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Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal
speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics.[1] Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the
abbreviation colloq. as an identifier. Colloquialisms are sometimes referred to collectively as "youknowhatitis
language".[2]
Examples
Some examples of informal colloquialisms can include words (such as "y'all" or "gonna" or "wanna"), phrases (such
as "old as the hills" and "raining cats and dogs" "dead as a doornail"), or sometimes even an entire aphorism
("There's more than one way to skin a cat").
Colloquialisms are often used primarily within a limited geographical area, known by linguists to spread through
normal conversational interaction of a language, although more often now through informal online interaction. A
common example given is the regional term used by people when describing a carbonated soft drink. In the Upper
Midwestern United States, in common with Canada, it is commonly called "pop," while in other areas, notably the
Northeastern and extreme Western United States, it is referred to as "soda" or "mix". In New England it is
occasionally called "tonic." In some areas of Scotland it is referred to as "ginger", and confusion over whether this
term referred to all carbonated soft drinks or just ginger beer was apparent in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson.
(See: Names for soft drinks for more regional examples of colloquial names given to soft drinks.)
Another example of colloquialism is the two different terms for rectangular maple doughnuts. They are called Long
Johns in most of the United States, but in the Pacific Northwest (such as Oregon and Washington), they are referred
to as Maple bars.
Words that have a formal meaning might also have a colloquial meaning. "Kid" can mean "young goat" in formal
usage and "child" in colloquial usage.
Auxiliary languages are sometimes assumed to be lacking in colloquialisms, but this varies from one language to
another. In Interlingua, the same standards of eligibility apply to colloquialisms as to other terms. Thus, any widely
international colloquialism may be used in Interlingua. Expressions such as en las manos de... 'in the hands of...',
Que pasa? 'What's going on?', are common.
An interesting example of a colloquialism and how it migrates to other areas is the Indian phrase "Please do the
needful," meaning "Please do what is implied and/or expected." As the global workplace expands, this once regional
phrase is now being used outside the area it originated in.
Colloquialism
References
[1] colloquial. (n.d.) Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved September 10, 2008, from Dictionary.com (http:/ / dictionary. reference. com/
browse/ colloquial)
[2] colloquialism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved September 10, 2008, from Dictionary.com (http:/ / dictionary. reference.
com/ browse/ colloquialism)
[3] See p. 21 in Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (http:/ / www. palgrave. com/ products/ title.
aspx?is=140391723X), by Zuckermann, Ghilad, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
[4] Lundin, Leigh (2009-12-31). "Buzzwords bang * splat !" (http:/ / www. criminalbrief. com/ ?p=10866). Don Martin School of Software.
Criminal Brief. .
[5] Oxford English dictionary. (http:/ / dictionary. oed. com/ cgi/ entry/ 50063104?query_type=word& queryword=dialect& first=1&
max_to_show=10& sort_type=alpha& result_place=1& search_id=tFGd-Bh8USU-18775& hilite=50063104)
[6] Merriam-Webster Online dictionary. (http:/ / www. m-w. com/ dictionary/ dialect)
External links
Slangasaurus (http://www.uniteddictionary.com/) A Slang Dictionary
Colloquial Spanish (http://coloquial.es/es/diccionario-del-espanol-coloquial/) Dictionary of Colloquial
Spanish.
Urban Thesaurus (http://urbanthesaur.us) An Urban Thesaurus
License
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