U.S. DEPARTMENT 0F STATE / BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION PROGRAMSSociety & Values: Volume 12, Number 8International Information Programs:
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George ClackRichard W. Huckaby
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The Editors acknowledge the generous contribution of images and videos,some of which represent commercial products. Our grateful use of theimages in no way constitutes an endorsement of the products by the U.S.
Department of State.
The title of this issue,“Dynamic English,” is meant to describe our subject
matter: the changing state of modern American English. The journal is
not connected to any other program, publication, or product associatedwith the words “dynamic English.”Society & Values

The Bureau of International Information Programs of
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About This Issue

eJOURNAL USA© AP Images/Charles Krupa

In his article “Change Is Gonna Do Ya Good,” Ilan
Stavans points out that the challenge for dictionaries
and those who produce them is the fact that as soon
as a list is made of every possible word, and each word’s
meanings, that list, and those meanings, are alreadybeginning to be out of date. A similar challenge exists
in describing the forces that influence a language inillustrating the types of changes, and in describing theprocess. We have titled this journal “Dynamic English”
because it explores the way the world’s most commonlyused language is evolving in the 21st century under thepressures of technology, globalization, and immigration.
Most people encounter at least one new English word
or usage each day, especially those who watch popular
media or spend time reading blogs and other Web sites.
Americans who spend time living in other countries areespecially aware of changes in our language. Either wemeet Americans abroad or return to the United States
after an assignment in another country, to be surprisedby new words and phrases and by how widespread they
seem to be despite the fact that we’ve just encounteredthem. By the time I heard “24/7” for the first time, it was
already in nearly universal use to indicate issues, services,or programs that are in effect 24 hours a day, seven daysa week. And I won’t soon forget the shock of briefing acollege student who, upon learning something surprising,exclaimed, “Shut-up!” The fact that her advisors andfellow students found nothing unusual in this exchange
was a clue that this might be a new use for the term I’dalways been taught was rude. Apparently it had developed
a meaning along the lines of “No way!” or “You’rekidding!”
All living languages evolve, and English seems tochange more readily than some others. In Inventing
English: A Portable History of the Language, linguist Seth
Lerer reviews changes in English through the ages, from
Beowulf through Chaucer, to Webster’s efforts to create
new spellings and usages in American English from theEnglish forms, to current changes in the language. He
credits Shakespeare alone with coining nearly 6,000 new
words. Nor is this phenomenon new for the American
version of the language. The Public Broadcasting System(PBS) television network, which produced a series ofprograms entitled Do You Speak American?, credits
Thomas Jefferson as the U.S. president who added themost new words (so far). The program’s Web site explains“Ginormous” is one of about 100 new words to be added to
the next printing of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

the relationship between language and culture this way:
Language sows its own seeds of change; social context
gives it the fertile ground to grow and spread.
But are these changes good? The creators of the PBS
series asked, “Are we less literate than we used to be? Is
e-mail ruining the language?” In his 2001 collection of
essays, The Way We Talk Now, Geoffrey Nunberg points
out that “American English has always been pretty open
about borrowing words from other languages.” His viewis that mixing elements from different cultures, whether
it’s language or food, can produce new, interesting, andsatisfying results. Nunberg finds more to criticize inexperts who complain about language change, sure thatthey are smarter than the language (or its users), than inthose who create and spread new words and uses. Lerer
agrees with most of our contributors, writing, “We should
not see our language as debased. The history of English
is a history of invention: of finding new words and newselves, of coining phrases that may gather currency in alinguistic marketplace.”
As Nunberg writes in the introduction to a 2004
collection of his essays, changes in language can serve
as clues to important changes in society itself. Lists ofcharacteristics and values that define American culture
include words like change, innovation, melting pot,practicality, directness. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then,that American English is constantly changing and thatthose changes mirror other changes in the culture.
Robin L. Yeager

Society & Values

SOCIETY & VALUES
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE / AUGUST 2007 / VOLUME 12 / NUMBER 8

http://usinfo.state.gov/pub/ejournalusa.html

Dynamic English
4 Change Is Gonna Do Ya GoodILAN STAVANS, PROFESSOR OF LATIN AMERICAN
AND LATINO CULTURE, AMHERST COLLEGE,AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS
English, like all living languages, is vibrant,
unpredictable, and ever-changing.

19 What’s New? The Effect of Hip-Hop
Culture on Everyday English
EMMETT G. PRICE III, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR,
MUSIC AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES,NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS
The urban lexicon of the hip-hop generation has
crossed over to mainstream America.

7 Unraveling the Mysteries: Tools for
Decoding Slang
A. C. KEMP, DIRECTOR OF THE SLANG CITY WEB
SITE AND INSTRUCTOR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
STUDIES, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OFTECHNOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
The Internet provides numerous Web sites that
help readers understand American slang.

22 Spanglish: Speaking la Lengua Loca
ILAN STAVANS, PROFESSOR OF LATIN AMERICAN AND
LATINO CULTURE, AMHERST COLLEGE, AMHERST,MASSACHUSETTS
In the United States, Spanish and English havemixed to form a hybrid language.

11

The Language of Blogging
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS
Reprint from Handbook for Bloggers and CyberDissidents

25 From Arabic to English
ALAN PIMM-SMITH, JOURNALIST AND TEACHER
Hundreds of English words derive from the Arabic
language.

13

Youth Speak
ROBIN FRIEDMAN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR
Young people are at the forefront of coining slang
expressions.

29 Arabic in the Saddle
GARY PAUL NABHAN, AUTHOR
Many English words relating to horses andhorsemanship came from Arabic by way of Spanish.

16

Game On! Sports and Recreation
Idioms in American English
JEAN HENRY, AUTHOR AND TEACHER
Because of their popularity in the United States,
sports and games have contributed many idioms
to the language.

31 Additional Resources

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Video Online• ATT/Cingular Wireless Telephone Commercial:
IDK, My BFF Jill
A mother and daughter speak to each otherusing the letter system teens use for text
messaging – broadcast of this humorous andexaggerated commercial included thesubtitles shown.
AT&T commercial by BBDO
• Hip-HopThis promotion for the Independent Lens
television series documentary film about thephenomenon of hip-hop shows many of theimages and introduces themes included in theEmmet Price article, “What’s New? The Effectof Hip-Hop Culture on Everyday English,”included in this journal.
Video courtesy ITVS

http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0807/ijse/ijse0807.htm

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Change Is Gonna Do Ya Good

© AP Images/Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Geoff Crimmins

Ilan Stavans

Eight-year-olds look at their new dictionaries.

Language, by its nature, is a living, ever-changing force insociety. The author celebrates that fact and discusses some of
the influences that have contributed to the dynamism of the
English language in particular. Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring
Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst
College in Amherst, Massachusetts. His books include
Dictionary Days (Graywolf ) and Love and Language (Yale
University Press).

