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Corissa replied to the topic How To Enrich Your Story Worlds By Inventing Original Slang in the forum Annual Theme Discussion 7 years, 6 months ago
@daeus-lamb I literally just studied this in my language class last week, so reading your article was very enjoyable! 😀
I’d say it’s fine the way it is, but just FYI, 3 of your categories do have more specific linguistic names, if you want to use them:
“Original application of prefixes or suffixes onto words”- this is called derivation, and you could also group prefixes and suffixes into one group and call them affixes.
“Combining multiple words into one” – this is called compounding if the words remain complete (i.e. bookshelf, doorknob) and blending if parts of words are put together to form a new word (i.e. brunch, modem).
“Random inventions” – this is called coinage (sadly it’s quite rare in English; about the only example our professor gave was the word “google”).
Also, based on your examples (US and “dogs”), I would guess that the term “acronyms” would fit better than “abbreviations.” (this can also result in entirely new words, such as the English word scuba: a Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus)












