By: Blonde One
Words are great aren’t they? Let’s not forget that! I’ve always loved how the English language can fascinate young and old. A recent conversation with an art teacher about the origins of the word ‘oxymoron’ reminded me of this fascination. By the way, an oxymoron is the placing side by side of 2 ordinarily contradicting words. They’re often used in poetry: Shakespeare liked them a lot. Romeo talked of a ‘heavy lightness’ and ‘loving hate’. The word oxymoron often causes giggles in the classroom! As it also does when I tell classes that they all have an idiolect! You have one too … look it up.
This blog, however, is about something new that I’ve acquired since January (apart from new found happiness and outdoorsiness). It’s my sociolect. I’ve joined a new social group and have been amazed at how this had changed my vocabulary. A sociolect is a pattern of speech and language particular to a group of people, in this case Trinity, my new school, and mine has changed a lot. Here’s just a few of the many examples:
What for me used to be the canteen is now the ‘Refectory’. It’s a small change but I like it a lot. It gives us an air of community. It accurately implies a place to socialise as well as eat.
Rucksacks are known as ‘Bergens’ due to the influence of our own Combined Cadet Force.
This is a great one and I admit to having to look it up: ‘shirt sleeve order’. This is the privilege afforded to students during the hot summer term. Shirt sleeve order originates from the military and is a slight relaxing of uniform to include no ties and smartly rolled up sleeves.
‘Call over’ happens at 5.10pm in the boarding houses. It’s a time to check in with the boarders and share messages.
The hall is known as the ‘Salle’. Obviously from the French language.
What I’ve known previously as Primary School is the ‘Prep’ School at Trinity. It’s short for preparatory and originates from the idea that it prepares children for their independent school entrance exams in the Senior school.
The last word I want to share is the one that replaces assembly. We don’t go to assembly at Trinity, we go to ‘Chapel’. It’s a fantastic way to begin the working day and one of my favourite changes to my professional life.
I’ve used the phrase ‘it’s a different world’ on numerous occasions and my new sociolect is another brilliant example.
In the mid and late fifties when my passion for the outdoors started the only kit available was ex-army. That included what was my first encounter with the word “bergen”. These so named rucksacks were used, I think, by the Commandos – see the film The Heroes of Telemark. They were made from thick beige coloured military heavy duty canvas, and had, dangling all over, webbing straps with heavy brass buckles substantial enough for an army recovery team to upright a stranded tank.They incorporated a tubular steel frame that looked as though its design had been cribbed from the Forth Railway Bridge, and the whole thing empty probably weighed nearly as much as I now carry in total on a backpacking trip. So, despite your more general use of the name I can’t bring myself to classify anything else with that title other than the monster I used on my Boy Scouts First Class Journey ( a forty eight hour backpacking trip) at the age of fifteen carrying somewhere in the region of 22kgs.
Wow they sound hideous! They’re not like that now … thankfully!
The worst thing about them was their added weight when it rained – and they took AGES to dry, too. But it was “Chapel” that set me off remembering; from Tuesday to Friday, we had “Assembly”, but on Mondays, oh dear! I had the whole school for Monday morning hymn practice – 380 to 410 children sitting on the hall floor rehearsing the week’s hymns. I have no doubt there was much mayhem that I didn’t see – – –