Showing posts with label Scholarly works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scholarly works. Show all posts

2021-01-04

"Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of English Slang" by Max Décharne

 



Publisher:New York : Pegasus Books, 2017.
Edition:First Pegasus Books hardcover edition.
Copyright Date:©2017
ISBN:9781681774640 
Characteristics:388 pages :,illustration

This is an extremely well researched book that gives the reader an excellent overview of how slang has developed over the ages, and how previous groups have influenced latter ones.

As can likely be appreciated a good deal of slang tends to originate with or be related to sex, and this is examined well in the first two chapters. The third chapter deals with the subject of Cockney Rhyming Slang, and the fourth looks at slang terms from the LGBTQ side.

The fifth and sixth chapters deal respectively with crime and drunkenness, while the seventh looks at the drug cultures slang words.
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The next three chapters deal primarily with the music industry, and the way it has both adopted slang as well as influenced its use. The last chapters go on to look st slang in the military and police. Finally he looks at modern slang and the influence computers have had, but that's all geek to me (chickens not included). There are some good anecdotes throughout the book with regard to people using slang incorrectly, and either making fools of themselves, or getting in trouble because of it.

All in all this is a very interesting book that could be quite valuable to fiction writers, as well as those doing research on other cultures.

Enjoy!

Going on Hiatus

 Greetings, I have decided to put a hold on doing further book reviews for a while. In fact I'm not sure if I will resume doing reviews ...