(home, work, friends, etc.). In truth, the inventory ofwords is never set. It isn’t only that as individuals we arein constant change but language as such isn’t static. The
OED, as a historical lexicon, keeps on growing. It includes
more entries today than ever. But a vast number of entries— they are called “voices” — are archaic, barely used
today.
All of which points out two opposing forces
constantly at work on our language: ephemerality anddurability. Only dead languages are static. Think ofAramaic, for example. Its use today is generally limited
to scholars of history or religion. Hence, there’s no needto come up with equivalents for “fax,” “soft money,”and “steroids.” Its lexicon is stable. On the other hand,
many modern languages (for example Mandarin, English,
Spanish, French, Russian, and Arabic) are in flux. To
survive, they are constantly reaching out, importing
foreign terms while, at the same time, exporting their
database to other tongues. The large waves of migrationHow many words are there in the English
language? According to the Oxford English
Dictionary (OED), a total of more than
600,000. Each of us, of course, has the capacity toremember but a fraction. How many exactly? Depends
on whom you ask. A person’s vocabulary goes throughdramatic transformation in life: from a handful of words
by a babbling baby and the jargon-driven repertoire of theteenager, to the displays used by adults in different settings
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© AP Images/Shawn Baldwin

The mix of faces in this urban street scene mirrors the make-up of modern society in the United States, and helps explain how languages blend.

of the modern world, along with the instant technology
we’ve devised (television, radio, movies, the Internet),encourage verbal cross-fertilization. How many Germanic
words does the English language contain? And how many
Anglicisms are accepted in Spanish? The answer, again: alot. The tension between the ephemeral and the enduringis the key to life: A language cannot be altered so muchas to erase its core; but the core alone doesn’t make thelanguage vibrant.
Needless to say, some tongues are more versatile thanothers. I was born in Mexico. Soon after immigrating
to the United States in 1985 (to New York City, tobe precise), I was struck by the resourcefulness ofAmerican English. A simple ride on the subway would
bring me into contact with dozens of different tongues.
The common element was everyone’s desire to master
English. Yet that desire clashed with the ubiquity of thelanguages people brought with them from their placesof origin. The result was a mishmash, a Babel-like mix.
In other words, no matter where I went, the English
I heard was impure, contaminated, always interactingwith other codes of communication. Like me, millionsof immigrants learn English on the street. Some might
have access to more formal training, but even they areshaped by the pervasiveness of popular culture. And pop
culture doesn’t adhere to strict rules. It enjoys being jazzy,
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unpredictable, chaotic. Hence, to understand how thelanguage works through that means is to appreciate its
freedom.
In my personal library I have a large collectionof dictionaries. The majority are monolingual. A few
are historical. I have some defined by national andgeographic coordinates: a lexicon of Argentine Spanish,
another one of English in the Southwest, and a third of
French in Quebec. I have dictionaries shaped around a
discipline: medical, sports, and advertising lexicons. Plus,
I have bilingual and even multilingual ones, such as my
two-volume Hebrew-Greek-Latin. Having them next tome serves as inspiration. The building blocks of all thepoetry ever composed — from the Bible, Homer, andDante, to Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Allen Ginsberg,
and Derek Walcott — is included in them, in scrambled
fashion, obviously. For me poets are “discoverers” oflanguage: They make sense by bringing order to language,a new order, unlike any that came before.
Dictionaries are an essential tool for keeping alanguage in cohesive form. They are manuals of usage
and receptacles of wisdom. They are also memory boxes
containing the way past speakers utilized words. They
can also be instruments of coercion. In times of politicalrepression, tyrannical regimes use them as proof thatrebels are misusing terms, i.e., misappropriating the5Society & Values© AP Images/Lynne Sladky

From Nicaragua, Thailand, and Ecuador, these three new Americans join approximately 6,000 others from all over the world who became
naturalized U.S. citizens at ceremonies in Miami Beach, Florida, on June 13, 2007.

collective heritage. What I find most endearing, andfrustrating, in dictionaries, is their inefficacy. By nature,
their ambition is always defeated. The moment a new
hard-bound edition of the OED is released, its content isalready dated. The thousands of words coined by people
since the manuscript went to press aren’t in it. Hence, as
in the myth of Sisyphus, its makers have to get at it again,
immediately, incessantly, endlessly. But they’ll neverfully succeed, for they are attempting the impossible:
to contain language, to make it manageable. By its very
nature, a living language is boisterous, its energy neverending.
In an earlier paragraph I mentioned immigration.
When it comes to American English — as the American
journalist H.L. Mencken understood perfectly — its
resourcefulness depends on the invigorating presence ofimmigrants arriving to the nation from every corner ofthe world. If the country performs its functions properly,
those immigrants, in a relatively short period of time, will
acquire enough English-language skills to become part ofthe social mosaic. But their assimilation is never a oneway street. As immigrants become Americans, the UnitedStates is altered too by their presence. This interchange isSociety & Values

particularly recognizable at the level of language. Just as
the Irish, Scandinavian, and Jewish newcomers became
fluent speakers, so did the nation’s tongue incorporate
voices, expressions, syntactical patterns, and other verbal
dexterities they brought along with them. And the rest of
the population embraced those elements.
I’m hardly surprised to find out, as I often do, that agenerous portion of lexicographers come from immigrantfamilies. Their parents are the ones who learned English.
Consequently, in the domestic realm, words were
frequently contested. Why is this term spelled in such a
way? What about its pronunciation? What are its roots?
I know it from experience: Immigrants are converts.
Having come to a language from outside, they embrace
it with conviction, studying its rules with a zeal native
speakers seldom share.
So to the question of how many words are there in
the English language, my recommended answer is: notenough, ever. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views orpolicies of the U.S. government.

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Unraveling the Mysteries: Tools for
Decoding Slang© 2007 Jupiterimages Corporation

A.C. Kemp

How do you figure out what a word means if it’s not in the dictionary?

English is often perplexing to students of the language andto native speakers alike. The author reveals several ways tofind the meanings of new slang expressions. A.C. Kemp is
the director of the American slang Web site Slang City [http://www.slangcity.com]. She teaches in the English Language
Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But while all those official words can make thelanguage difficult for English learners, even more puzzling
are the unofficial ones: the lexicon of the street, popular
culture, and insider groups. Even native speakers canbe baffled by these seemingly unbreakable codes, as any
parent with teenage children will tell you.
That doesn’t mean you can’t find the clues to solvethese linguistic mysteries, though. With a little work andan Internet connection, you can be a veritable Sherlock
Holmes of English.
Often, the first step is tofind out what you’re looking
for. In popular music, forexample, singers rarely take care
to pronounce words clearly. In
fact, misunderstanding song
lyrics is so common that there
is a popular Web site [http:It can take master detective//www.kissthisguy.com] devoted
work to decode slang.
to such mistakes. To complicate

S

ince I began teaching English-as-a-second language
classes 12 years ago, I’ve often heard complaints
from students that the more words they learn, themore unfamiliar words they encounter.
I understand their frustration. One of the greatest
challenges in learning a language is mastering its
vocabulary, and English is said to have more words
than any other. While estimates vary, the second editionof the Oxford English Dictionary defines more than
170,000 words in current use — a daunting number that
continues to grow every year.
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Society & Values© AP Images/The Tennessean, John Partipilo© AP Images/Chris Pizzello© AP Images/Tony Avelar

The Simpson’s Movie reminds viewers of the special exclamations andphrases the show has made famous.

San Francisco-based rapper E-40 has created so many new words hecalls himself the “King of Slanguistics.”
Kiefer Sutherland is the star of the television
show 24.

