Friday 1 March 2013

Can you even sociolect?

Dat Language is Dope, yo.

Friendship groups appear to be creating neologistic patois on a daily basis, to ensure that any intruder is completely aware of their extreme exclusivity. Though it may appear, to an uninformed party, that they they simply can't even, these sociolects are more commonly understood than one might imagine.

We all remember primary school, inventing ridiculous attempts at new languages to appear more revolutionary than our peers. Though they consisted of nonsensical gutterals, they acted as the foundations for the commonplace speech use, the sociolect. However, the immensely complicated process of teaching these languages to our friends led us to face the harsh truth, that it would never catch on.

As secondary school comes along, sociolects take in a whole new element: the private joke. Spending time with an inseparable pair of buddies is made all the more unbearable when they begin to spout one liners, with no explanation as to why it would invoke any amount of humour. These 'in' jokes, were always strictly 'in' jokes, until recently.

There has been one recent invention that has sparked an explosion of sociolect, allowing people from all stretches of the globe to share in the same ridiculous twists on their mother tongue  the internet. Since this phenomenon hit the screens of every lonely soul in the western world, all manners of people have been referencing the same grumpy cat memes to impress their peers.

Suddenly, utterances like, "One does not simply butter one's toast" transform you into a comedic behemoth, when all you are commenting on is your inability to spread a condiment. Sitting staring at a mobile is now completely socially acceptable, so long as you produce a picture of a frog in a compromising situation every few minutes.

Though incredibly irritating, it is, in essence, a great linguistic development. For us to be able to travel to Spain and hold an amusing conversation about los socialmente torpe pingüino is simply astounding. Unfortunately  this will never happen, as it would require us to leave the safe confines of the bedroom. In fact  even if we were to embark on such an epic journey, by the time we had arrived the most grossing meme would have changed, and we would be nothing but mere noobs. Oh, Internet, why you so interchangeable?

Although I miss the days of old, where I was completely unaware of my peers' constant plagorism with humorous intent, it is a step forward for the common noob. No longer am I forced to sit in front of the television, notepad in hand, searching for quotable sections. All I now need to do is flick open my phone, and head straight for reddit. Dat convenience.

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