Types of language

Elsewhere on this site is a list of Australian terminology, being a collection of slang, idioms, and colloquialisms used in Australia. The defining of colloquial language, slang, idioms, jargon, and dialects can be fraught with difficulty; the separation of words, phrases, and terms into those categories can be problematic and can involve “fuzzy” or “grey” areas. To assist in discussions about language, the meanings of those terms are discussed here.

Colloquial language

Words, phrases, and terms which are informal and non-standard, and are commonly used in everyday language; for example: ain’t (am not; are not, is not), Aussie (Australian), blue (sad), busted (caught), dodgy (dubious), don’t (do not), Down Under (Australia), footy (football), gonna (going to), gunna (going to), hip (trendy, popular), lighten up (relax), newbie (newcomer), smokes (cigarettes), wanna (want to), won’t (wonnot; will not), wrap it up (complete a task, finish doing something), ya (you), yellow (a coward, cowardly), youse (you all). Such terms are not typically used in formal speeches or formal writing.

For example:
“Are you going to pick up those empty beer bottles?” This is formal language, understood by all.
“Are ya gunna to pick up those empty beer bottles?” This includes colloquial language, understood by all.
“Are ya gunna to pick up those dead marines?” This includes slang language, understood by some; in this particular case, the slang (“dead marine”) is also an idiom.

Slang

Words, phrases, and terms which are informal and non-standard, and are used by a particular social group, section, sub-set, or strata of the population (distinct from colloquialisms, which are used across the broad spectrum of society).

Examples of these social groups include young people and different generations. Using slang terms such as “cool”, “groovy”, and “right on” can give an indication of a person’s generation or age, as can “cap” (lie, lying), “salty” (annoyed, aggravated), “wicked” (very; great), and “yolo” (you only live once).

Other groups can be sub-cultures, such as bikies, hippies, goths, mods, punks, and surfies; alternatively, slang may be based within a socio-economic group (e.g. working-class, middle-class, high-class) or a field of activity or interest (e.g. internet users, tech heads, consumers of a particular entertainment series or genre). Some social groups may also use jargon relating to their field of interest, as well as slang.

Slang is typically trendy, and the trend of its usage may not last that long; however, some slang words, or slang usage, can become entrenched in the mainstream of language. For example, bike (bicycle), blog (weblog), bra (brassiere), and pram (perambulator) have all entered the mainstream of language, as has “crestfallen” (derived from 16th century cockfighting slang). Slang can also be based upon the usage of a word (where the word stays the same, but the meaning or usage of the word changes); for example, the word “fantastic” once meant “unbelievable”, but the slang usage of that word changed its meaning to “great” or “wonderful”.

Slang is usually synonymous with existing terminology, so formal language can be used to convey the same meaning; for example, buck (dollar). In the historical usage of slang in the written form, such words are often placed inside quotation marks (inverted commas), which indicates that they were not regarded as “proper words”.

Portmanteau words

Portmanteau words (made from joining two or more words; also known as “blend words”) are a significant part of colloquialisms. Some of these terms have become accepted as mainstream language.

Here are some examples of portmanteau words (and their derivations): alphanumeric (alphabetic-numeric), animatronics (animation-electronics), anklet (ankle-bracelet), armlet (arm-anklet), backronym (back-acronym), bit (binary-digit), blurple (blue-purple), Bollywood (Bombay-Hollywood), brainiac (brain-maniac), breathalyzer (breath-analyzer), Brexit (Britain-exit), bromance (brother-romance), brunch (breakfast-lunch), carjack (car-hijack), cellophane (cellulose-diaphane), chillax (chill-relax), chortle (chuckle-snort), codec (coder-decoder), cosplay (costume-roleplay), cyborg (cybernetic-organism), dumbfounded (dumb-confounded), electrocute (electricity-execute), email (electronic-mail), emoticon (emotion-icon), fantabulous (fantastic-fabulous), fanzine (fan-magazine), fortnight (fourteen-night), frenemy (friend-enemy), froyo (frozen-yogurt), funtastic (fun-fantastic), gerrymander (Gerry-salamander), ginormous (gigantic-enormous), guesstimate (guess-estimate), hangry (hungry-angry), hazmat (hazardous-material), infomercial (information-commercial), infotainment (information-entertainment), intercom (internal-communication), internet (interconnected-network), jeggings (jeans-leggings), labradoodle (labrador-poodle), medicare (medical-care), modem (modulator-demodulator), moped (motor-pedal), motel (motor-hotel), motorcycle (motorised-bicycle), netizen (internet-citizen), newscast (news-broadcast), parasailing (parachute-sailing), permafrost (permanent-frost), pixel (picture-element), podcast (iPod-broadcast), romcom (romance-comedy), screenshot (screen-snapshot), seascape (sea-landscape), sitcom (situation-comedy), smog (smoke-fog), spork (spoon-fork), squiggle (squirm-wiggle), stash (store-cache), staycation (stay-vacation), telemarketing (telephone-marketing), telex (teleprinter-exchange), tragicomedy (tragedy-comedy), transceiver (transmitter-receiver), twirl (twist-whirl), vlog (video-log), webinar (web-seminar), workaholic (work-alcoholic).