matters, when we hear a strange word, our brains naturally
tend to substitute something more familiar. Thus, San
Francisco rapper E-40’s call for listeners to “get hyphy”(go crazy) may be heard as “get high fee” (be charged a lotof money) by those who don’t know that regional slang
expression.
Happily, there are a remarkable number of online
song lyric sites created by fans, and, even better, musicians
frequently post the words to their songs on their official
Web sites. Likewise, many television and movie transcripts
are available on the Web, in case you have questions about
what you heard on The Simpsons or 24. Typed directly
Society & Values

from the finished programs, these documents are moreaccurate than scripts, which can change during filming.
Once you know what the word is, it’s time to look
for a definition. Believe it or not, it doesn’t hurt to startwith a standard dictionary. Many add new words every
year, and you can conveniently search more than a dozen
online dictionaries at the same time at Onelook [http://www.onelook.com].
If you’re looking for brand-new street terms and slang,
the largest Web reference is Urban Dictionary [http://www.urbandictionary.com]. This site’s content is user-generated;anyone can add a word and hundreds of young people do
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the word “glossary” or “dictionary.” Amazingly, suchmini-dictionaries exist for nearly every sport, hobby, andprofession.
Whichever resource you consult, always rememberthat just as a good mystery writer throws red herrings(false clues) into the story, English can trick you withwords that have more than one meaning. If an American
teenager told you that your favorite T-shirt was “sick,”for example, you might feel insulted. However, inslang, “sick” can be a glowing compliment. Read all thedefinitions and choose the one that best fits the context
in which you heard it.
Still, it can be difficult to interpret the meaning ofseveral street words used together, especially if the context
includes obscure cultural references. For this reason, I
developed Slang City [http://www.slangcity.com], which
offers detailed explanations of movie quotes and popularsongs.
Finally, there are some cases in which, as we say
in English, a picture is worth a thousand words. For
instance, Urban Dictionary’s definition of “skanking”
explains that it is a dance to Ska music that looks like“running in place while flailing your arms.” If that’s
hard to imagine, a quick search on YouTube [http://
www.youtube.com] will provide you with dozens of videos
showing how this strange dance is performed, as well
as auditory examples of the musical style. You can alsofind visual representations of slang words for hairstyles,
car accessories, gestures, and more on photo-sharing
databases like Flickr [http://www.flickr.com]. Each picture
is marked with descriptive tags,
making it easy to find what
you’re looking for.
As you can see, for every
kind of English, there is a
resource online. Sherlock
Holmes may have had just one
Watson to help him, but forthe detective of English words,
there are hundreds of online
assistants ready to reveal the
language’s secrets. Unravelingthe mysteries of this constantly
evolving language is just amouse click away.
You might also want tocheck out some of these othersites not previously mentioned:© AP Images/Cameron Blochso every day. The definitions are rated by other visitors forcorrectness, and the entry with the most positive feedback
is moved to the top, resulting in better accuracy.
This system has advantages and disadvantages.
On one hand, if there are not many votes, you can’t be
sure that a definition is correct. On the other hand, it
encourages multiple submissions for the same word,
increasing your chances of locating the facts you need.
For example, the word “n00b”, which describes a new
and inexperienced player in online computer games, isvery unusually spelled; you’d be unlikely to think of using
zeros for the letter “O” unless you’d seen it that way inprint. However, on this site, you can also find definitions
for it spelled “noob,” “nube,” or “newb.”
If Urban Dictionary is the place to go for new
language straight from the teens that use it, the smaller
Double-Tongued Dictionary [http://www.doubletongued.org]
is a great spot for learning freshly coined slang andjargon you might find in print sources like newspapers
and magazines. This site, which is frequently updated,
includes definitions and numerous examples of real-lifeusage for terms in fields as diverse as business, sports, andpolitics.
Since many kinds of slang are specific to one
group, if you are watching a skateboarding competition,
reading a book about American cowboys in the 19th
century, or listening to hip-hop music, you might wantto consult a specialized reference. To find such insider
guides, try searching online for your topic along with

YouTube videos can provide slang examples.
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9Society & Values© AP Images/Franka Bruns

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and friends have given many new words to their audience.

A Sampler of Unusual Online Mini-Dictionaries

Song Lyric and Television/Movie Transcript Sites

The Rap Dictionary: http://rapdict.org
Slang from rap music

Leo’s Lyrics: http://www.leoslyrics.com/
Song lyric database that allows you to search for artist,
title, or keywords

Old West Legends: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WESlang.html
1800s slang from the American West

Drew’s Script-O-Rama: http://www.script-o-rama.com
Scripts and transcripts from new and old movies andtelevision shows

Skateboarding Glossary: http://www.exploratorium.edu/
skateboarding/largeglossary.html
Glossary of skateboarding terms from the San Francisco
Exploratorium, including videos of tricks

Twiz TV: http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/
Television transcripts from popular shows, including
many new programs (Note: Unfortunately, this useful sitefeatures pop-up ads.) Slang from the Great Depression: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/hess/Slang/slang.html
Slang terms from 1928-1941

Society & Values

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views orpolicies of the U.S. government.

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THE LANGUAGE OF BLOGGING
From Pointblog.com
Blogroll — List of external links appearing on ablog, often links to other blogs and usually in acolumn on the homepage. Often amounts to a “subcommunity” of bloggers who are friends.
Blogware — Software used to run a blog.
Comment spam — Like e-mail spam. Robot“spambots” flood a blog with advertising in the formof bogus comments. A serious problem that requires
bloggers and blog platforms to have tools to exclude
some users or ban some addresses in comments.
Content syndication — How a site’s author or
administrator makes all or part of its content available
for posting on another Web site.
© AP Images/Bebeto Matthews

Moblog — Contraction of “mobile blog.” A blogthat can be updated remotely from anywhere, such asby phone or a digital assistant.
Permalink — Contraction of “permanent link.” Webaddress of each item posted on a blog. A handy wayof permanently bookmarking a post, even after it has
been archived by the blog it originated from.

Blogging has earned Julia Langbein a loyal following among
her readers.

Photoblog — A blog containing mostly photos,
posted constantly and chronologically.

Blog — Short for Weblog. A Web site that
contains written material, links, or photos being
posted all the time, usually by one individual, on a
personal basis.

Podcasting — Contraction of “iPod” and“broadcasting.” Posting audio and video material on a
blog and its RSS feed, for digital players.

(To) blog — Run a blog or post material on one.

Post — An item posted on a blog. Can be a message
or news, or just a photo or a link. Usually a short
item, including external links, that visitors cancomment on.

Blogger — Person who runs a blog.
Blogosphere — All blogs, or the blogging
community.

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RSS (Really Simple Syndication) — A way ofhandling the latest items posted on a Web site,
especially suited for blogs because it alerts users

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Society & Values© AP Images/Karen Tam

RSS Feed — The filecontaining a blog’s latest
posts. It is read by an RSS
aggregator/reader andshows at once when a blog
has been updated.
Trackback — A
way that Web sites
can communicate
automatically by alerting
each other that an item
posted on a blog refers toa previous item.
Web diary — A blog.

whenever their favorite blogs are updated. It canalso “syndicate” content by allowing other Web
sites (simply and automatically) to reproduce all orpart of a site’s content. Spreading fast, especially on
media Web sites.

Wiki — From the
Hawaiian word “wikiwiki”(quick). A Web site thatcan be easily and quickly updated by any visitor.
The word has also come to mean the tools used tocreate a wiki (wiki engines). Blogs and wikis havesome similarities but are quite different.

RSS Aggregator — A software or online service
allowing a blogger to read an RSS feed, especiallythe latest posts on his favorite blogs. Also called areader or feedreader.

“The Language of Blogging” by Pointblog.com is excerpted
and reprinted with permission from Handbook for Bloggers andCyber-Dissidents [http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/handbook_bloggers_
cyberdissidents-GB.pdf], published by Reporters Without Borders[http://www.rsf.org].

© AP Images/Dino Vournas

A podcaster at work.

Jobspot provides wiki software.

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Youth Speak© 2007 Jupiterimages Corporation

Robin Friedman

Incoming message: How RU?

