 

Some of our slang is used purely for "color" in our language. We say things like "cut the rug" "get your groove on" and other (and more current) phrases which mean to dance. Certainly all of our slang is not sexual, but I suppose a lot of it is.

I think the sexual slang is usually a social courtesy. It would be considered rude to say certain things publicly, so we use inuendo and inference to get our point across. This has become so profuse, that some people try to be as obscure in their references as possible, but the point is still taken. In this manner, ANYTHING can be construed as inuendo. (i.e. "I'd like to butter her muffin" or "We really 'cleaned the carpet' if you know what I mean")

This kind of stuff, in my opinion, is the hot sauce on life's chicken wing. What would language be without slang? Boring, stiff, and much less fun!

Great topic. I would love to see what others have to say about it.

Slang is "improper" English.

upyerkilt is talking about two things: accents and dialects.
We have a profusion of both here. too.

Most notably, the southern "drawl", and the New York accent.

We also have some dialects.

I have traveled just about every region of this country (except the Pacific Northwest), and I have found several dialects:

In southern Texas, many folks, especially in small towns along the boarder, speak what I have heard called "Texican", which is a blend of Spanish and English.

The folks in the Northwest, and Northern Midwest (The Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota notably) have a large scandanavian (?) influence on their culture and language, while, in Charleston, SC (and possibly Beaufort, SC, and Savannah, GA) some of the old-timers speak what is colloquially called "geechy". This is a combination of Gaelic and English mixed with bad grammar and poor pronounciation (and enunciation) which results in a language that is hardly recognizable to those on the outside.

Language fascinates me.

I'm from Appalachia.  A Pennsylvania Ridgerunner through and through.  I've been living in Virginia for over half my life now, though, so I've got a mix of pronunciations and sayings.

Appalachian adds a lot of "a"s in their accent.  We talk about nackles (nickles) and pallows (pillows).  We use double or even triple negatives.  We use German grammar and English words.  My Momma had an old country saying for everything.  If you didn't already know what the saying meant, you wouldn't have figured it out from context. 

I thought the Pennsylvania Ridgerunner dialect/accent/slang accumulation was a mess.  Now I work in government contracting.  We are rife with acronyms.  The acronyms have taken on meaning all their own and have become slang.  Amazing.  I feel sorry for newcomers to the industry.  They'll have a hard time figuring out what the heck we're saying.

- Zurf

no need to appologise.
It is difficult to tell things when you dont actually live in a place. I should know, I am always saying things that are wrong,

I know what you are saying though about accents. You still get people with very strong scottish accents but will pronounce their P's and Q's. and would never pronounce the word House as hoose. So it is not really accents. There are many accents in scotland ( even though on the telly they all sound the same)
It is ..... it is.... I just forgot what I was going to say.........
errrrrmmmmm,
Na forget it.
aye, so slang is when yer not speaking proper english, or like I said and Lieven has found too, Londoners ( the cockneys on the east of london) have rhyming slang where they will pronounce the words but say things like dog and bone for phone, just like a secret code. I dont see why though, it is much easier just to say phone.

Ken

That, Mr. Frankster, is refered to as the "Generation Gap"! 

I was in California last week, and wanted to get my daughter something from there. I went into a surf shop and felt as if I lost 30 IQ points. I saw many cool T-shirts that looked very "West Coast", but I was afraid to get them because I didn't know what the saying on them meant! I might end up getting her a "hook up" shirt or something!

The more I learn, the less I know. I never realized what a big goober I was until my daughter hit her "tweens".

I ended up shopping at the airport. I know what "San Diego" means!