Re: YAEPT alert! [Re: Not phonetic but ___???]

Gary Shannon wrote:
> --- Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...> wrote:
> <snip>
>
> > Those people have access to French national TV
> > channels, but it seems that in reaction, they do all
> > they can to speak their own way.
>
> <snip>
>
> That's very interesting.  It might also be a reaction
> against the French tendancy to "police" their language
> more strictly than English.  Young people rebel
> against authority, but since English lacks any
> "authoritative" governing body there's not much to
> rebel against except convention, and conventions
> already vary widely enough that even in this area
> there is no single convention against which to rebel.
>
> Although the cockney ryhming slang is a similar
> attempt to define a certain in-group by deliberate
> language alteration.
>
My guess would be that the under-class, be it 19th C Irish-American, early
20th C. Italo-American, or in all times African-American (change the names
for the country of your choice-- Russo-Uzbek e.g.)
is going to develop a distinctive argot.  Whether to conceal illegal
activities or merely to épater les bougeoises..............

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