Watch Your Mouth!!

 

   Six years ago in late December I began a post that stumbled into the new year and in it I warned that the language police were coming. I suggested that you needed to "Be Careful About What You Say" and even about "What You Sing." I also indicated that "Name Calling" would be canceled and that the Moniker Monitors would change the name of your alma mater. All of this valuable information was cleverly concealed under the mystifying title - "This is NOT About Mariah Carey." Many years have passed, but if you click on that link, you can be among the very few who have read it. 

We Will Begin With the Benign

   For many years Lake Superior State University has offered lists of words which should be banned. It is a semi-serious endeavour I support since it suggests eliminating words for linguistic/grammatical reasons, not because of a Directive from the DEI Department. Here are the top ten for this year and this is the opening paragraph:

Stop resorting to imprecise, trite, and meaningless words and terms of seeming convenience! You’re taking the lazy way out and only confusing matters by over-relying on inexact, stale, and inane communication!

The TOP Ten:

1.GOAT

2. Inflection Point

3. Quiet Quitting

4. Gaslighting

5. Moving Forward

6. Amazing

7. Does That Make Sense?

8. Irregardless

9 . Absolutely

10. It Is What It Is

For a full explanation go here: Lake Superior State University. 

For comparison, here is the list from 2022:

1. Wait, what?

2. No worries

3. At the end of the day [this one has made other lists and is still with us.]

4. That being said

5. Asking for a friend

6. Circle back

7. Deep dive

8. New normal

9. You’re on mute

10. Supply chain

[My suggestions for the next list: "speaks to", "unpack" (except when applied to luggage) and "intersections" (except when referring to streets.)

The Stanford Situation

  Elite institutions are more concerned about the words relating to identity than grammar. Stanford administrators have worked hard on the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI). To access the website for EHLI, one has to have a Stanford logon, but the rationale behind it is described here: "Introducing the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative Website." I found some of the words on the list, listed elsewhere and here are some of them, so you will know how to talk in 2023:

Among the verboten words cited on the "Ableist" master list along with the preferred substitutes are:

"addict," to be replaced with "person with a substance use disorder";

"addicted," to be replaced with "devoted";

"blind study," to be replaced with "masked study"; and

"walk-in," to be replaced with "open office."

Among the verboten words cited on the "Culturally Appropriative" master list along with the preferred substitutes are:

"Brave," not to be replaced but to be dropped from use altogether;

"chief," to be replaced with "the person's name"; and

"tribe," to be replaced with "friends, network, family, support system."

Among the verboten words cited on the "Gender-Based" master list along with the preferred substitutes are:

"'preferred' pronouns," to be replaced by pronouns — since "the word 'preferred' suggests that non-binary gender identity is a choice and a preference";

"ballsy," to be replaced with "bold";

"gentlemen," to be replaced with "everyone";

"he," to be replaced with "person's name of 'they'";

"seminal," to be replaced by "leading, groundbreaking," and

"tranny," to be replaced by "non-gendering conforming folk."

Among the verboten words cited on the "Imprecise Language" master list along with the preferred substitutes are:

"American," to be replaced with "US Citizen" — since this term insinuates "that the US is the most important country in the Americas"; and

"straight," to be replaced with "heterosexual."

Among the verboten words cited on the "Institutionalized Racism" master list along with the preferred substitutes are:

"black hat," to be replaced with "unethical hacker";

"blackballed," to be replaced with "banned, denied";

"gangbusters," to be replaced with "very successful";

"master (v)," to be replaced with "become adept in";

"master list," to be replaced with "list of record"; and

"white paper," to be replaced with "position paper."

   Stanford won (indirectly) a Sidney Award for this effort. The Sidney Awards are awarded by David Brooks of the NYT for good "long-form journalism." They honour Sidney Hook and one of the purposes of the award is to publicize good articles which is what I am doing here. Stanford didn't actually win the Sidney, Ginerva Davis did for writing about Stanford. The essay is found in Palladium magazine and the title of it is - "Stanford's War on Social Life." Stanford has strong allies in the war and their administrative troops are much like others elsewhere. Ms Davis writes:

“Since 2013, Stanford’s administration has executed a top-to-bottom destruction of student social life. Driven by a fear of uncontrollable student spontaneity and a desire to enforce equity on campus, a growing administrative bureaucracy has destroyed almost all of Stanford’s distinctive student culture.”

Even the WWE Is Awake

    World Wrestling Entertainment has suggested that announcers need to be more refined and eliminate certain words. I found some examples in an article that may be (one hopes) a satirical one. Two examples:

Banned term: Western Lariat. Reason: The word “Western” shows implicit bias toward eurocentric value systems and colonialism. Suggested replacement: “Decolonized Lariat.”

Banned term: Camel Clutch. Reason: It implies violence against animals, and reinforces negative stereotypes about the Middle East. Suggested replacement: “The Humble Maker.”

I don't have time on New Year's Eve to investigate this, but I did quickly find this article in WRESTLETALK: "FULL LIST OF BANNED WORDS IN WWE" (UPDATED). Among the words:
War

Interesting

The Business

Feud

Fans

Crazy

Interesting (?), but I am not sure this is all legitimate, but it is very difficult to distinguish between parody and reality these days.

Progress to Report

  Almost a decade ago, those associated with the Liverpool Football Club were given language guidelines and words like the ones above were not to be uttered. Looking at it, one can say that some progress has been made and it is likely that now even hooligans don't say such things. It is predicted here that "hooligans" will soon be eliminated.

("Kick It Out Chairman Welcomes List of 'Unacceptable' Words Issued by Liverpool to Staff: Words Such as "Princess" and Phrases Like "Don't Be A Woman" Are Included in the Guide Issued By the Reds," Independent, July 31, 2013.)

The Bonus: 

When I referred above to "Begin With the Benign", you probably thought of the song "Begin the Beguine" which was written by Cole Porter. If you don't know what "beguine" means, here is the answer: 

The beguine (/bəˈɡiːn/ bə-GHEEN)[1] is a dance and music form, similar to a slow rhumba. It was popular in the 1930s, coming from the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, where, in the local Antillean Creole language, beke or begue means a White man while beguine is the female form. It is a combination of Latin folk dance and French ballroom dance, and is a spirited yet slow, close dance with a roll of the hips, a movement inherited from rhumba.

If you would like to listen and dance to "Begin the Beguine" on this New Year's Eve, here is a version performed by Artie Shaw.