Idioms

An idiom is a type of expression which is specific to a particular language or culture, and will typically have a meaning or significance which is different to the dictionary meaning of the words involved. This can create a situation whereby a foreigner, even if he or she has learnt the language, may well understand the words involved in an idiom, but won’t understand the meaning of the idiomatic expression or phrase, because a word-by-word translation will not reveal the meaning of the idiom. Idioms are a type of colloquial language.

Examples of idioms are many and varied, including: as right as rain, the ball’s in your court, beat around the bush, best thing since sliced bread, break a leg, can’t see the wood for the trees, the cat’s pajamas, come hell or high water, come rain or shine, easy as pie, feeling under the weather, fight tooth and nail, floating on cloud nine, food for thought, get the ball rolling, head over heels, he’s on the wagon, higher than a kite, hit the road, it’s a boomerang, it’s in the bag, I’ve got a bone to pick with you, jump on the bandwagon, kicking your heels, kick the bucket, knee jerk reaction, knock on wood, left high and dry, left under a cloud, mind your Ps and Qs, now you’re cooking with gas, old as the hills, once in a blue moon, the proof is in the pudding, read the riot act, read the room, riding for a fall, rule of thumb, see eye to eye, she thinks she’s the bees knees, sitting on the fence, speak of the devil, spill the beans, take it with a pinch of salt, a tall order, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, through thick and thin, tongue in cheek, turn a blind eye, went down in flames, which begs the question, you can say that again, you’re pulling my leg.

Examples of Swedish idioms are: “to slide in on a shrimp sandwich” and “take a poop in a blue cabinet” (these examples should give English-speakers a good idea of how difficult it can be to understand the idioms of other cultures).

Idioms and slang can be cross-cultural, or transnational, so there are many such phrases which are understood in several countries. For example, having “a bun in the oven” (being pregnant) is a slang phrase which is used and understood in various English-speaking countries.

Jargon

Jargon refers to words, phrases, and terms related to a particular field, industry, profession, or trade; also known as “technical language”, jargon includes the technical terminology and nomenclature of a particular field; for example, jargon can by used by personnel working in academia, automobiles, information technology, law, medicine, the military, and politics (with most outsiders not normally knowing the meanings of such terms). However, users of jargon may include those connected to, or interested in, a particular field or industry, but who are not, and never have been, employed in that area (including amateurs, experts, and “wannabes”).

Industries not only use jargon, but can also develop their own slang. Sometimes occupational slang can enter popular usage; for example, the military slang acronyms “fubar” (fucked up beyond all repair) and “snafu” (situation normal, all fucked up).

Industry-based jargon, idioms, and slang can be cross-cultural or transnational. For example, with constant interactions and exchanges of personnel across the English-speaking world in the medical and military fields, it should come as no surprise that personnel in those areas share some common colloquial words and phrases.

Dialects

A dialect is a language variety which is part of a common or parent language and tied to a specific locality, region, people, or social class, e.g. Boston English, Louisiana French, Cockney. It has even been argued that Valspeak (pertaining to the Valley Girls of the San Fernando Valley, circa 1980s) should be considered as its own dialect.

Dialects have their own distinguishing words, phrases, and terms, and even different pronunciations and intonations. It is possible for dialects to evolve into their own distinct language, when users of the dialect become mostly (or significantly) incomprehensible or unintelligible to those of the parent language, and visa versa.

We can refer to the distinct words and phrases used by Australians as “the Australian language”; however, the Australian language is actually a dialect or variation of the English language. This makes logical sense, as Australia is a part of the Anglosphere (those English-speaking nations which are British in origin, i.e. those countries which were founded as British colonies, with a British cultural and ethnic basis).

As well as Australia, several other ex-colonial nationalities have their own English language dialects, including Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA. Other countries with English language dialects include: India, Malta, and the Philippines (in addition to having their own native languages). Notably, South Africa also has the Afrikaans language; Afrikaans has a certain level of mutual intelligibility with Dutch, but it is considered distinct enough to be a language in its own right. In the English-speaking British Isles, other native languages also exist: Ireland has Irish Gaelic, Scotland has Scottish Gaelic, Wales has Welsh, Cornwall has Cornish, and the Isle of Man has Manx.

In a wider context, the Australian language is a part of the English language group, which is part of the Germanic language group, which, in turn, is a part of the Indo-European language group. At this stage, Strine has not evolved into its own distinct language per se; however, as the centuries progress, who knows what future times may bring?

Some related reading:
“Australian English”, Macquarie University (NSW)
“Australian Word Map”, Macquarie Dictionary
“Australian English”, Wikipedia
“Australian English phonology”, Wikipedia
“Australian English vocabulary”, Wikipedia
“English-speaking world”, Wikipedia
“Anglosphere”, Wikipedia
Jonathan Dent, “The rise and rise of slang”, Oxford English Dictionary
D.W. Maurer, “slang: linguistics”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
“dialect: linguistics”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
“Slang to Standard: How casual language can become acceptable”, Grammarly, 19 May 2022
Parker Yamasaki, “Colloquialism: Definition and examples”, Grammarly, 6 September 2022
“The rich world of language: Slang, jargon, colloquialisms”, Tarte Tatin Tales, 22 March 2020