High school English was by far my worst subject. For three years my essays could not persuade my English teach, Mrs. Popik, to mark down an A. Commas in the wrong place. Dashes in lieu of commas. Beginning sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but’. My list of sins was long. I generally constructed sentences and essays with a structure that felt right to me, but obviously not by the proverbial book. Thankfully, those years are far behind me and I am now free to write as I please. (Although my boss occasionally returns my emails back to me with corrections in red typeface. She’s a stickler for proper grammar.)
The mistake I’ve always felt Mrs. Popik made was overlooking that the English language is a living thing. It grows and changes. Spellings of words change. Certain rules no longer hold. New words are invented and new words appropriated. Language is meant to communicate our thoughts and feelings. If that is accomplished – that is all that matters.
Changes in our shared language happen subtly over time, but occasionally you can see this change in action. For example, it’s been interesting to watch how the word ‘truthiness’ has been incorporated into the English language.
I was recently reading an article and ‘truthiness’ was used by the author with an absence of quotes or accompanying explanation. I grinned because I remember clearly when this word first appeared and now here it was being used like any other word.
Stephen Colbert invented truthiness in 2005. Colbert coined the term on his satirical current events show, the Colbert Report. Colbert needed a word to describe the manner in which American political leaders informed the American public. “Facts” presented by then President George W. Bush and his inner circle would often sound true – what was interesting to Colbert was that this disinformation had an air of truth to them. Perhaps because we wanted them to be true. Truthiness is the quality of seeming to be true according to one’s gut without regard to logic or factual evidence.
This genesis story illustrates why we need new words and why language changes. Truthiness captured the temperature of a generation of young Americans at that point in time. Ten years ago, America was mired in Iraq and disillusionment settled around the Bush Administration’s handling of the war. WMDs were nowhere to be found. Truthiness captured the feelings of distrust in those leaders who had lead them there. Lacking clear constructive paths out of the quagmire of Iraq many likely felt hopeless and had no resort, but to laugh and seek refuge in bitter mockery and cynicism. Truthiness grew out of a specific time and place.
Truthiness went on to win word of the year that year. It began to be used, but initially was always accompanied with quotes or a subsequent explanation of its etymology. But every time it was used truthiness began to take hold. And now it has been used enough times that it can stand on its own. It has carved out a space, albeit, a small one in our collective psyche and lexicon.
So kids, don't let adults tell you that you’re ruining the English language with your emoticons and atrocious text shorthand. Don’t let them tell you that ‘funner’ isn’t a word (I’ll bet you in a lustrum funner will be recognized). What you’re doing is changing and experimenting with language. Language is about communication and there are so many different roads to that goal. The world you’re growing up in is different from the world I grew up in. And it will need new ways to communicate our thoughts and feelings. :) TTYL.
Medicine Hat News. August 2015.