Language Investigation 1

I generally use language in a constant way and do not change my style of speech. I am part of several communities that have special connotations to certain words. These communities also include some of their own vocabulary. Added vocabulary and connotations serve to express something that occurs often in these communities or groups but would normally take much longer to express in normal language and style.

I am part of the snowboarding community and my friends and I use phrases like “yard sale” and “ate snow” often while in the mountains. While many people unfamiliar with skiing and snowboarding would think that only little kids would eat snow and give me a strange look for saying this, this is a normal thing to say about someone if they fall or trip on the mountain and land on their face. Obviously, “ate snow” is a quicker and in my opinion, more entertaining way, to explain this. On the mountain, a yard sale refers to someone who has fallen and tumbles or skids down the mountain while dropping clothes and gear. Imagine a person’s many belongings scattered around a hill behind them like they are trying to sell unwanted items, and you can appreciate this phrase. There are many ways to describe falling on a snowboard. In this community, falling is common and important enough that there a variety of ways to classify how a person falls and how bad.

When snowboarding, my roommate is goofy and I am not. In this community, that does not mean that my roommate is socially awkward or dresses funny. Instead, his right leg is the front leg on his snowboard rather than the left leg in front as normal. This community also says “sketchy”. If a snowboarder takes a jump and lands without falling but it looks like they almost fell I would tell them “Your landing was sketchy.” I am new to snowboarding and often come close to falling. This community would describe my riding as sketchy or sketching. My favorite word in this community is “bail.” When a snowboarder goes onto a rail to do a trick and they know that they are on it wrong it is a good idea to bail. To bail is to decide not to do a trick after you started. When a snowboarder goes on a rail wrong and continues, their resulting fall will hurt more than just bailing.

Community based language helps to describe ideas quicker and thoroughly. With this type of language, the audience must be part of the community to understand the meaning. With community groups, new vocabulary is added or words are modified to express ideas and events occurring more often within the group.