Vulgar Tongues
An Alternative History of English Slang
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This rollercoaster ride through the colorful history of slang—from highwaymen to hip-hop—is a fresh and exciting take on the subject: entertaining and authoritative without being patronizing, out-of-touch or voyeuristic.
Slang is the language of pop culture, low culture, street culture, underground movements and secret societies; depending on your point of view, it is a badge of honor, a sign of identity or a dangerous assault on the values of polite society. Of all the vocabularies available to us, slang is the most alive, constantly evolving and—as it leaks into the mainstream and is taken up by all of us—infusing the language with a healthy dose of vitality.
Witty, energetic and informative Vulgar Tongues traces the many routes of slang, beginning with the thieves and prostitutes of Elizabethan London and ending with the present day, where the centuries-old terms rap and hip-hop still survive, though their meanings have changed. On the way we will meet Dr. Johnson, World War II flying aces, pickpockets, schoolchildren, hardboiled private eyes, carnival geeks and the many eccentric characters who have tried to record slang throughout its checkered past.
If you’re curious about flapdragons and ale passion, the changing meanings of punk and geek, or how fly originated on the streets of eighteenth-century London and square in Masonic lodges, this is the book for you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lovers of language will be engrossed by D charn 's (Hardboiled Hollywood) excavation of the history of English-language slang. Based on his work, humans should be grateful for slang, or we wouldn't have been able to discuss sex over the ages (without being persecuted). We'd have no limericks, certainly, and this book would be much shorter. (Aside for trivia fiends: if your English friends say they're "discussing Uganda," they're almost assuredly not.) D charn notes that the first English-language gay slang dictionary was published in the late 20th century, but he traces English slang terms for homosexuality as far back as the 18th century. Slang was, not surprisingly, ubiquitous in the criminal underworld, and there's a vast array of terms for drunkenness and drug-taking. One wrinkle in the book: since the author is English, U.S. readers may stumble over a few obscure references. But there are also interesting peeks into Cockney rhyming slang, a "much quoted, and much misunderstood" form. Slang used to "come from the street," but D charn laments that it is now fighting against the "fake language" concocted by the PR industry, diluting slang's gritty charm. If his dark predictions are true, this well-stocked and exhaustively researched compendium has arrived just in time to preserve the flavor of undiluted slang.
