There is not just one slang, but very many varieties—or dialects—of slang. Different social groups in different times have developed their own slang. The
importance of encryption and identity vary among the various slangs. Slang must constantly renew its process of expression, and specifically its
vocabulary, so that those not part of the group will remain unable to understand the slang. The existence of slang dictionaries, of course, cancels the effectiveness
of certain words. Numerous slang terms pass into informal mainstream speech, and thence sometimes into mainstream formal speech.
Originally, certain slang designated the speech of people involved in the criminal underworld, hooligans, bandits, criminals, etc. Therefore, their
vocabulary carried very vulgar connotations, and was strictly rejected by speakers of proper language. Other groups developed their own slangs. In general, groups
on the margins of mainstream society who were excluded or rejected by it. Slang is a language based off of shortened words; something like a
contraction but used to shorten speech in a hasty manner.
2.5 Hello Magazine
Hello Magazine is published monthly by Widya Niti Bahasa Foundation to provide English Learners of any background study especially youth with good
reading materials.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
CHAPTER 3
THE OBSERVATION
3.1 Observation on Slang and Unconventional English
In English, the ideas most fertile in synonyms are those are drinking, drunkenness, money, and the sexual organs and act.
Many slang words, indeed, are drawn from pleasurable activities games, sports, entertainments, from the joy of life, from a gay abandon: for this reason it
has been wittily called ‘language on a picnic’. The metaphors and allusions in slang are generally connected with some
temporary phase, some ephemeral vogue, some unimportant incident; if the origin is not nailed down at the time, it is rarely recoverable.
War always produces a rich crop of slang. War much as we may hate to admit the fact, because, in all wars, both soldiers and sailors and, since 1914,
airmen and civilians as well, have imported or adopted or invented hundreds of words, terms, phrases, this linguistic aspect ranking as, if we except the
unexceptable ‘climate of courage’, the only good result of war. Human characteristics, such as a love of mystery and a confidential air a
lazy freemasonry, vanity, the imp of perversity that lurks in every heart, the impulse to rebellion, and that irrepressible spirit of adventure which, when
deprived of its proper outlook in action, perforce contents itself with verbal audacity the adventure of speech: these and others are at the root of slang.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
3.2 Slang Today and Yesterday
From about 1850, slang has been the accepted term for ‘illegitimate’ colloquial speech. Slang is much rather a spoken than a literary language. It
originates, nearly always, in speech. Slang is easy enough to use, but very hard to write about with the facile
convincingness that a subject apparently so simple would, at first sight, seem to demand. But the simplest things are the hardest to define, certainly the hardest to
discuss, for it is usually at first sight only that their simplicity is what strikes one the most forcibly. And slang, after all, is a peculiar kind of vagabond language,
always hanging on the outskirts legitimate speech, but continually straying or forcing its way into the most respectable company.
Language in generally and every kind of language belongs to everyone who wishes to use it. Slang, being the quintessence of colloquial speech, must be
related to convenience rather than scientific laws, grammatical rules and philosophical ideals. As it originates, so it flourishes best, in colloquial speech.
Slang may and often does fill a gap in accepted language.
3.3 Here, There, and Everywhere
