Beware modern slang in historical writing

Interesting. Some of my students know ASAP as an English word that means you need it right away but are unaware of the origins, but that's going cross-linguistic so it doesn't really count.

OMG might fall under the "god" taboo, I knew some older folks who would say things like "Just fix the gee dee thing already," with gee dee (G-D-) standing in for "God-damned".

But we're in a time when the percentage of our daily communication that is non-verbal, i.e. written, has ramped up dramatically. When I was in boot camp in the late 80s (the height of my letter-writing phase since phone use was forbidden) I was writing 3-4 pages of handwritten letters a week. I probably average that much a day in email, forum, and social media postings now. Remember the controversy (for illustrative purposes only) over Hillary Clinton's emails? 31,380 deleted messages. We don't know how long they were, but that's a lot of non-verbal communication for patterns to slip over from into our speech.

 

Apparently I use MIA and AWOL interchangeable.
I can never remember what AWOL stands for . But in my mind (and what tv has lead me to believe), it's just another "word" for missing -shrugs-

 

None of these are explicatives, though, in the way Niven uses tanj as an explicative. Explicatives are a class of words unto themselves that follow their own rules for how and why they come to be. Clearly acronyms are a thing, most especially in the U.S. and the rest of Anglophonia rarely spares us the sentiment that they'd love it if we stopped. But again, explicatives are another thing and when they arise out of an acronym, it's an even rarer event. The one that Moose mentioned, ADASTW, is actually another good example. It's not a 4-letter word that's being hidden, but it certainly is a crass sentiment that answers to gallows humor and likely would not be remotely appreciated by the family of the deceased.

 

Absent WithOut Leave. Taking an extended weekend, skipping formation, that sort of thing.

Missing In Action. "We are bugging out, get to the chopper, move move MOVE! Okay, everybody here? Where's Johnson? Fuck, anybody seen Johnson? Goddamnit, call off the napalm, we still got a man out there!"

 

....so, missing

 

I had this challenge in writing the E&D. I did want to introduce some Latin, but I kept it to a minimum, and always immediately translated on first use "What is that fellator cocksucker doing here?" usually for some purpose. This was in the mouth of the Senator who NEVER used foul language. It's a balance, and less is much better.

I had an interesting criticism on my dialogue, not with the Latin, but with the English. I had someone say in dialogue that someone "would grow old and crotchety." And with full bombast the critic declared that "crotchety" did not come into English usage until the 18th century, and it was therefore out of step with time. I had to point out to her that
a. They weren't speaking English, but Latin, translated into modern English
b. Latin has a verb perascuere (I had to look it up, not a common one, and certainly not one I would use) which literally means "to become old and bitter," very nicely approximating "to become crotchety."

Always a challenge writing historical fiction. BTW, y'all, I passed 130K words on the sequel to the E&D, meaning I am about halfway through the first draft!

 

This is a fascinating thread, so I hope no-one minds if I resurrect it. *wields his Staff of Necromancy +1, polishes his Skull Ring +5*

I agree that using modern slang in historical fiction is an absolute no-no. That way madness lies. It leads to such abominations as:

*FACEPALM*

Other literary historical disasters include:

1. The knight who lifts up his visor ... and smokes a cigar.
2. The ancient Roman consul ... who eats pasta with tomato sauce. *shudders twice*
3. Another ancient Roman consul ... who greets his clients while wearing a pinstriped, three-piece suit ... and talks like The Godfather.

(The first one comes from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, so ... oh, fine. But the other two? They come from two books, published no less, that I found on Amazon. Not funny, guys).

Anyway, I have a question about this: I've written one full-length novel set in Sardinia (2nd-century BC), one in Rome (1st-century AD), one in Greece (12th-century BC), etc. So, I'm aware that I need to check my slang, etc. etc.

BUT ... what about the language itself? *shrug* Let's say I take the 12th-century BC novel, set in Greece. At that time, people living there spoke Mycenaean Greek. But obviously no-one, apart from experts, can read or understand Mycenaean Greek. So, I compromised and used modern English, with several provisos:

1. I researched Mycenaean Greece thoroughly, of course, to find how people lived there: their names, food, clothes, jobs, daily life, etc.
2. While using modern English, I also used ancient Greek terms (e.g. xiphos).
3. Although I was using technical terms, I made sure to describe what a xiphos is, so there's no confusion. (It's a double-edged, one-handed Iron Age sword used by the Greeks). For instance, my "Old Mentor" character teaches my MC how to fight, and finally presents him with a sword and says "Take it. My best xiphos."

What do you think? Does that sound like a good plan?

 

Or jezabell

 

Or if you want to be correct, "Jezebel".

