The Wykehamist
My main theory is uninspired. Whenever we see teenagers acting differently we blame the bogeyman: technology. Not happy with turning the adolescents of today into slack-jawed phone junkies chasing their next dopamine hit, it had to take notions from us as well!
In 2004, aside from the occasional duty call to my parents, and lunchtime conversation with dons, I could pass weeks interacting only with people who knew their neish from their feish, their thunks from their brunks; Winchester was its own universe and notions were its living, mutating language. New developments were matters of genuine interest: I can remember avidly following the development of the Furley’ s voice in 2007 and speculating with friends over lunch about whether it would oust the already established Cook’ s voice( itself just an impression of Will Wapshott( C, 2001-6) that had got wildly out of hand).
However, with the advent of the iPhone and school internet that took under five minutes to load a jpeg. came access to normal English. Winchester was no longer a linguistic goldfish bowl and within a decade the notions of the 2000s were all but dead.
Another theory recommends itself, however. Perhaps the seeds of the late-90s notions’ demise were sown in their very success. They were born to mock those who used Win Coll slang but became ubiquitous; they became they very thing they set out to satirise.
Perhaps to use naat in 2014 was as passé as saying bogle in 1998; perhaps, in an ironic twist of fate the user of these notions became the ultimate anal meatster.
RJHM( Coll:, 2004-9; Co: Ro:, 2018-)
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