As long as there have been teenagers, there probably has beenslang. Today’s electronic means of communication — andthe changing attitudes of some scholars — have moved slangfrom the realm of the spoken word to the written word witha greater degree of acceptance. Robin Friedman is a journalist
and the author of several books for children and teenagers.

numbers and letters, and even symbols masquerading as
facial expressions. :)Often in all lowercase letters.
Certain numbers, “2” and “4” in particular, playstarring roles — replacing, respectively, “to” and “for”—
but the far more intriguing development is the embraceof the number “3” for the letter “e” (“b3” and “th3”), andthe number “8” for the sound it makes (“gr8” and “l8r”
for “great” and “later”).
While some of these brave new acronyms can actually
be self-explanatory (“u” for “you” and “ur” for “your”)
or fairly logical (“b4” for “before”), or can highlight thesounds the letters make (“qt” for “cutie” and “cu” for“see you”) or act as abbreviations (“cuz” for “because”),
or can be just straightforward acronyms (“bff ” for “bestfriends forever”), some do border on strange (“peeps” for“people”).
And, in one ironic case, the slang term exceeds its
shorter ancestor (“i luv u” is now “i heart u”).
Some terms that have been in circulation for quite awhile are pretty recognizable: “lol” (“laughing out

I

f you think the English language is getting shorter,
you may be right. From news bytes to text-messaging
to famously shorter attention spans, we’re saying less— and relying on slang more.
Why?
Several reasons could be culpable, among them aninescapable saturation of technology combined withno-time-to-breathe lives, the ever-present temptation of
teenage terminology, and the inevitable wheels of plain old
evolution grinding — toward minus instead of plus.
With so much of our daily communications taking
place online these days — and that doesn’t include juste-mail, but text-messaging on increasingly teenier devices— it seems everyday English has been reduced to a codeof accepted abbreviations, mysterious combinations of
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Society & Values© AP Images/Marcio Jose Sanchez

If you use “hot”(meaning “good” and also
“attractive”), you’ll seemwith it, and alternatively —at least from a temperaturepoint of view — if you use
a word that has appealed toevery generation since theGreat Depression, you’ll
seem, well, “cool.”“Cool” is positively
prehistoric by slang
standards. It originatedduring the jazz cultureof the late 1930s, butevery generation since has
embraced it as its own.
In fact, many
expressions meaning
Chatting, whether person-to-person or electronically, is an important part of teenage life.
the same thing as cool
— bully, groovy, hep, crazy,loud”), “btw” (“by the way”), and “imho” (“in my humble bodacious, far-out, rad, swell — have not had the staying
opinion”).
power of cool.
Some, meanwhile, are bafflingly enigmatic: “iykwim”“Cool” is common not just with today’s teens but(“if you know what I mean”), “mtfbwy” (“may the force
with their parents as well. Adults are notorious forbe with you”), and “wysiwyg” (“what you see is what you
hijacking the lingo of their kids, but these days, knowingget”).
how to speak to this market — literally — can mean
At times, this alphabet-soup vernacular feels
the difference between profitability and bankruptcy. The
downright dizzying to everyone but linguists andteenage demographic accounts for $170 billion a year incomputer geeks. But it’s difficult to argue with its speed
the American economy, according to the Taylor Group, a— or even its necessity — when forced to use a toothpick- research firm that follows trends in the youth market.
sized contraption to reply to an office memorandum
That could explain why so much slang has crept into
while driving a car (not recommended or legal but,
general usage, whether in media, popular culture, or daily
unfortunately, all too common).
use by older, more middle-aged generations (“stick it toWith the exception of “peeps,” though, all of thethe man,” “you rock,” “whatever,” “old school,” and “talkabove examples are mostly used in written slang. Spoken
to the hand”).
slang is a whole other story. And it’s here that the younger
The inherent attraction of slang, after all, is in eachgeneration truly has its say (pun intended).
generation’s opportunity to shape its own lexicon. The
Today’s slang changes faster than yesterday’s password. result is a playful body of language that’s used for its senseThat’s because words that were popular only a couple ofof linguistic fun.
years ago have lost favor — among today’s teens — for no
Since some of these words have a tendency toreason at all. These include: “phat,” “sweet,” “excellent,”
originate in vice, however, they can be offensive. In fact,and “awesome” (which all mean “good”). So 1990s,
opponents have long charged that slang has a degrading“dude.”
effect on public discourse. This accusation, though,But, then, slang is short-lived by nature. In order for
only attests to its power. After all, slang is, by definition,slang to be slangy, it has to have a feeling of perpetual
more clever than standard English. It’s catchy, and it cannewness. Slang is like fashion: never “in” for long.
produce flashes of humor and even poetry.
Americans eventually tire of even the most popular words,
In 1961, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary,and by natural selection, only the strong survive.
Third Edition — a respected tome published since 1898
So what’s in these days? Meaning this month?
— turned to popular publications for its entries, instead
Society & Values

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© AP Images/John Raoux

This American teacher is reviewing with her students all the instant messaging (IM) language terms and spellings they are not allowed to use informal writing assignments. Using them has become a habit for many students.

of polling a handful of academics, the way dictionaries
were historically written.
The edition, which included slang for the first time,
was called “monstrous,” “deplorable,” and “a scandal.”
Today, however, all dictionaries include slang, though
not everyone is happy about it. A movement known as“prescriptive” consists of scholars who believe dictionaries
should teach people how to properly use language,
going so far as to call their opponents “laxicographers”(instead of lexicographers) and accuse them of promoting
illiteracy.
“Descriptive,” meanwhile, refers to scholars whobelieve any language that’s commonly used belongs in
the dictionary. These scholars are more interested insuccessful communication than appropriate language; thatis, it doesn’t matter to them which words people use toconvey language, so long as everyone understands.

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Older generations may resist youthful changes totheir language because of nostalgia for the good old days
— or horror at the bad new ones.
In reality, however, there is no such thing as proper
language, because language continually changes over time.
In the 1930s and 1940s, it was the swing andjitterbug culture that invented the hip talk of the day. In
the 1950s, it was the Beat poets and fast-talking radio
disc jockeys. In the 1960s, it was the hippies. Today’sslang originates from hip-hop culture and rap music.
And, to that we say, “Capiche, yo?” The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views orpolicies of the U.S. government.

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Game On!
Sports and Recreation Idioms in American English© AP Images/Paul Sakuma

Jean Henry“Game On” is declared when a video game is resumed so all players are once again engaged.

Idioms derived from the sports and games played in the
United States are commonly used in American English. The
author gives examples of idioms used in everyday conversationand in the media. Jean Henry is the author of How to Playthe Game: American English Sports and Games Idioms. A
retired teacher and professor of English as a second language,
she has degrees from the University of California, Berkeley,and Harvard University, and she has done additional course
work at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
and Oxford University in England.

Oxford American Dictionary and named “word of the year”
because of the concern about climate change. “Blog,” “toblog,” and “blogging” have entered the common lexicon.
This dynamism is also true for idiomatic or metaphoricallanguage and its use in the United States.
Idioms are words or phrases that cannot be
understood literally, but are derivative. (Webster’s
dictionary defines an idiom as “a peculiar way of saying
something which has become established after long use.”)Idioms exist in all languages. They are, however, especiallycommon in spoken American English.

E

American idioms are derived from many sources,
including the culture of sports and games. Perhaps becauseof the informal atmosphere, language used by sports
reporters, fans, and the players themselves has produced

nglish is a dynamic and changing language. Becauseof the nature of the language, words and phrases
are constantly being added or subtracted. “Carbon
neutral” was added to last year’s edition of the New
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© AP Images/Nikki Boertman

A professional basketball player executes a slam-dunk.

eJOURNAL USA© AP Images/Darron Cummings

many words and phrases used in other contexts. Sports
phrases are constantly changing: A “lay-up,” an easy
shot close to the basket in basketball that used to mean
an easy task in the non-basketball world, has evolved
into “slam-dunk” as increased size and athleticism haveallowed players to elevate above the rim of the basket andforcefully slam the ball through it.
The knowledge of American idioms or metaphors,particularly those of sports and games, is essential tomastering colloquial American English speech. Games
have captured the American heart and mind. Terms
associated with play have become associated with workand business. To “pinch hit” or “carry the ball,” two
expressions from baseball and American football, used intheir idiomatic sense rather than the literal, mean that aperson will substitute or work on a project for a co-worker
or boss. Failure to understand the games and the terms
and idioms derived from them hinders communication.

