Ubiquitous words

Uber is one of those words that is now universally known as the car firm that you can call up anywhere, anytime and you will get a cab to take you any place you like. It has had a couple of changes though from its German meaning. When it first came to my attention in English it was being used to be mean ultra or exceptional as it was a foreign word to most who didn’t know what it meant so it was special and therefore it could mean anything in advertising terms. In German I learnt that it was just a lowly common garden variety word meaning above as in uber teche being a simple phrase saying above the table.

Kinder Bueno is an unusual word as it combines German and Spanish. Kinder is German for children and Bueno Spanish for good yet it enabled me to make a funny joke about my husband being a good child that’s why he got a kinder bueno ice cream without him getting the joke whatsoever. Another marketing joke that most I don’t expect realise as to them it’s just a chocolate bar.

Mojo is another phrase popularised through its use in the Austin Powers Austin’s mojo movies of the 1990’s. This one may have jumped onto the Spanish bandwagon as that language was popular in songs later on in the decade especially. Mojo as defined by Austin was his sexual energy had been stolen so he could no longer woo women. In reality mojo is just the word for sauce although most of us would recognise salsa for sauce instead.

Adelante is another 90’s word that got its spot in the sunlight through the hugely popular Sash Sash – adelante song of the same name. It was rave culture and dancing under the influence of drugs means you are unlikely to care what the song is about since the beat and rhythm is more important. Club music is often stripped back to the bones and this song invites you to come on in. However if you don’t know Spanish you might never twig that adelante means precisely that.

Have you got any examples of your own to share with me? If so drop me a line in the comments section.

Best wishes

Angela

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Sociolinguistics or the use of context appropriate language

This is a field within the study of language that concentrates on how language use differs between social classes. This is very important for social development as how you communicate with your peers often vastly differs from how you would say the same phrases to an authority figure (police etc).

There is a method of communication called the restricted code that is used by children as it’s extra verbal. By this I mean that it is focused on things other than speaking. Touch and facial expression are the main means of expressing what you want to say. This also means there is little room for individual expression. This can be very problematic for the autistic child as they don’t like to be touched and have trouble understanding facial expressions. They also like to express there individuality. So immediately the neuro diverse child is at odds with the neuro typical child. The neuro diverse child understands their way of thinking. However the neuro typical way which is dominant and therefore more prevalent; makes no sense to them. Since the majority of people are neuro typical; in order for the neuro diverse child to get along they have to understand a way of thinking that is completely alien to themselves . The neuro typical child never needs to make any effort to try to understand the neuro diverse child though because there in a minority here.

So a neuro diverse child is disadvantaged and when they get older things get more difficult because the communication rules change again. We start to use the elaborated code with the increasing amount of time that we spend outside of the family and talking to adults. We still don’t understand our peers. The elaborated code has a focus on verbal language which can explain an autistics odd language. There language skills have been honed in isolation and they respect the formality of their native language. They are often to be found talking in a standard dialect. Their peers on the other hand talk in a non standard dialect. This is even more obvious if you come from a lower class background or move to one later on as there is much more deviation present.

It is only much later when the neuro diverse person has grown up that they can replicate neuro typical behaviour like it’s there own. This is very time and energy consuming for the neuro diverse individual. It is also known as masking when an autistic pretends to others that they are something they are not.

We never make neurotypicals act in a neuro diverse way so why do the neuro diverse have to act in a neuro typical way always?

Angela