 

One potential problem I could see here (though of course it depends entirely on context and what else is said in the scene) is that it could sound like he's saying "My best student," rather than my best double-edged, one-handed sword. This is a case where I might add something just for absolute clarity, like "Take it, it's my best xiphos," or "Take it—my best xiphos for my best student."

 

You'd have to "hang a lantern" on it and show how the character got hold of the expression, and why they adopted it.

It kind of reminds me, though, of how Shakespeare is always having his old Romans swearing by the Virgin Mary, which is all "Marry!" is.

 

To make it clear what a xiphos is, you might describe it. "the xiphos fit well in my hand, both edges still sharp."

But it is a conundrum, this business of using modern English in such a way that it conveys the spirit of an ancient civilization. Mary Stewart did that well in her Merlin trilogy, although the occasional anachronism does creep in. For example, Merlin's horse throws a shoe, which requires a stop to the local blacksmith. But horses weren't shod in fifth-century Britain.

As for Shakespeare, we have clocks striking in Julius Caesar. He wasn't too concerned about that, though.

 

Well ... sometimes, confusing people with rubbish-that-sounds-good-but-doesn't-mean-anything also works. For instance:

W. S. Gilbert once fell into conversation with a group of Shakespeare-lovers at the Garrick Club. At issue was the Bard's clarity.

Gilbert smirked at this. "Very well," he said -- "take this passage and tell me what it means:

I would as lief be thrust into a quickset hedge,
As cry 'Plosh' to a callow throstle."

At this, someone sprang to Shakespeare's defense: "That's perfectly clear. It just means that the speaker would prefer to be scratched all over in a thorny bush than disturb the bird's song." A smug pause. "What play is that from, by the way?"

"No play," Gilbert replied with a jubilant smile. "I made it up—and jolly good Shakespeare it is, too!"

 

Interesting. According to dictionary.com, "hello" was not used until 1865-70. It is a variant on "hallo" (first recorded in 1560–70), which is itself a variant of "hollo", itself variant of earlier "holla", from Middle French hola, equivalent to ho “ahoy” + la “there”.

So now we know.

"Goodbye" is simpler. It was first recorded in 1565–75, and it's simply a contraction of "God be with ye".

"Farewell", by the way, was first recorded sometime between 1325 and 1375. It comes from the Middle English word farewel (and the variants with the personal pronoun "fare ye well" and "fare you well" used in the Renaissance). The Middle English farewel is possibly further derived from the Old English far wel!, equivalent to fare (“to fare", i.e. "to travel or journey”) +‎ well.

(Sources: dictionary.com, wikitionary.com)

All this is quite simple: if your story is set any time before 1560, you can't use "Hallo" or "Goodbye". (Let's give it an extra 50-odd years to let these two to filter through to general usage, so don't use them before 1610 -- roughly 6 years before the death of Shakespeare, and 7 years after James VI of Scotland also became James I of England. Change for your country, of course).

If your story is set any time between roughly 1325-75 and 1610, "Farewel" is the correct term to use until roughly the late 15th century, when it becomes "Farewell". Why? Because "Farewel" is Middle English, and the late 15th century marks the rise of the Tudors and the VERY slow transition between Middle English and Early Modern English, hastened by the likes of Shakespeare.

In that time period, instead of "Hello", try:

1. "Good morrow" (good morning)
2. "heigh-ho!" (an expression of resignation)
3. "Fare ye well?" (I hope everything goes well)
4. How now? (how are you? What is this?)

For more desperate situations, try "God be with thee" or (better) "God save thee". Shakespeare uses the latter in King Henry IV, Act 5, scene 5, where Falstaff says "God save thee, my sweet boy!"

For more Tudor terms, this is a pretty good start:
https://www.readwritethink.org/sites/default/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1031/terms.pdf

 

I do remember a debate that occurred after the telephone was invented. Alexander Graham Bell advocated the use of "Ahoy" as a greeting, but it never caught on.

Curiously, I recently saw an episode on television where a Spanish-speaking person answered a telephone call by saying "Hello" or "Hallo" but not "Hola" or even "Bueno" which all my Spanish speaking acquaintances used to use when answering the phone. I wondered if "Hello" had migrated into Spanish, as it has done for other languages like German, at least as a telephone greeting.

It could also be that he expected the person at the other end of the line to be an English speaker, and reverted to Spanish as soon as the caller identified himself.

 

I believe the word "Hallo" did exist though, used as an expression of surprise or a hail (as in, hailing a wagon or a coach driver), rather than a greeting.

The Japanese say "moshi moshi".

 

I guess that's what getting old is. You become the anachronism.

 

How old are you?!?

 

I think JLT means that he/she remembers reading about a debate that occurred after the telephone was invented. (Otherwise, he/she might be a well-preserved vampire)

 

I'm glad that we figured out what I meant to write. (And I am a he, not a she).