army creole
{{Short description|Jargon or cant associated with military culture}}
File:Donald K. Slayton (WW II).jpg astronauts, Deke Slayton was considered the most fluent in army creole.{{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Tom |author-link =Tom Wolfe |title =The Right Stuff |publisher =Macmillan |date =2008 |pages =112–113 |isbn =978-1429961325}}]]
Army creole was a term used in Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff to describe an English dialect spoken by military personnel. The dialect relies upon extensive use of profane intensifiers like "fuck" to gain attention in confusing circumstances requiring prompt, decisive action. Before 1980, basic training drill instructors, drill sergeants, military training instructors, and recruit division commanders used the dialect to increase the stress levels of recruits, simultaneously emphasizing a recruit's subordinate status to the instructor and increasing the probability of the recruit focusing on the instructions being provided in distracting situations. {{citation needed|date=October 2017}} Military personnel learning the dialect in training may use it to improve communication in stressful situations.{{cite web |url=http://www.military.com/NewContent/0%2C13190%2CDefensewatch_101904_Dodd%2C00.html |title=Has Marine Corps Training Gone Soft? |last=Dodd |first=Matthew |website=Military.com |access-date=22 January 2015 }}
Historical use
After losing his uniform during boarding party combat aboard the sinking {{GS|U-94|1940|6}}, World War II Royal Canadian Navy officer Hal Lawrence was mistaken for a German prisoner of war following rescue by the crew of the {{USS|Lea|DD-118|6}} until Lawrence's fluency with the English military dialect convinced the American sailors of Lawrence's identity.{{cite book |title=A Bloody War |author=Lawrence, Hal |publisher=Bantam Books |year=1979 |isbn=0-553-20692-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/bloodywaronemans00lawr }}
Evolution
AWOL entered the vocabulary during World War I, and acronyms became increasingly important to simplify descriptions of command structure and technical innovations of mid-20th-century warfare. Technical acronyms like radar and sonar have been widely adopted by conventional English dialects alongside profane acronyms like snafu.{{cite web |url=http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/a-history-of-acronyms/ |title=A History of Acronyms |last=Joyner |first=James |website=Outside the Beltway |date=October 2010 |access-date=25 January 2015 }} Late 20th-century attempts to reduce use of profanity during United States military recruit training increased reliance on imaginative verbal descriptions of violence as an alternative means of inducing stress and gaining attention.{{cite book |last=Dyer |first=Gwynne |author-link =Gwynne Dyer |title =War |url=https://archive.org/details/wardyer00dyer |url-access=registration |publisher =Crown Publishers |date =1985 |location =New York |pages =[https://archive.org/details/wardyer00dyer/page/114 114–128] |isbn =0-517-55615-4}}
References
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;Bibliography
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- Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979, {{ISBN|0-374-25032-4}}.
- Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Bantam, 1979, {{ISBN|0-553-24063-3}}.
- Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Bantam, 2001, 1979, {{ISBN|0-553-38135-0}}.
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