Anti-language

An anti-language is a language created and used by an anti-society.[1] An anti-society is a small, separate community intentionally created within a larger society as an alternative to or resistance of it.[1] For example, Adam Podgorecki studied one anti-society composed of Polish prisoners; Bhaktiprasad Mallik of Sanskrit College studied another composed of criminals in Calcutta.[1] Anti-languages are developed by these societies as a means to prevent outsiders from understanding their communication, and as a manner of establishing a subculture that meets the needs of their alternative social structure.[2] Anti-languages differ from slang and jargon in that they are used solely among ostracized or rebellious social groups including prisoners,[3] criminals, homosexuals,[2] and teenagers.[4] Anti-languages use the same basic vocabulary and grammar as their native language in an unorthodox fashion. For example, anti-languages borrow words from other languages, create unconventional compounds, or utilize new suffixes for existing words. Anti-languages may also change words using metathesis, back formation (e.g. apple to elppa), or by substituting their consonants.[1] Therefore, anti-languages are distinct and unique, and are not simply dialects of existing languages.

Origin

The concept of anti-languages was first defined and studied by the linguist Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday, who used the term to describe the lingua franca of an anti-society. In his essay "Anti-Language", Halliday synthesized the research of Thomas Harman, Adam Podgórecki, and Bhaktiprasad Mallik to explore anti-languages and the connection between verbal communication and the maintenance of social structure. For this reason, the study of anti-languages is both a study of sociology and linguistics. Halliday's findings can be compiled as a list of nine criteria that a language must meet to be considered an anti-language:

  1. An anti-society is a society which is set up within another society as a conscious alternative to it.
  2. Like the early records of the languages of exotic cultures, the information usually comes to us in the form of word lists.
  3. The simplest form taken by an anti-language is that of new words for old: it is a language relexicalised.
  4. The principle is that of same grammar, different vocabulary.
  5. Effective communication depends on exchanging meanings which are inaccessible to the layperson.
  6. The anti-language is not just an optional extra, it is the fundamental element in the existence of the “second life” phenomenon.
  7. The most important vehicle of reality-maintenance is conversation. All who employ this same form of communication are reality-maintaining others.
  8. The anti-language is a vehicle of resocialisation.
  9. There is continuity between language and anti-language.

Examples

Examples of anti-languages include cockney rhyming slang, CB slang, the grypsera of Polish prisons, thieves' cant,[5] Polari,[6] and possibly Palawa kani and Bangime.[7]

Ulti

Ulti is a language studied and documented by Bhaktiprasad Mallik in his book Languages of the Underworld of West Bengal.[8] Ulti is an anti-language derived from Bengali and used by criminals and affiliates. The Ulti word kodān, meaning 'shop,' is derived from rearranging the letters in the Bengali word dokān, which also means 'shop'. On the other hand, the Bengali word thām, meaning 'pillar', means 'a girl's thigh' in Ulti.

Anti-language in Fiction

Anti-languages are sometimes created by authors and used by characters in novels. These anti-languages do not have complete lexicons, cannot be observed in use for linguistic description, and therefore cannot be studied in the same way that a language that is actually spoken by an existing anti-society would. However, they are still used in the study of anti-languages. Roger Fowler's "Anti-Languages in Fiction" analyzes Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange and William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch to redefine the nature of the anti-language and to describe its ideological purpose.[9]

A Clockwork Orange is a popular example of a novel in which the main character is a teenage boy who speaks an anti-language called Nadsat. This language is often referred to as an argot, but it has been argued that it is an anti-language because of the social structure that it maintains through the social class of the droogs.[10]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Halliday, M. a. K. (1976-09-01). "Anti-Languages". American Anthropologist. 78 (3): 570–584. doi:10.1525/aa.1976.78.3.02a00050. ISSN 1548-1433.
  2. 1 2 Baker, Paul (2002). Polari The Lost Language of Gay Men. Routledge. pp. 13–14. ISBN 0415261805.
  3. ↑ Zarzycki, Łukasz. "Socio-lingual Phenomenon of the Anti-language of Polish and American Prison Inmates" (PDF). Crossroads.
  4. ↑ Kohn, Liberty. "Antilanguage and a Gentleman's Goloss: Style, Register, and Entitlement To Irony in A Clockwork Orange" (PDF). eSharp: 1–27.
  5. ↑ Martin Montgomery, "Language and subcultures: Anti-language", An introduction to language and society
  6. ↑ "Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men", Lancaster University. Department of Linguistics and English Language.
  7. ↑ Bradley M, "The secret ones", New Scientist, 31 May 2014, pp. 42-45
  8. ↑ Mallik, Bhaktiprasad (1972). Language of the underworld of West Bengal. Sanskrit College.
  9. ↑ Fowler, Roger (Summer 1979). "Anti-Language in Fiction". Style. 13: 1. JSTOR 42945250.
  10. ↑ Kohn, Liberty. "Antilanguage and a Gentleman's Goloss: Style, Register, and Entitlement To Irony in A Clockwork Orange" (PDF). eSharp: 1–27.

References

  • Halliday, M. A. K. (1976) "Anti-Languages". American Anthropologist 78 (3) pp. 570–584
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