slang and HP

[gulplum]

chanteuse wrote:

> we all know GoF is the least US-ized of the books. hence, i (a 
> USer) read it and have to passover a frustrating amount of words as 
> incomprehensible.
> 
> ah, slang.
> 
> my question: is this all 'normal' slang? do you, as people of the 
> UK, understand every single word? or does JKR get creative, you 
> know, make up her own uses for words? or does she use 'outdated' 
> words? (does anybody *really* say 'blimey' anymore? or has it gone 
> the way of 'rad' in the US?)

Part of the whole charm of the books is that we have very typical 
generic end of the 20th century kids in a medieval setting, and both 
are very natural. If any of the language were anachronistic, I'm sure 
that JKR's fan mail would swiftly make it clear to her.

Of course, nothing changes faster than teenage jargon, and apart from 
the fact that JKR is too old to be able to keep up with it (as am I), 
she hasn't used any up-to-the-minute stuff to date the langauge of 
the books exactly. 

So the kids in the books don't talk *entirely* like typical 90s 
British kids, but the language is a sub-set of the way they do speak. 
As far as I'm aware, none of the language is outdated, and "blimey" 
is in continuous use. It's probably more typical for JKR's (my) 
generation (I certainly use it on a daily basis), but it doesn't 
sound in the slightest bit strange coming out of a (British) 
teenager's mouth. 

There are variations between the kids as well. For instance, Dean and 
Colin frequently use "cool", which none of the kids brought up in 
wizarding families do, except for Fred and George regarding Moody.

It's equally interesting that Harry uses no teenage jargon - this is 
a further underlining of his lack of contact with his peers in the 
Muggle world. 

It grates on me that Kloves puts "wicked" and "cool" into Ron's mouth 
so frequently in the movies, because they're not words I would expect 
him to use, having been brought up in a wizarding family without much 
(any?) Muggle contact. Ron certainly doesn't talk that way in the 
books. Just one more reason I thnk we need a campaign to persuade the 
production team to find another scriptwriter (preferably younger and 
British, or at least with an ear for British cadences of speech).

-- 
GulPlum AKA Richard, who thinks this topic actually belongs on the 
main list as it's very much part of analysing the books. If 
pronunciation threads are "on topic", then jargon threads are 
probably even more so.