Some great familects from two films and a TV series
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Some great familects from two films and a TV series


A familect is a distinct lexicon that some families or groups come up with – expressive phrases for persons, pets, things and imaginary things, usually mixed in with inside jokes, deliberately mispronounced words, shorthands, language play, metaphor, imagery and sometimes movement. Familect words and phrases are neologisms – newly coined words, usages or expressions that are likely meaningless outside their user group.

For your edification, I’ve chosen dialogue from two films and a television series that are great examples of how some familects contain over-the-top eloquence and poetic slang:

A Clockwork Orange

ALEX
Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?
… 

ALEX
The Durango ‘95 purred away a real horrowshow -- a nice, warm vibraty feeling all through your guttiwuts. And soon it was trees and dark, my brothers, with real country dark.
… 

ALEX
Now then, Dim. What does that great big horsey gape of a grin portend?
        

Sin City

Context: Burt Shlubb (a.k.a. Fat Man) and Douglas Klump (a.k.a. Little Man) are two low-rent thugs for hire who have just hijacked a Jaguar convertible for their own nefarious purposes.

SHLUBB
I seek only the most lighthearted and momentary digression. The briefest indulgement in automotive pleasure-- 

KLUMP
…for cheap thrills. For such short-lived durability, Mr. Shlubb, you would risk engendering ill will on the part of our employers.
… 

KLUMP
It is inclement upon me to comment with marked displeasure on your rash impulsiveness in selecting such an eye-catching and impractical car to heist, Mr. Shlubb. Relevant to said mission is the following query which I now put forth to you. Wherein this most streamlined and trunkless of transports, boner-inspiring though it may be, wherein are we to reposit our recently deceased cargo?
        

The Wire season 1, episode 9

Context: Here, the ‘shit’ that Joe is referring to is 4,000 ready-for-sale vials of crack cocaine that Omar Little (Michael K. Williams, rest in peace) recently stole from Avon Barksdale’s crew, and that Omar has just dropped on Joe’s desk. Further, ‘a hundert large’ is $100,000.

PROPOSITION JOE
What makes you think I ain’t gonna just take this shit off your hands and throw your ass up outta here?

OMAR
Avon falls, the projects be an open market again, right?

PROPOSITION JOE smiles, looks to LIEUTENANT, who nods.

PROPOSITION JOE
Lemme understand. Avon loses a hundert large to me on a bet, then you bring me some of his shit so that I can put your predatory self on his ass.

OMAR nods.

PROPOSITION JOE (CONT’D)
Not his day, is it?
        


About

Johan Emerson Grobler has been editing academic and related work since 2007.

When he edits, he takes responsibility for the text, as if he were the co-author. Most of what he does is a blend of rewriting, copyediting, line editing and proofreading. That is, he assembles hard-working sentences that can be inhaled like ice cream.

A great edit can be the difference between approval or rejection, resources allocated or denied, a sale or no sale, and a cum laude or a summa cum laude.

Johan has assisted authors to successfully submit papers to at least 91 journals.


Do you love English? Wonderful! Here, every month, you can read about English usages, why literacy is a miracle, what copyediting is, why we shouldn’t write only for our peers, how many errors are acceptable in a text, informal words, slang, what ‘yeet’ means, why we curse, the origin of the word ‘OK’, the international auxiliary language Esperanto, the 16 tenses, problem sentences, the nine parts of speech, French’s influence on English, setting time and word count goals in writing assignments, whether data should be plural or singular, the classic style, the plain style, sentence structure, the active voice and the passive voice. Much pleasure awaits…


Sources

The Wire, season 1, episode 9. Game Day. (56 minutes). Final shooting draft, 21 May 2002. HBO. Pp. 56-7. (Lightly amended.)

IMDb: A Clockwork Orange (1971) quotes – Malcolm McDowell: Alex.

Drew’s Script-O-Rama: Sin City Script - dialogue transcript.

Sin City illusion of eloquence.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) (136 minutes). Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess. Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Sin City (2005) (124 minutes). Screenplay by Frank Miller, based on Miller’s graphic novels of the same name. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, guest director Quentin Tarantino.

Game Day, The Wire, season 1, episode 9 (2002) (56 minutes). Teleplay by David H. Melnick and Shamit Chocksey. Story by David Simon and Edward Burns. Directed by Milčo Mančevski.




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