By Rebekah Marin
Liberal Studies/English Major

Recently, Duke University student, Daniel Kort, launched a language campaign called “You Don’t Say”. In Kort’s Huffington Post article he talks about the use of language he was hearing at a number of the university’s basketball games. Unimpressed with the lack of respect Duke fans showcased on the sidelines, he started the campaign to shed light on the frequent use of derogatory slurs. The campaign is worthy of recognition, as poor sportsmanship hinders the positive atmosphere attributed with attending sporting events.
However, after reading Kort’s article I found myself thinking not only about poor language usage on the courts, fields, and rinks around the country, but also the word choice used in 20-something’s daily conversations. It seems like speaking in shorthand is popular among the college crowd. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I’d love to plug my ears and pretend it isn’t happening. The English language is always evolving, but it could probably do without some of the most recent additions to the dictionary. While scrolling through a list of the most recent additions to the Oxford Dictionary Online, you’ll see words like apols, derp, vom, srsly (seriously?!), and plenty more alien-like words. What do those words even mean? I’ll leave the decoding up to you, and get to the point.
An expanding vocabulary isn’t a negative thing, but why do words that already exist need to be turned into shorthand and accepted as entirely new words? It seems redundant. Over the years our language has changed drastically. Have you tried decoding Shakespeare or Chaucer? It’s difficult of course because that type of language has become outdated and uncommon, but the progression into modern language doesn’t strike me as a complete downgrade. Hopefully today’s changes will not make our language out to be a heap of abbreviated slang that will be just as hard to decode as Shakespeare.
This column is far less inspiring than Kort’s language campaign, but I’d like to challenge all of my Beacon readers out there to be more conscientious of your word choice. Next time you have the urge to word vom some of the newest slang, think twice. Along with my challenge, take a look at Kort’s article titled, “Duke Student Athletes Speak Out on the Power of Language” on The Huffington Post’s website and resist the temptation to use slanderous language toward people who are different from you. Our generation is full of leaders, and keeping some professionalism in the way we communicate would be beneficial.