The langers are making a hames of our language... it's gubu, like

It was hip in 1904, pop in 1921, megabucks in 1946, miniskirt in 1965, karaoke in 1979 and bling bling in 2000. This year it's 'chav' - the noun which describes young men who wear cheap gold jewellery and baseball caps and tend to hang around in shopping centres. Like hip, pop, megabucks, miniskirt, karaoke and bling bling, chav is a buzzword - a word or expression that has become fashionable by being used a lot, especially on television and in newspapers. And a new book out this week lists 101 of them - one for every year from 1904 until now. Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report (Oxford University Press, ?14.70) by linguistics expert Susie Dent, aims to provide a snapshot of the vernacular of today by showing how words such as mobile phone (1945) and hypermarket (1970) stayed in the language while tiddly-om-pom-pom (1909) and snafu (1941) died out. But unlike many of the buzzwords of recent years, such as text message (1998), google (1999), bling bling (2000), 9/11 (2001), axis of evil (2002) and sex up (2003), chav is rarely used in Ireland. Thought to have come from the mid-19th century Romany word 'chavi', it's a term very specific to Britain. A Hiberno-English equivalent might be 'skanger' or 'knacker'. Prof Terry Dolan of UCD is fascinated by words such as these that are used specifically in Ireland. The editor of the most respected text on the subject, the Gill & Macmillan Hiberno English Dictionary, says both 'skanger' and 'knacker' are rarely used outside Ireland and the former is derived from a West Indian word while the latter is likely to be taken from the old word 'knack', meaning a trick. The professor says new words enter the vernacular in Ireland every year. The new edition of the dictionary, which is published next week, adds a further 1,000 entries. Among them are the terms 'Bertie Bowl' and 'Teflon Taoiseach' - buzzwords that are widely understood today but, he believes, will carry less resonance in the future. "It's a bit like 'Gubu' [grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented] - the term which Conor Cruise O'Brien used to describe the circumstances surrounding the Malcolm MacArthur story in 1982," he says. "For older generations, that term is well-known. Not so for younger people." That said, the term inspired the name of a popular Dublin pub. Words are changing with the generations. "'Culchie', a word used to describe people from the country, seems to be less fashionable these days than it was. 'Bogger' seems to be a more popular choice. Maybe it's something to do with the urbanisation of the country." Some fear that Hiberno-English words are in danger of extinction as a result of Americanisation. 'Like' is used as a comma by younger people, a la Californian soap operas, while Dublinese slang such as 'mot' don't have the currency they once did. Prof Dolan believes that terms such as 'een' (as in 'maneen'), 'pass remarkable' and 'tallyman' are unlikely to stand the test of time. He believes terms such as 'Celtic Tiger' (first used by the London-based economist Kevin Gardner), 'feck' and 'skanger' will survive. More colloquial terms such as 'how's she cutting?' and 'hames' (as in 'to make a hames of something') are in danger with modern life being more homogenised than before. "The media tends to put new words and terms into the vernacular," Prof Dolan says. "And once a word gets picked up it can spread very quickly. 'Bling bling' is a good example of that. But you hear great turns of phrase every day and I carry a notebook with me to record them. One of the best ones I heard recently was from a woman from Ringsend in Dublin. She described her accent to me as a Dublin 3 1/2 accent, rather than a Dublin 4 one. I wonder will that catch on?" Corkonians have been celebrating their unique take on the English language in recent times thanks to the success of the novelty hit single, The Langer Song. 'Langer', to the uninitiated, refers to drunkenness. It can also be used to describe a person, usually in a derogatory fashion. As a result, two books celebrating the diversity of Hiberno-English in Ireland's second city will be in the shops by the year's end. Folklorist and local historian Sean Beecher's A Dictionary of Cork Slang has already been relaunched, while Morty McCarthy's Dowtcha Boy is due to appear in bookshops later this year. And Adam Beecher, a nephew of the late Sean Beecher, has set up a website dedicated to Cork slang. Susie Dent is wondering what words will make future editions of Larpers and Shroomers too. A good bet for buzzword of 2005 is 'bouncebackability'. Fans of Sky Sports's Soccer AM show will no doubt be aware that the network is trying to have the word included in the Oxford English Dictionary. 'Bouncebackability' was originally coined by Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie to describe his team's ability to recover form after a poor start. Unsurprisingly, it has been used in many other contexts since. - John Meagher