Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.
acrolect | a variety of language closest to the prestige form. |
adspeak | the kind of language used in advertising. |
argot | an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group. |
argotic | relating to ARGOT. |
bafflegab | official or professional jargon which confuses more than it clarifies. |
balderdash | nonsense language. |
baragouin | any jargon or unintelligible language. |
basilect | debased dialect. |
belgicism | a word or expression used by Belgians when speaking French or Dutch. |
bidialectal | speaking two dialects. |
billingsgate | coarsely abusive language. [From a fish market in London, notorious for the crude language heard there]. |
blinglish | English mixed with black slang. |
bowlingual | a device that allegedly translates a dog's barks into human language. |
bureaucratese | the language of bureaucrats. |
calo | a Spanish argot used by chicano youths > CALOS. |
cant | the vocabulary or language peculiar to a particular group or sect, esp. thieves; (verb) to speak this. |
centum | a hundred; centum languages: a classification group of Indo-European languages, in which an original palatal consonant developed as a guttural. Cf. SATEM. |
cockney | London dialect esp of the East End. |
conlang | an invented language. |
conlanger | one who devises a conlang, an invented language. |
creole | a language formerly a PIDGIN which has developed and become the accepted language of a region, esp in the W. Indies. |
creolise creolize | to PIDGINIZE. |
creolist | a person who studies CREOLE languages. |
demotic | popular, common; of or relating to the form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech; (noun) the popular form of a language. |
dialect | a regional variety of a language. |
dialectal | relating to a dialect > DIALECTALLY |
diglossia | the coexistence of a prestige language and a lower language. |
diglossic | relating to DIGLOSSIA, the coexistence of a prestige language and a lower language. |
diplomatese | the language of diplomacy. |
doublespeak | language used to deceive usually through concealment or misrepresentation of truth. |
ebonics | the slang of African Americans. [From ebony + phonics]. |
educationese | the jargon used esp. by educational theorists. |
elfish elvish | the supposed language of elves. |
franglais | a mixture of French and English. |
gallicism | a French turn of expression. |
geechee | a dialect of rural black people in the southern US. |
geekspeak | the jargon used by geeks. |
gobbledegook gobbledygook | unintelligible official jargon; rubbish, nonsense. |
governmentese | jargon held to be characteristic of government officials. |
greenspeak | ecological jargon. |
idioglossia | a secret speech or language, especially invented by children. |
idiolect | the language usage pattern unique to a person. |
jargon | a specialised language for a trade etc |
jargoneer | a person who uses JARGON. |
jargonise jargonize | to express in JARGON. |
jargonish | like JARGON. |
jargonist | one addicted to JARGON; one who uses cant or slang. |
jargonistic | in the manner of a JARGONIST. |
jargony | like jargon > JARGONIER, JARGONIEST. |
jive | jargon, orig. of Harlem and jazz musicians. |
jockney | the Scots dialect as influenced by cockney speech patterns. |
joual | a non-standard, chiefly urban variety of French. |
journalese | the JARGON of bad journalism. |
koine | a dialect that spreads to become common language of a region. [GK. koine, common]. |
langue | a language viewed as an abstract system used by a speech-community, in contrast to the actual linguistic behaviour of individuals. |
latinity | the Latin tongue, style, or idiom, or the use thereof; specifically, purity of Latin style or idiom. |
ledden | language, dialect, speech. |
legalese | complicated legal JARGON. |
lingo | language > LINGOES or LINGOS. |
mellowspeak | a bland non-assertive form of language associated with New Age philosophy. |
mockney | an imitation COCKNEY accent; a person who affects this. |
motherese | a simplified and repetitive type of speech used by adults in speaking to babies. |
newspeak | deliberately ambiguous and contradictory language used to mislead and manipulate the public. [Coined by George Orwell]. |
novelese | the language of inferior novels. |
officialese | the characteristic language of official statements. |
palabra | (Spanish) a word; talk > PALABRAS. |
patois | a dialect (orig. in France) of the common people in a particular area, differing fundamentally from the literary language; any non-standard local dialect. |
pidgeon pidgin | a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages. |
pidginize | to make into PIDGIN. |
polonism | a Polish idiom or characteristic. |
psychobabble | language laden with jargon from psychotherapy or psychiatry used without much concern for accuracy. |
putonghua | the Chinese language, standard Mandarin. |
reo | a New Zealand language > REOS. |
sabir | a French-based pidgin language. |
satem | a classification group of Indo-European languages, in which an original palatal consonant developed as a sibilant. No —S. Cf. CENTUM. |
scamto | the argot of urban S. African blacks > SCAMTOS. |
seaspeak | a restricted variety of English used by sailors etc. for unambiguous communication. |
shelta | a secret jargon used by vagrants in Britain and Ireland. [Shelru, poss a perversion of OIr béulra language]. |
shizzle | a form of slang popularized by US rap musicians in which the trailing syllables of certain words are replaced by the suffix -izzle. |
shoptalk | any specialist jargon. |
signage | the use of sign language. |
slang | extremely informal or vulgar language; (verb) to use slang. |
slangish | slangy. |
slanguage | a slang language. |
slangular | slangy. |
slangy | full of slang > SLANGIER, SLANGIEST; SLANGILY. |
sociolect | a variety of languages used by members of a particular social class or group. |
strine | English as spoken by Australians. |
subdialect | a subdivision of a dialect. |
taal | language, usually by implication Afrikaans. |
technobabble | technical jargon. |
telegraphese | language characterized by the terseness and ellipses that are common in telegrams. |
tsotsitaal | the street slang used by TSOTSIS, South African street hooligans. |
verlan | a variety of French slang using back-to-front words and Arab words. |
vernacular | indigenous, native, spoken by the people of the country or of one's own country; (noun) a vernacular language, expression, or mode of expression. |
weblish | the language of text messages. |