The use of a word or an idiom changes with the
popularity of the games played and the psyche of thecountry, the region, and the person using them. For
example, idiomatic expressions based on sailing terms,
such as “take a new tack” or “bail out,” might be used
more on the west and east coasts of the United States thanin the heartland, and a person whose hobby is sailing willundoubtedly use them more frequently. There are many
baseball and American football idioms used in the UnitedStates because of the widespread popularity of these sports.
At Condoleezza Rice’s Senate confirmation hearings
for the position of secretary of state, one Republican
senator, using metaphors from American football, said
about the nominee’s response to questions, “…there wassome bump and run defenses and tactics used against her
but she never really got off her stride.”
Some idioms will be international in use. “Always on
the ball,” a New York Ticketmaster advertisement with apicture of a ball, will be understandable in translation topersons worldwide. As will “game plan,” used by Stanford
University Professor David G. Victor when talking about
President Bush’s global goal to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. According to a June 1, 2007, article in the
New York Times, Victor said that the goal would be “verydifficult to be taken as seriously as it should be taken in
the world without some kind of a clear [U.S. domestic]
game plan.”Some are more difficult: A New York Times articleof June 4, 2007, entitled “Romney Political Fortunes
Are Tied to Riches He Gained in Business,” says: “Bain[Romney’s company] and its co-investors extracted special
payments of over $100 million from each company,
enabling Bain to make a healthy profit even before

This American football player is running with, or carrying, the ball.

17

Society & Values© The New Yorker Collection 1988 Henry Martin from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

a sentence is important. “Twostrikes against him,” a baseballexpression, denotes that one
strike is left before the batter,is declared out. The sentence,“He hit a home run to left
field with two strikes against
him,” could be a sentence fora student to practice, since
it requires an understandingof this phrase in its literal
sense. The idiomatic meaning
then can be practiced in a
sentence such as “He had
two strikes against him when
he interviewed for the job,because he had no experience.”
Some phrases, such as“play hardball” are morecommon in the derived or
idiomatic sense. The sentence,“Let’s play hardball on thiscontract,” for example, meansthat one party intends tomake little or no compromisein negotiating with the otherparty. This use is more typical“Mr. Foster is here. He just wants to touch base.”than its literal meaning: toplay baseball, a game that uses
re-selling the businesses — a practice know as ‘getting
a ball made from a hard material.
back your bait.’” This refers to a fishing term.
In many cases, the student, businessperson, or
Idioms are often difficult for the non-native speaker
politician at a conference might hear an idiomatic phrase
to learn in isolation from their original sources. Thinking
and try to deduce the meaning from the context of thein categories helps: Team sports, such as basketball andmeeting. If there is confusion, the learner can ask someone
football, will have many of the same rules, terms, andlater or use one of the many idiomatic phrase books orfields as their international counterparts. Card games,
Internet sites available to find the idiom and its meaning.
hunting, and fishing are similar to the same games and
The student or professional person should then practicesports in other countries. This framework or context of the the use of the idiom with a friend, preferably someone
game from which the term originated facilitates learning
who is conversant in colloquial English. both of the literal and of the idiomatic usage. And
familiarization with American games can also be enhanced
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views orby watching television broadcasts of baseball, football,policies of the U.S. government.
and basketball games, or Olympic events.The context ofSociety & Values

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What’s New? The Effect of Hip-Hop
Culture on Everyday English© AP Images/Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette

Emmett G. Price III

Taking a break from painting a hip-hop-themed mural on the wall of a Michigan youth center, this artist shows off his break-dancing moves.

L

Expressions coined by urban youth have made their way into
mainstream English via the so-called hip-hop generation.
Emmett G. Price III, PhD, is an assistant professor of Musicand African American Studies at Northeastern University in
Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of Hip Hop Culture(ABC-CLIO, 2006) and editor-in-chief of the Journalof Popular Music Studies. He is also executive editor of
the forthcoming three-volume Encyclopedia of African
American Music (Greenwood Press, 2008).

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anguage is the product of society. As a societychanges, so does its language. One of the greatest
signs of a changing language is the rapid expansionof its lexicons. Over the past 30 years, American
dictionaries have grown at unprecedented levels. Words
attesting to the rich contribution of global cultures to
American culture, words created for scientific use, words
recognizing technological advances, and, of course, words
representing contemporary culture have expanded theEnglish language. Yet, it is this last category that hasaltered the English language more rapidly than any otherinfluence.

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These changes are sparked by words created by youth
and young adults who feel empowered to codify andlabel their own realities with new expressions: words that
represent the new ponderings, new searches, new desires,and new ideas (even if the ideas really are not so new). In
The Hip Hop Generation, Bakari Kitwana establishes thebirth years of 1965-1984 as the criterion for admission
into the hip-hop generation. It is obvious that Kitwana’s
closing year of 1984 is not wide enough, as we havewitnessed the emergence of multiple hip-hop generations,each birthing new additions and approaches to theEnglish language.

presence and effect of hip-hop culture. Corporations
such as Burger King, Coca-Cola, America Online (AOL),
Nike, and Reebok launched advertising and marketing
campaigns featuring hip-hop culture, responding to the
popular/hip image of these elements and, at the sametime, helping integrate them into the broader culture.
Amidst the dancing, fashion, and numerous musicalelements, what quickly struck the ears of many were the
new rules for speaking, reading, and writing English.

© AP Images/Stephen Chernin

HIP-HOP LANGUAGE

Russell Simmons is a pioneer of the hip-hop movement and has
served as a spokesman and advocate for the community.

HIP-HOP CULTURE

Society & Values© AP Images/The Plain Dealer, Roadell Hickman

During the 1960s and 1970s — as the streets of New
York City erupted in violence, social decay, and economic
demise — young, multiethnic, inner-city kids devised
their own solution to the traumatic challenges that they
continually faced. Unifying the preexisting elements ofrapping, graffiti, dancing, and deejaying (a method ofusing sound equipment and records to create totally new
sounds and combinations from those originally recorded— scratching, rapid repeats of segments, remixes,etc.), these diverse youth created an alternative to thehopelessness found in their neighborhoods.
During the mid-1970s, this local phenomenon was
ignored by mainstream America; yet by the 1980s, notonly did hip-hop culture have a national presence, it wassought globally. Movies such as Wild Style, Style Wars,
and, later, Beat Street and Breakin’ allowed international
audiences to experience the many facets of hip-hop
culture, including the unique approach to speaking
and writing English. By the 1990s, print and broadcast
media and even video games were dominated by the

Popular culture in the United States has had aunique effect on everyday English for many generations.
African-American music, in many ways, has played ademonstrative role in this evolution. From the days
prior to the emergence of the spirituals and the blues,
African-American music has informed its listeners (earlyon, mostly black) of the current events and liberation
strategies, using alternative language understood only by
those within the cultural network.
Through the years, many of the words and phrases
became integrated and used by outside communities
who had figured out the context and definitions of thesewords. This process of cultural adaptation happened inmany of the ethnic communities and enclaves within
America, yet it was African-American music, containing
much of this language, that informed much of American
mainstream culture.
The language of hip-hop culture is an extension of
past and recent vernacular. Words like “hot” (1920s),“swing” (1930s), “hip” (1940s), “cool” (1950s), “soul”(1960s), “chill” (1970s), and “smooth” (1980s) have been
redefined and usurped into hip-hop language. Hip-hop

Even official programs, such as this children’s summer arts campin Ohio, use hip, or hip-hop, themes and images to attract young
audiences.
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language is the next generation’s answer to the age-old
question — What’s new?

the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, hip-hop
culture is changing the nature, the sound, and the rulesof the English language. Words such as “hood” (shortfor neighborhood), “crib” (which translates as placeof residence), and “whip” (meaning car) have becomecommonplace within everyday conversation. Phrases suchas “what’s up” (hello), “peace out” (good-bye), and theextremely popular “chill out” (relax) are frequently usedin television shows, movies, and even commercials for
Fortune 500 corporations. American English is a livingorganism, and with vibrant mechanisms such as hip-hop
culture and the rapid growth of technology, who’s to say
what we will be saying or writing in the next 30 years.
Whether the United States is a “Hip-Hop Nation,” asdeclared on the cover of the February 5, 1999, issue ofTime magazine, or not, it is clearly evident that English
has been greatly influenced by hip-hop culture. 

