Thammasat University students interested in language and linguistics, the history of the English language, semantics, sociolinguistics, literature, and related subjects may find it useful to read A Thesaurus of English Dialect and Slang: England, Wales and the Channel Islands by Jonnie Robinson.

Dr. Robinson is Lead Curator of Spoken English at the British Library, London, the United Kingdom.

He is a dialectologist, or someone who studies regional differences in speech sounds. He has a particular interest in British accents and dialects.

His book is available to TU students from the Cambridge Core collection database on the TU Library website. It may be downloaded by using TU-WiFi at this link.

The TU Library collection includes several other books on different aspects of English dialect and slang.

A thesaurus or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding words that mean the same thing, or sometimes also words that mean the opposite, of certain terms.

Dialect and slang are different things in language study. Dialect refers to a variety of language spoken in a certain geographical area or spoken by a particular group of people.

Slang is an informal nonstandard variety of speech consisting of newly invented and quickly changing words and phrases.

Slang has a distinctive vocabulary, while dialect often displays differences in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

In different parts of the UK, there are many imaginative different ways of saying the same thing. For example, if an English person in one area wishes to say that another one is not beautiful, one expression used may be that the person in question has a face like a bag of chisels or a face like a bag of hammers.

In another region, it might be said that the person was beat with the ugly stick or hit over the head with the ugly stick.

Elsewhere, the person may be described as having a face like a fiddle or a face like a well-chewed caramel or a face like the back of a bus.

In other areas of the UK, the unfortunate object of such descriptions may be said to have fallen out of the ugly tree (and hit every branch on the way down).

Many other expressions exist which are amusing if they are not being applied to us or our friends, and some are quite rude.

By studying these expressions, we learn more about any language while having fun, because many of the terms are meant to be amusing.

Here is a brief video by Jonnie Robinson explaining his field of study.

The Encyclopædia Britannica, a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia, defines slang as

unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way. It is flippant, irreverent, indecorous; it may be indecent or obscene. Its colourful metaphors are generally directed at respectability, and it is this succinct, sometimes witty, frequently impertinent social criticism that gives slang its characteristic flavour. Slang, then, includes not just words but words used in a special way in a certain social context. The origin of the word slang itself is obscure; it first appeared in print around 1800, applied to the speech of disreputable and criminal classes in London. The term, however, was probably used much earlier.

Other related types of nonstandard word usage include cant and jargon, synonyms for vague and high-sounding or technical and esoteric language not immediately intelligible to the uninitiate. In England, the term cant still indicates the specialized speech of criminals, which, in the United States, is more often called argot. The term dialect refers to language characteristic of a certain geographic area or social class.

Slang emanates from conflicts in values, sometimes superficial, often fundamental. When an individual applies language in a new way to express hostility, ridicule, or contempt, often with sharp wit, he may be creating slang, but the new expression will perish unless it is picked up by others. If the speaker is a member of a group that finds that his creation projects the emotional reaction of its members toward an idea, person, or social institution, the expression will gain currency according to the unanimity of attitude within the group. A new slang term is usually widely used in a subculture before it appears in the dominant culture…

Sources

Most subcultures tend to draw words and phrases from the contiguous language (rather than creating many new words) and to give these established terms new and special meanings; some borrowings from foreign languages, including the American Indian tongues, are traditional. The more learned occupations or professions like medicine, law, psychology, sociology, engineering, and electronics tend to create true neologisms, often based on Greek or Latin roots, but these are not major sources for slang, though nurses and medical students adapt some medical terminology to their slang, and air force personnel and some other branches of the armed services borrow freely from engineering and electronics.

Linguistic processes forming slang

The processes by which words become slang are the same as those by which other words in the language change their form or meaning or both. Some of these are the employment of metaphor, simile, folk etymology, distortion of sounds in words, generalization, specialization, clipping, the use of acronyms, elevation and degeneration, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, borrowings from foreign languages, and the play of euphemism against taboo…

Slang invades the dominant culture as it seeps out of various subcultures. Some words fall dead or lie dormant in the dominant culture for long periods. Others vividly express an idea already latent in the dominant culture and these are immediately picked up and used. Before the advent of mass media, such terms invaded the dominant culture slowly and were transmitted largely by word of mouth…

Slang is used for many purposes, but generally it expresses a certain emotional attitude; the same term may express diametrically opposed attitudes when used by different people. Many slang terms are primarily derogatory, though they may also be ambivalent when used in intimacy or affection. Some crystallize or bolster the self-image or promote identification with a class or in-group. Others flatter objects, institutions, or persons but may be used by different people for the opposite effect…

There are many other uses to which slang is put, according to the individual and his place in society. Since most slang is used on the spoken level, by persons who probably are unaware that it is slang, the choice of terms naturally follows a multiplicity of unconscious thought patterns. When used by writers, slang is much more consciously and carefully chosen to achieve a specific effect. Writers, however, seldom invent slang.

It has been claimed that slang is created by ingenious individuals to freshen the language, to vitalize it, to make the language more pungent and picturesque, to increase the store of terse and striking words, or to provide a vocabulary for new shades of meaning. Most of the originators and purveyors of slang, however, are probably not conscious of these noble purposes and do not seem overly concerned about what happens to their language.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)