Parade Your Vocabulary

[David Flin]

Have you ever noticed how, in fiction, you can always understand what soldiers are saying when they converse?

Comment on this article by @Death's Companion here.

 

[Redolegna]

Aha! the cohesion rears its head again.

As well it should.

 

[David Flin]

I should note that some terms change meaning. Sprogs here apparently refer to troops just left Basic Training to get specialist training with their unit.

However, back in the Bootnecks (which are referred to as Leathernecks) some 40 years ago, Sprog meant very specifically children (as in wife and sprogs).

The dangers of mutation of language.

I'd also add that phrases can arise out of nowhere. I'm aware of one young officer (not me) who got married, and for honeymoon, went on a riding tour of the Borders. His new wife was familiar with riding horses. He wasn't. When he returned from honeymoon, he found that quite a few muscles he hadn't been aware of before were in a state where he was all too aware of them; he was barely able to walk. You can imagine the sympathy he got from his Troop as he returned from honeymoon in such a state, and his explanation that it was the horse riding fell on amused ears. "Horse riding" became a synonym for an activity that rarely involves horses (unless your name is Catherine the Great, I guess).

I suspect that usage came and went quickly, but it left quite an impression while it was current.

 

[Hendryk]

I'd also add that phrases can arise out of nowhere. I'm aware of one young officer (not me) who got married, and for honeymoon, went on a riding tour of the Borders. His new wife was familiar with riding horses. He wasn't. When he returned from honeymoon, he found that quite a few muscles he hadn't been aware of before were in a state where he was all too aware of them; he was barely able to walk. You can imagine the sympathy he got from his Troop as he returned from honeymoon in such a state, and his explanation that it was the horse riding fell on amused ears. "Horse riding" became a synonym for an activity that rarely involves horses (unless your name is Catherine the Great, I guess).

I believe the informal motto of the Saumur Cavalry Academy is "To our wives, to our horses, and to those who mount them."

 

[David Flin]

I believe the informal motto of the Saumur Cavalry Academy is "To our wives, to our horses, and to those who mount them."

Up until 2013, the RN toast of the day for Saturday was: "Wives and Sweethearts," which was invariably followed by: "May they never meet."

Now, the toast is: Our Families.

 

[Charles EP M.]

I can see a great boon for alternate history here, far back enough a POD and you can just make stuff up as army lingo and as long as it's suitably rude readers will go "that sounds about right".

 

[David Flin]

I can see a great boon for alternate history here, far back enough a POD and you can just make stuff up as army lingo and as long as it's suitably rude readers will go "that sounds about right".

You've caught me out.

 

[Thande]

I can see a great boon for alternate history here, far back enough a POD and you can just make stuff up as army lingo and as long as it's suitably rude readers will go "that sounds about right".

There's a sequence in the upcoming LTTW volume 7 where I feature the Empire of North America's Imperial Marines and I did think about this, but mostly ended up using some historical slang with a few mutations (not necessarily plausible) as it didn't sound right to me otherwise. For example I referenced the OTL American Marines using 'Oo-rah' and British soldiers of the ARW era using 'Huzzah' by having these ones use 'Oo-zah', although the circumstances in which the OTL term probably came about (the post-Bolshevik intervention into Russia) didn't happen. Don't look too closely at the threads of logic

 

[Redolegna]

Now, the toast is: Our Families.

That plural nicely ambiguous.

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

This is a very ally article, especially for civvies. Glad to learn everybody still hates Rockapes.

 

[Francisco Cojuanco]

However, back in the Bootnecks (which are referred to as Leathernecks) some 40 years ago, Sprog meant very specifically children (as in wife and sprogs).

IIRC sprogs earlier referred to green troops. So kind of a vicious circle of slang there.

Though as a Yank, I find it funny that crayon-munchers refer to Army infantry. Here, that term is referred to Marines (or so my Navy friends tell me).

 

[Ciclavex]

There's a sequence in the upcoming LTTW volume 7 where I feature the Empire of North America's Imperial Marines and I did think about this, but mostly ended up using some historical slang with a few mutations (not necessarily plausible) as it didn't sound right to me otherwise. For example I referenced the OTL American Marines using 'Oo-rah' and British soldiers of the ARW era using 'Huzzah' by having these ones use 'Oo-zah', although the circumstances in which the OTL term probably came about (the post-Bolshevik intervention into Russia) didn't happen. Don't look too closely at the threads of logic

What I love about that particular example is that I understand that both the US Army’s “Hooah!” and the USMC’s “Oo-rah!” come from the same source from literally opposite directions; Hooah is a warped and evolved form of Huzzah (having halfway merged with probably a Seminole battle cry), which had migrated from the East over centuries until it reached Great Britain from the Mongols, while “Oo-rah” comes from the Russians in Siberia who got it rather more directly from the Mongols.

EDIT: Caveat that these origins are disputed of course, as all such things are.

 

[JesterBL]

What I find interesting is how military slang gets codified nowadays- a part of US Navy Boot Camp is spent teaching you old US Navy slang terms as part of 'Navy culture'. Obviously it is a sanitized version but it means maintaining archaicisms like 'scuttlebutt' for gossip.

 

[RyanF]

What I find interesting is how military slang gets codified nowadays- a part of US Navy Boot Camp is spent teaching you old US Navy slang terms as part of 'Navy culture'. Obviously it is a sanitized version but it means maintaining archaicisms like 'scuttlebutt' for gossip.

Not an anachronism in this household, sir! Good day!

 

[Warthog]

It's great fun, and military slang lends authenticity to writing about soldiers, which an AH author can still make comprehensible with some careful effort, as @Thande illustrates above.

I suppose it only work where the reader can follow it, else it becomes a conceit?

Reflecting on this in own context, most modern Shona military terms are onomatopoeic, so unlikely to change in an ATL, although perhaps if the slang word comes from another language

Thanks @Death's Companion and @David Flin this gives excellent food for thought.

 

[David Flin]

Thanks @Death's Companion and @David Flin this gives excellent food for thought.

As always, all credit for any article goes to the author. They're the one that wrote it. All the editor does is present it.

(The reverse also holds: blame for a poor article goes to the editor, for having the poor judgement of publishing an article not up to scratch).

Somehow, it doesn't seem fair: The author gets all the credit and the editor gets all the blame. But that's the editorial game.

 

[Death's Companion]

As always, all credit for any article goes to the author. They're the one that wrote it. All the editor does is present it.

(The reverse also holds: blame for a poor article goes to the editor, for having the poor judgement of publishing an article not up to scratch).

Somehow, it doesn't seem fair: The author gets all the credit and the editor gets all the blame. But that's the editorial game.

There would probably be a whole article just on the topic of life's fairness and appreciation for the people who make things happen and have things happen too them.