THE IMPACT OF HIP-HOP CULTURE
The greatest impact of hip-hop culture is perhaps
its ability to bring people of all different beliefs, cultures,races, and ethnicities together as a medium for young(and now middle-aged) people to express themselvesin a self-determined manner, both individually andcollectively. Hip-hop culture has influenced not only
American English, but numerous languages aroundthe world. Multicultural nations have vibrant hip-hop
communities who have had to figure out what to do withthese new words and phrases. From German Hip-Hop
to Australian Hip-Hop to Pinoy Rap (Philippines) to
Azeri Rap (Azerbaijan) to Rap Nigerien (Niger), hip-hop
has had its effect on the languages of these nations andcultures.
Whether it is the addition of the phrase “blingbling” to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003 or the
inclusion of the term “crunk” in the 2007 volume of

http://www.CartoonStock.com

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views orpolicies of the U.S. government.

“I’m afraid we must move with the times, Mr. Bagley.”This cartoon shows the current slang word replacing “Jewelry” on the sign above a shop. It was published in the United Kingdom.
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Spanglish: Speaking la Lengua Loca
Cover illustration copyright © 2003 by Joe Cepeda from GET READY FOR
GABI! A CRAZY MIXED-UP SPANGLISH DAY by Marisa Montes. Reprinted
by permission of Scholastic Inc.

Learning Construction Spanglish, Terry Eddy and Alberto Herrera, ©
2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language, Ilan Stevens, © 2003,
HarperCollins Publishers

Ilan Stavans

Three of the many books that deal with Spanglish: Learning Construction Spanglish helps construction workers communicate
in the increasingly mixed environment in which they work. Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language, by author
Ilan Stavans, describes the phenomenon that is Spanglish. Get Ready for Gabi! A Crazy Mixed-Up Spanglish Day is a children’sbook. [SCHOLASTIC’S Material shall not be published, re-transmitted, broadcast, modified or adapted (rewritten), manipulated, reproduced orotherwise distributed and/or exploited in any way withour prior written authorization of Scholastic Inc.]

The author explains how and why Spanish and English havemixed with each other in the United States to create a hybrid
language, increasingly used not only in spoken but also in
written form. Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of
Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College inAmherst, Massachusetts. His books include Spanglish: The
Making of a New American Language (HarperCollins)and Lengua Fresca (Houghton Mifflin).

its territory (Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, California,
Utah) to its neighbor, Spanish was the tongue of businessand education. It interacted with aboriginal languages.
With the arrival of Anglos, Spanish and English begana process of hybridization. This process was reinforcedat the end of the 19th century with the advent of
the Spanish-American War. Americans arrived in the
Caribbean Basin, bringing English along with them.
Whereas Spanglish is also heard in various partsof the Hispanic world, from Catalonia in Spain to thePampas inArgentina, it is in
the United States
where it thrived.
One is likely tohear it in rural
areas, but it is in
the major urban
centers where
Hispanics havesettled — such
The blend of Spanish and English can be
as Los Angeles,
challenging.

T

Society & Values© Jasonlove.com

he growth of the Latino minority in the UnitedStates, some 43 million strong according to2005 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, is at ajuncture, forging a unique identity. Spanglish, the mixingof Spanish and English, used indistinctly on the street,in classrooms, among politicians, in the religious pulpit,
and, of course, on radio, television, and the Internet, isthe most distilled manifestation of that identity.
Historically, the roots of Spanglish date back to
the American colonial period, during which Iberian
civilization left its imprint in Florida and the Southwest.
Up until 1848, when Mexico sold almost two-thirds of
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Reprinted with permission.

The Baldo comic strip appears daily in about 200 U.S. newspapers. The teenage Baldo lives in the United States and blends his Puerto Rican
heritage with the dominant culture. His world is full of blended elements, including the name of the shop where he works, Auto y Rod, Inc.

eJOURNAL USA

And a significant portion of the territory that constitutes
the United States today used Spanish for centuries.
Plus, one needs to consider the impact of bilingual
education, a federally funded program that spreadnationwide in the 1980s. Hispanic schoolchildren who
have gone through the program have a connection,
however tenuous, with both Spanish and English.

© AP Images/Charlie Riedel

California; San Antonio and Houston, Texas; Chicago,
Illinois; Miami, Florida; and New York City — where its
strongest influence is felt. However, there isn’t one single
Spanglish but different types: Chicano, Cuban, Puerto
Rican, Dominican, etc. Its usage varies from one place
to another and from generation to generation. A recent
immigrant from Mexico in nearby El Paso, Texas, forinstance, is likely to use certain elements that distinguishher from a second-generation Colombian-American in
the northeastern state of New Jersey.
In general, there are three strategies all Spanglish
speakers employ at some point: code-switching, whereby
the alternating of elements from Spanish and English takeplace within the same sentence; simultaneous translation;and the coining of new terms that aren’t found in either
the Oxford English Dictionary or the Diccionario de laLengua Española. For instance, “Wáchale!” for “Watch
out!” and “rufo” for “roof.”
There’s a myriad of “border” languages around theglobe, among them Franglais (French and English),Portuñol (Spanish and Portuguese), and Hibriya (Hebrew
and Arabic). The fact that they are all controversial isn’t
surprising. Some see them as half-cooked verbal efforts,neither here nor there; others applaud their inventiveness.
Spanglish, too, is polemical. It is proof, its critics argue,that Latinos aren’t integrating into American culture
the way previous immigrants did. I have a different
perspective. Latinos already are the largest minority.
Their immigration pattern isn’t identical to that of othergroups. For one thing, their place of origin is just next
door. Their arrival is continuous, unlike other groups, ofwhom the majority arrived during a particular period.

This six-year-old in Kansas learns in a dual-language, orbilingual, class.
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Courtesy http://www.theredseat.com

Fans of the Boston Red Sox major league baseball team cheer their team in many languages, including Spanglish.

Cumulatively, these aspects explain why Spanish, unlike
other immigrant languages, hasn’t faded away. On thecontrary, its presence in the United States is gaining
momentum. But it doesn’t exist in a pure, unadulterated
state. Instead, it is in constant flux, adapting to newchallenges.
I’ve been recording Spanglish terms for a decade— and have fallen in love with the phenomenon. In 2003
I published a lexicon of approximately 6,000 words andtranslated the first chapter of Cervantes’ Don Quixote of
La Mancha into Spanglish. I’ve continued translating andhave now completed the first half of the novel.
Curiosity about Spanglish is abundant. Is it adialect? Should it be compared with Creole? What are
the similarities with black English? Will it become afull-fledged, self-sufficient language with its recognizable
syntax? Linguists seem to have different responses toSociety & Values

these questions. Personally, I answer to the latter question
with a quote from linguist Max Weinreich, who wrote
a multivolume history of Yiddish. Weinreich said thatthe difference between a language and a dialect is thatthe language has an army and a navy behind it. I also
often call attention to the fact that in the last coupleof decades, an effort to write in Spanglish has takenplace in numerous circles, which means the form ofcommunication is ceasing to exist at a strictly oral level.
There are novels, stories, and poems in it already, as well
as movies, songs, and endless Internet sites.
With a smile on his face, a student of mine calls
Spanglish “la lengua loca.” The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views ofpolicies of the U.S. government.

