WAR SLANG

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 December 1942, Page 4

WAR SLANG

LANGUAGE OF THE WASPS IN BRITAIN. SPECIMEN RENDERED INTO ENGLISH. United States soldiers heading for Britain, here’s a tip for you (wrote a New York correspondent of the “Christian Science Monitor” recently): Those girls in the WAAF, Britain’s Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, have a “slanguage” all their own. Their “slang” talk is just as picturesque and incomprehensible as is that of the United States, and if you don’t think they’re “cooking with gas,” just try this paragraph on your phonetic phonograph: “We thought one of the erks who arrived at our station to be a ropey type,’ said a Waaf recently. “We were rigid bound by all she said and thought she was completely cheesed. But in an emergency one night, far from committing the black, she showed great heroism and collected a gong for bravery.” Nonsense? Not to a Waaf. As explained by the British Information Services here, this piece of “slanguage” meant that a raw recruit who arrived at her station was considered .an unpleasant specimen by her comrades. They were bored stiff by everything she said and thought there was no hope for her; but in an emergency one night, instead of doing her work badly, she showed great heroism and received a medal for her bravery. The British Information Service adds that, since all Waaf trades are referred to by initials, the. girls talk a mixture of letters and slang which is utterly incomprehensible to the layman. The Waaf cook and butcher is the “C and B,’ for example, and the “clerk EA” is. the girl in charge of equipment and accounting. Officials say this, phraseology is necessary because the girls work with men of the Royal Air Force, and, perforce, must use the same technical terms in speech and writing. As for the slang, part is from the RAF, and part of it, doubtless, like Topsy, “just growed.”