social status – Educational Sociolinguistics

Pandemic Language Shift

By Hannah Southwood

Van Herk (2018) explores how language changes based on place, social status and time. These three topics are entering a new phase experienced at more or less the same time due to the coronavirus pandemic. Two examples given by Van Herk (2018) explore the physical isolation of both Newfoundland English and Québec French. In both cases the languages were ‘cut off’ from the rest of the developing groups, both keeping some of the old language features.

We see the opposite happening on a global scale as business meetings and classes are taken online. Regardless of place, social status or time, similar words and phrases are becoming a part of our everyday vocabulary and understood across the globe. Some of these terms and phrases existed well before the pandemic, but because of their use are now common terms we associate with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here is a list of English medical terms and phrases that are commonplace now:

Physical & Social Distancing
Flatten the Curve
Epidemic & Pandemic
Respirator & Ventilator
Isolation & Quarantine
Asymptomatic
Contact tracing
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Here is a list of new terms and phrases in English:

Zoom Fatigue
Let’s Zoom
Covid bubble
Learning Pod or Class Bubble
Elbow bump
Blursday
Covidiot
New normal

Here are a few examples in other languages and their explanations:

Geisterspiel (German) for no fans in the stadium
Coronaspeck (German) for getting fat during covid
Quatorzaine (French) for 14-days of isolation

As you can see, unlike languages being cut off from others, here in our digital age with social media as a driving force, old words and phrases become ‘new’, important and forever associated with COVID-19. Newer words and phrases to deal with and explain the new normal will forever be in our vocabularies, pulling them out when needed and knowing others understand. I personally will continue using the word “blursday” because sometimes days blur together even without a pandemic.

Are there any new words or phrases I missed? Please leave them in the comments below.

References

Do you speak corona? A guide to covid-19 slang. (n.d.). The Economist. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://www.economist.com/1843/2020/04/08/do-you-speak-corona-a-guide-to-covid-19-slang

Jackson, P. (2020, April 14). Language of a pandemic: A glossary of commonly used words and phrases related to COVID-19. Thetelegram.com. https://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/language-of-a-pandemic-an-glossary-of-commonly-used-words-and-phrases-related-to-covid-19-437420/

Lawson, R. (n.d.). Coronavirus has led to an explosion of new words and phrases – and that helps us cope. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-has-led-to-an-explosion-of-new-words-and-phrases-and-that-helps-us-cope-136909

‌New words list April 2020. (n.d.). Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://public.oed.com/updates/new-words-list-april-2020/

The Coronavirus Slang Words That Are Defining This Outbreak. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://www.dictionary.com/e/s/new-words-we-created-because-of-coronavirus/#1

Van Herk, G. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? (Second, Ser. Linguistics in the world). John Wiley & Sons.

Informal Language and Social Membership

MunPat

“Social distinctions within communities, such as prestige and power, tend to be reflected in linguistic behavior” Gerard Van Herk (pg. 61, 2018)

As someone who did most of her schooling in French immersion, I have always been very confident in my ability to speak and write in French. However, over the years, I have learned that the way I speak French is slightly different compared to someone who went to a French school. I have also noticed that this subtle difference actually influences my status as a Quebecois.

Attending a French immersion school meant that most of my classes took place in French. The content was delivered in French and the linguistic features I learned were specific to each subject. Once, I stepped out of the classroom, English was the language of the hallways and between friends. Hence, informal conversations always took place in English and formal conversations were reserved for French. Consequently, the way I spoke French in casual conversations was very stiff and awkward. As stated by Gerard Van Herk (2018), second language learners usually discover that their way of speaking is a formal way of speaking, which is not suited for everyday conversations. However, going to a French school meant that the only language of communication inside the school was French, whether that was inside the classroom or in the halls with friends. Therefore, those students have more opportunities to engage in casual conversations that take place in informal French, which has been coined as Joual in Quebec.

Over the years, I have learned that my informal French language skills make me sound like an outsider in my own province to other French Quebecois. One stark example of this attitude is when my friend, who went to a French school, and I went to a restaurant. I gave my order to the waiter and he was very respectful and did not engage in any further conversation. However, when my friend ordered, there was an ease and familiarity between the two of them. Their interaction was longer as he gave her suggestions and made jokes. This was definitely a moment where I experienced linguistic insecurity as defined by Van Herk (2018). I was very conscious of how my choice of language influenced my social status in the eyes of the waiter.

My experience in Quebec has shown me that having the ability to speak in the informal language of a given community allows you to be recognized as a more legitimate member of the society. Gerard Van Herk (2018) describes this as “covert prestige”, where the non-standard language carries a hidden positive connotation. Since informal language showcases a level of comfortableness and naturalness that is absent in formal language, I think native speakers of that language are more likely to treat you as “one of their own”.

1.Have you ever changed the way you spoke due to experiencing linguistic insecurity?
2.Do you have any other examples of how language influences social status?

References:

Van Herk, G.(2018). What is sociolinguistics? (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.

Mexican slang: What does it mean to be a “fresa”?

Silvia Nunez

During the last weeks, I have been reading, studying and learning how our environment shapes and reshapes our language everyday. Every encounter that we have with another person, the place where we live, our cultural background and even the media we are exposed to, influence the way we speak, think and communicate. Therefore, it is common to find different variations of the same language in diverse contexts. As Van Herk (2018) describes, the most studied so far, analyze the different types of Englishes around the world. But, not only the English language has varieties, there are also other languages changing in subtle ways that only people from their local communities could identify. That is the case of the fresa style in Mexico, where the Spanish language varies not only at the lexical level, but also in relation to the status a person has in society.

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/set-4-kawaii-strawberry-with-different-happy-expressions_5685676.htm

Being a fresa (which translates to the word strawberry) means that you belong to the “privileged Mexican youth, who have an expensive lifestyle, behave pretentiously and who speak Mexican Spanish very distinctively”. (Gómez, 2014 p. 86). It is someone who is active in social media apps and loves to communicate with his friends. (In this video you can find a brief explanation about it).

One of the special tendencies of this group is to closely follow the American culture, and consequently, they can also include some English words in their everyday conversations. This feature makes it become one of the most controversy slangs in Mexico, because it has been criticized by people who think it devaluates the Spanish language.

Here I describe 5 of the most representative linguistic features of a fresa:

Mixing English and Spanish: “¡Te ves super cute!” (‘You look super cute’): meaning that you look so good that there are not spanish words to describe it. “O sea, hello?” (‘I mean, hello?’): meaning seriously?
Tendency to shortening some words: obviamente (‘obviously’) as obvi or literal (‘literal’) as lit or Whatsapp as wa
Intonation: every phrase is emitted as a question
Vowels are lengthened more than usual: ¿Eso es todooooooo? (‘Is that aaaaall?’)
Frequent use of the words: use of güey (‘dude’) at the end of the phrases: Fui a mi casa güey, y no lo encontré güey. (‘I went to my home dude, and I couldn’t find it dude’).

So, if you ever visit Mexico and you are lucky, maybe you could recognize a fresa. Now you know that in my country, people not only speak the proper forms of the Spanish language, but there are also other types of slangs that you could find. Today we reviewed in a glance just the fresa style, but there are many other variations such as: chilango, naco or norteño that we could talk about any other day.

References:

Gomez, R. M. (2014). Language ideology in Mexico: The case of fresa style in Mexican Spanish. Texas Linguistics Forum (57) p. 86-95.

Van Herk, Gerard. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? 2e Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.