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From Arabic to English

Courtesy Robin L. Yeager

Alan Pimm-Smith

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. Although the word mosque has Arabic origins, today the word, like themosques themselves, can be found in many non-Arab lands.

Hundreds of English words derive from the Arabic language.
The author traces the origins of many technical, as well as
common, terms. Alan Pimm-Smith is a free-lance writer
who worked as a teacher and journalist in Saudi Arabia andthe Gulf countries for many years. He now lives in Turkey.

to aspects of Arab or Islamic life, so naturally they are
expressed in Arabic. But it may come as a surprise tolearn that more familiar things, such as common fruits
and vegetables, were once equally exotic. The fruits
apricots, oranges, lemons, and limes, and the vegetables
artichoke, spinach, and aubergine (eggplant) all haveArabic names, though they no longer taste or soundforeign. Lemon, for instance, came into medieval English
from Middle French and before that from Middle Latin— with very little change in pronunciation in the processfrom the Arabic laymun. Artichoke, on the other hand, ishardly recognizable as coming by way of Italian from the
Arabic al-khurshuf.
There are in fact hundreds of Arabic loan words inthe English language, though few of them have entereddirectly. For the most part, they have come disguised
as French, Spanish, Italian, or Latin words. For the
past 1,000 years, English has been voracious in its
appropriation of foreign elements, and French- and Latinorigin words now account for approximately half themodern English vocabulary. French was the language of
the English court, the nobility, and parliament for at least
300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, andHow many words in the English language canyou think of that are derived from Arabic? The
immediate answer is, “Quite a few”: mosqueand minaret, bedouin and sheik, caliph and sultan, toname a few. Whether or not one knows any Arabic, it
is safe to assume these words come from Arabic because
they refer to Arab things as, of course, do the words
camel, wadi, and dhow.
In some cases the English version of the word is as
good as identical to its Arabic original, though others
diverge in sound or meaning. Mosque doesn’t soundmuch like masjid, and though we can use bedouin in the
singular, it is in fact taken from bidwan, a plural form of
bedawi. Dhow comes from dawa, though if you ask anyof your Arabic-speaking friends, you’ll find they don’tknow the word, as it’s no longer in common use.
So far, no surprises: All the words mentioned refer
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Society & Values© AP Images/Karel Prinsloo

Dhow comes from the Arabic dawa.

it remained the language of the law in England right up
until 1731.
In medieval times, then, it was largely throughFrench that Arabic words entered the English language.
And perhaps the most noticeable thing about these words
is that the majority of them are technical terms relating inparticular to mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry. The
word alchemy, which entered English in the 1300s, comesalmost unchanged from the Arabic al-kimya, which itself
is derived from Greek. Alkali, algorithm, alembic, andalmanac entered the English lexicon about the same time.
The syllable “al-” in these words comes from the Arabic
definite article al (the). So, for example, alkali is derived
from al-qili, defined as “the ashes of the saltwort plant.”
An alembic is an apparatus formerly used in distillationand the word comes from al-inbiq, the still.
Arab-Islamic civilization was at its height during
the Middle Ages, and for 500 years or so Arabic was thelanguage of learning, culture, and intellectual progress.
Most of the classical Greek scientific and philosophicaltreatises were translated into Arabic during the ninth
century. From this groundwork, Arab scholars, scientists,
physicians, and mathematicians made great advances inSociety & Values

learning that were then passed on to western Europe via
the Islamic universities in Spain. For example, we owe thedecimal system of computation to Arab mathematicians,
based as it is on the Indian concept of zero — a word
that, like its synonym cipher, comes from the Arabic sifr,
meaning empty.
Arabic learning was widespread in medieval
England from the 11th to the 13th century, and indeed
beyond. Abelard of Bath, then one of the foremost
scholars in Europe, translated the astronomical tablesof al-Khwarizmi from Arabic into Latin in the early
1100s. Two common mathematical terms entered thelanguage in this way: algebra and algorithm. The latterword is taken from al-Khwarizmi’s name itself, while
algebra comes from al-jabr, meaning “the reunion of
broken parts”; it’s a word that features in one of alKhwarizmi’s mathematical treatises, Hisab al-Jabr w’
al-Muqabala. Curiously enough, both the Arabic al-jabr
and the English word algebra also refer to the surgicaltreatment of fractures or bone-setting. The Oxford English
Dictionary, which lists definitions according to historicalusage, gives the first meaning of algebra as “the surgicaltreatment of fractures” and quotes a citation from 1565:
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the powder — it’s typically antimony sulfide — as theessence or pure spirit of a substance. Even as late as the
19th century, the poet Samuel Coleridge, in one of his
essays on Shakespeare, could describe the villain Iago as“the very alcohol of egotism.”
The preponderance of technical and scientific terms
entering English from Arabic during the Middle Agessuggests accurately enough the general superiority of
Arab–Islamic civilization in thearea of scientific achievement
during this period. Revealing
too is the fact that the next
broad categoryof Arabic words
suggests anadvantage in termsof luxury andcreature comforts
and, consequently,
a higher standardof living.
By the time of
Elizabeth I (1533–
1603), English
merchant seamen
were discovering
the world beyond
Terms for many spices andthe boundaries
textiles and the word “coffee”
of Europe andcame from Arabic.
bringing backrich and exotic objects, materials, and customs from
the Middle East and beyond. Significantly, many of the
Arabic words that travelers brought back with them atthis time suggest a gracious, even luxurious style of living.
Sugar, syrup, julep, sherbet, and marzipan are all Arabic
in origin, though none of them would have featured
on the grocery list of an Elizabethan housewife. Coffee
comes from the Arabic gahwah, which originated in
Yemen, and mocha from the Yemeni port city. Added tothis are the fragrant spices caraway, saffron, and cumin,
all of which have Arabic names.
There is a parallel richness suggested by the names ofsuch exotic fineries as sash, shawl, sequin, muslin, mohair,damask, and cotton. Of these, muslin takes its namefrom Mosul in Iraq, where it was made, whereas sash isa variation of the Arabic for muslin, shash. The fabricdamask, as one might expect, comes from Damascus.
Even the word tabby, which we now apply to cats of acertain pattern, has its origin in a striped silk taffeta thatwas made in the al-Tabiyya district of Baghdad. The word
© AP Images© AP Images/
Seth Wenig“This Araby worde Algebra sygnifyeth as well fractures ofbones, etc. as sometyme the restauration of the same.”
One of the greatest contributions made by Arabscholars to the extension of knowledge was theirdevelopment of the science of astronomy. If you look at
a modern star chart, you’ll find hundreds of stars whosenames derive from Arabic: Altair, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse,
Vega, Rigel, and Algol, to name a few. The derivationof the last of theseis intriguing: It
comes from the
Arabic al-ghul,
a word meaning“demon,” fromwhich the English
word ghoul and its
adjective ghoulish
are also derived.
Algol was named“the ghoul” by the
Arabs because of its
ghostly appearance,
for, as an eclipsingbinary star, itappears hazy andvaries in brightness every twodays. Beyond star names,
many astronomical terms,
among them zenith, nadir,and azimuth, also derive© AP Images/Fabian Bimmer
from Arabic.
The words talisman andelixir originate in Arabic alchemy, and the word almanac(al-manakh) comes from Arabian astronomy. Other
technical words include caliper, caliber, aniline, marcasite,and camphor. We weigh precious stones in carats andmeasure paper in reams thanks to Arabic: Girat is a small
unit of weight; rizmah is a bale or bundle. Two otherwords of interest in this category are average and alcohol.
Average, our word for a commonplace mathematicalconcept, is in fact somewhat obscurely derived from the
Arabic word awariya, meaning damaged goods. Thiscame about because costs relating to goods damaged at
sea had to be averaged out among the various parties
concerned in the trade.
As for alcohol, this is derived from al-kohl, the fineblack powder that is used in the Middle East as a sortof medicinal eye shadow. The relationship between theblack powder and alcohol as we know it is hardly selfevident, but you can see the connection if you think of27

