D'Écriture - Sal Christ

Language-Libbage: A Series

I’m in love with my thesaurus, with lyrical music in languages other than my first, with slang underground and above ground, and with transmogrifying vernacular until it resembles something more appropriate. The language of storytelling is as much in the story and how it’s told as it is in the verbal lens through which it flows.

A friend of mine recently boffed my continued interest in expanding upon my rubbish comprehension of the Italian language, stating that it was/is a dead language. Adding to this was a later conversation we had pertaining to a translation of one of his recent blog entries from Italian to English—there was a phrase I couldn’t/didn’t “get” and while he explained it, he also remarked that “saying one thing while meaning another” was a problem of the Italian language. I responded that it’s a “problem” in every language. 

Too frequently, what may be spoken and transmitted in one language doesn’t fully diffuse via another, alters a story’s understanding or meaning in the long run—both positively and negatively. While we still access the gist of what’s being said, nothing compares to understanding the tale as it was first intended. Regardless, sometimes the beauty splendor of a tale is in its vocabulary.

I want to play around with a series of posts devoted to jargon, patois, lingo, and whatever else you want to label linguistic libbage* as, if for no other reason than to indulge my wordy vice. These posts will probably include literary hip-hop/rap, posts devoted spectacularly obscure verbiage, conversation redux, and who knows what else.   

*Yes, “libbage” is a bit of a made-up word on my part, but wholly applicable.