There aren’t too many words or phrases that carry meaning in my family, that wouldn’t carry meaning in another. In fact, the only one that really comes to mind is yabbit. This is a word that my Grandpa will use to make fun of his grandchildren. He uses it to correct use in our use of language. Yabbit is a combination of words – “yeah” and “but.” My cousins, siblings and I will frequently respond to a comment with “yeah, but…” and my Grandpa has turned it into one word to mean that we are putting conditions on what we say. If we are saying “yeah” to something, then there should be no “but.”
We also use the word scandles. No, not like scandals, we aren’t on Jerry Springer. My family will frequently use words that we formed as a child when we had mispronunciation issues. They then become so much apart of our language that we sometimes neglect to use the actual word with company. Scandles is another word that my family uses from sandals. I believe that it was my older brother, Jim, who can lay claim to being the founder of this word. There are a whole collection of words that my family uses that originate from my two brothers or me in our childhoods. We use anything from zerebra for zebra to buffadoes for buffaloes. While these may not seem like language special only to use, because they are merely the same words with a speech impediment, they have transformed into words through the frequent usage by my family. Their presence is an affectionate tie to our past, when the children are moving out and starting their own lives.
Another word that has been adapted into our family language is the use of Sto Lat, which is actually a Polish toast frequently used at weddings to say “may you have a 100 years of blessings.” My family has adapted it to be a kind of good-bye. If someone is leaving the house or going on a trip, we say “good-bye, sto lat.” It isn’t the traditional use of the phrase, but it still works as a phrase that has a special meaning to only my family, because as far as I know, we are the only ones to use it in that manner.Through frequent usage, a new language is formed and these are really the only things that I can think of that are special to my family alone and no one else’s.
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1 comment:
I enjoyed reading about the things that your family says, especially the part about how you still say things that you said when you were little. My sister used to work at a daycare and would tell me all the funny things the kids would say like cackers (for crackers) and petchpup (for ketchup). I also liked the bit about the Polish saying. It's good to know that your still in touch with your heritage. Good job!
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