Society & Values© AP Images/Gustavo Ferrariof manufacture,”
or workshop, andbefore that fromsina‘ah, meaning“art, craft, skill,”
whereas magazine
is borrowed frommakhzan, “astorehouse.” Thetrade-related word
tariff is also Arabic
in origin.
There are manyother interestingwords — adobe,
crocus, genie,
and popinjay, forexample — that are© AP Images

Courtesy Robin L. Yeager

The words camel, saffron (fromcrocus flowers), and jar all haveArabic origins.

sequin has its origin in Arabic
sikkah, meaning a minting die
for striking coins.
Sofa, alcove, jar, and carafe,
each suggestive in some way of
comfortable living, have also
been borrowed from Arabic: sofa
comes from suffah (a long bench); alcove from al-qubbah(the arch); jar from jarrah (an earthen water-vessel);carafe from gharrafah (bottle). Our vocabulary has also
been enriched by the colors crimson, carmine, azure, andlilac, all of whose names are derived from Arabic. And
as for leisure activities, there are such words as racket, asin tennis racket, from the Arabic raha, “the palm of thehand.”The Arabs were always a seafaring and trading
people, so it is hardly surprising to find words related
to these activities in the store of Arabic loan words.
Sailors speak of mizzen masts because the word for mastin Arab is mazzan. Admiral, rather oddly, comes fromamir al-, a truncated form of amir al-bahr, “prince ofthe sea.” Arsenal derives from dar as-sina‘ah, a “house
Society & Values

all more or less garbled versions of Arabic words. Even
the word garbled itself can be traced to Arabic, coming
as it does from gharbala meaning “to sift or select,” withreference to spices for sale, and shifting its meaning fromthere to the idea of mixing and confusing. But garbled ornot, the store of words derived from Arabic has greatly
enriched the English language. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views orpolicies of the U.S. government.
This article is reprinted with permission from Saudi Aramco World,
March/April 2007[http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200702/from.arabic.to.english.htm].
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Arabic in the Saddle
Gary Paul Nabhan
Spanish of the desert
borderlands of the UnitedStates and Mexico.
I began listening tocowboy lingo after I moved to
one of the great old ranchingcommunities of the U.S.–
Mexico borderlands in 1975.
My wife and I now keep
horses, sheep, and turkeys,
and we have frequent contact
with working cowboys,
ranchers, and large-animal
In the early eighthveterinarians, all of whom
century, a Muslim army ofuse Arabic-derived terms,
Arabs and North African
introduced into the region
Berbers conquered much
more than four-and-a-halfof the Iberian Peninsula.
centuries ago, as casually
In its south, a region theand nonchalantly as myArabs called al-Andalus,
children use computerspeak.
a Syrian Umayyad prince
For instance, they referwhose dynasty had been
to a rider of exceptional skill
replaced by the Abbasids
as “one damn fine jinete,”established a kingdom anda term that once referreda burgeoning civilization
to a fluid style of riding
around the year 750. In
developed in North Africa
1492 came two important
for the battlefield and which
events: the discovery of the
now refers to the rider
This girl prepares to ride her Arabian horse
New World — opening
himself. The word camea whole new hemispherefrom the Sonoran Spanish
to Spanish and Portuguese colonization — and thexinete, which was in turn derived from the Andalusian
final expulsion of the Muslims and Jews from Spain,
zanati, an echo of the name of the Zanatah tribe of
who left a deep and permanent cultural imprint on thewhat is now Algeria.
Spanish people.
Sonoran vaqueros and the horsemen who’ve
As they colonized the New World, Spaniards
worked with them may still call their saddle an— including Arab and Berber refugees — took along
albardón, derived from the Iberian term albarda, which
their horses, and the Arabic-origin words they brought
now means packsaddle and which came from thewith them for managing them are now deeply lodged
Arabic al-barda’a. Among the other tack such cowboys
in “cowboy lingo,” the vernacular English and Mexican use is a leather belt they call an acion, from the Arabic
as-siyur. A whip they call an azote — from the Arabic
as-sut. Ringing straps are called argollas, from the© AP Images/Eric Draper

Half a world awayfrom where they originated,
Arabic terms for horses,
horsemen, and the tackthat links them have founda new home in the desert
Southwest of the UnitedStates. These terms camefrom Arabic into Spanish,
and then into American
English when the Spanish
and the “Anglo” traditions
met.

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Arabic allgulla. Perhaps my favorite Arabic-derived
tack term is a widely used word for a headstall orrope halter: hackamore. It came straight from theAndalusian jaquima, which echoes the Arabic sakima,
something worn on the head.
There are also many terms for the colors ofanimals that can be traced back to Arabic origins.
Because I am color-blind, it took me a while before
I even began to listen to the terms cowboys use forthe hide colors of horses, cattle, and even sheep. But
I could certainly pick out an almagre, a rust-coloredstallion, and I knew that the term came from the
Arabic al-magra, “red earth.”
The color term that most puzzled me, however,
was the use of the name Alice-Ann for a sorrel, ahorse that is rusty brown from nose to tail. It took mesome time to realize that it came from the Arabic alazan, a kind of reddish wood, via the Spanish alazán.
Recently, I read a limerick by a man named Jac that
played on the apparent double meaning of “AliceAnn”:

On the frontier a cowboy’s best gal
Was called Alice Ann, and not Sal.
The trick is, of course,
That this friend was a horse
So an Alice could be a male pal.
Gary Paul Nabhan is the author of 20 books,
including Why Some Like It Hot (Island Press, 2004),
on the co-evolution of communities and their native
foods, and a forthcoming essay collection from the
University of Arizona Press, What Flows Between
Dry Worlds: Culture, Agriculture and Cuisine in
Arabian and American Deserts. He can be reached atgary.nabhan@nau.edu. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views
or policies of the U.S. government.

© AP Images/Jasper Ingalls

This article appeared on pages 36-38 of the March/April 2007 print
edition of Saudi Aramco World. Check the Public Affairs Digital
Image Archive for March/April 2007 images.

A typical American cowboy herds cattle in Wyoming.

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Additional Resources
Internet Sites

Books

U.S. GOVERNMENT

Berger, Harris M. and Michael T. Carroll, eds. Global
Pop, Local Language. Jackson: University Press ofMississippi, 2003.

U.S. Department of State
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
English Teaching Forum
http://exchanges.state.gov/forum

Ostler, Rosemarie. Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers: A
Decade-by-Decade Guide to the Vanishing Vocabulary of theTwentieth Century. Oxford; New York: Oxford University
Press, 2003.

Publication Catalog
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/pubs/
Voice of America
VOA Radio English Course
http://www.dyned.com/voa/

Pennycook, Alastair. Global Englishes and Transcultural
Flows. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Stenström, Anna-Brita, Gisle Andersen, and Ingrid
Kristine Hasund. Trends in Teenage Talk: Corpus
Compilation, Analysis, and Findings. Amsterdam;
Philadelphia, PA: J. Benjamins, 2002.

NON-GOVERNMENT

American English
Public Broadcasting Service
http://www.pbs.org/speak/English Daily
http://www.englishdaily626.com.htm

http://www.jerryking.com and http://fno.org

Urban Dictionary
http://www.urbandictionary.com
The U.S. Department of State assumes no responsibility for the content andavailability of the resources listed above. All Internet links were active as ofAugust 2007.

“How did they get through boring lectures
back in the days of paper? I can IM andit looks just like note-taking!”
Classrooms that use laptop computers provide a new challenge forteachers, and more modern ways for students to find distractions
during class.

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