EVOLVING ENGLISH (AN OLD WRITE)

When a dictionary adds words

Such as “selfie”, “tweep” and “turduncken”;

The English language seems to be the lingo of birds

Making me wonder if it is good or the destruction of tradition?

Selfies and tweep we know are products of social media

But turduncken I am told is a product of the Kitchen.

During my hey days a “selfie” was a mere hand job;

One which you did to ease your frustration

But now I almost literally sob

To know it is a self-photograph of my gob.

During my days a tweep

Was a bird’s chirp or beep

But now I am told

Tweeps are tweens or teens

That hang out with the old

On a regular basis;

Adults who are much more?older

And old enough to be their uncles or fathers.

Tweep at its most literal sense could also mean

A follower on Twitter so keen;

I guess I am losing my steam.

During my days turduncken

Would have sounded ever so German

That which I attempted to speak when drunken

But today I am told it is a delicacy

Which you may or may not fancy.

A boneless chicken stuffed

Into a boneless duck

Which then again is stuffed

Into a boneless turkey.

Boy that sounds yucky

But people do eat this muck

And consider it real tasty

To be a newly named delicacy

My God, I really do wonder

If I were to be reborn

A hundred years or so later

Would I be really familiar

With the language

Then used as English;

I really wonder if it would sound

To me as complete gibberish...

This was originally written in 2014.

The 2014 edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary added 150 new words, from “selfie” to “poutine” and I therefore wrote this verse on 20th May 2014 to commemorate the inclusion of these words into the English language.

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Many of the words and terms relate to digital life and social media spoiler alert, hashtag and tweep while others are food-driven, including the Vietnamese staple pho and turducken, a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey.

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E-waste made it into the update. So did e-freegan, one who scavenges for free food in store and restaurant trash bins as a way to reduce consumption of resources.

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Other new words in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate, along with the lookup database at Merriam-webster.com-

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Poutine, a French Canadian snack or side dish of French fries covered with brown gravy and cheese curds; steampunk, a literary genre with dress-up followers that mashes up 19th-century Victorian or Edwardian societies with steam-powered technology; unfriend, which joins defriend; and hot spot, a place where Wi-Fi is available.

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And still more- crowdfunding, big data, baby bump, digital divide, dubstep and fangirl.

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Image Source / Courtesy: https://www.novakidschool.com/blog/happy-english-language-day/