Slanguage : A Cool, Fresh, Phat, and Shagadelic Guide to All Kinds of Slang [Paperback]

Mike Ellis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2000

A worldwide guide to slang, from America's favorite slangologist, and creator of one of the Internet's most popular websites--voted by Wired as one of the top five fun sites of 1998

Ask for a pop in Manhattan and you'll probably be punched in the face. The same request for a soda in Chicago, however, will get you Coketm. And if you're going to the gym in New York, take your sneakers, but in Pittsburgh, grab your tennis shoes. Every day new words are born that reflect who we are and where we live. Now, slang expert Mike Ellis has compiled an authoritative yet highly amusing treasury of slang that has infiltrated every walk of life. Already widely known for his articles in the national press (The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wired magazine) as well as for his hugely popular website, Ellis has a gift for zooming in on the often humorous, ironic, and colorful way that we put our spin on the native tongue. As funny as it is linguistically precise, Slanguage is an up-to-the-minute guide to the changing face of language.

In Slanguage, Mike Ellis explores:

Slang of the past (remember "Sock it to me"?) Silicon Valley Slang (do you have a programmer's butt?) Slang for the foreign traveler

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mike Ellis, an acknowledged expert in the field of linguistics, is a language consultant for television networks and other corporations. He is the author of Philly FUN-tics: Yuze Ken Speak Philadelphian, and is currently developing a series of regional slanguage place mats for McDonald's. He lives in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (August 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786885203
• ISBN-13: 978-0786885206
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,904,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a fun and educational read! Highly recommend!, August 19, 2000

By 

James Thoener (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slanguage : A Cool, Fresh, Phat, and Shagadelic Guide to All Kinds of Slang (Paperback)

I do a lot of traveling for work and my wife picked up this book for me as I endlessly wait in airport terminals or somewhere over the un-friendly skies.

I've read it three times already! Each time catching things I missed before. This book is hysterical! As I flip each page, I learn a different phrase or tid-bit of information I never knew before about all sorts of places around the globe. Things you could never know without taking up residence in each region.

Even a seasoned traveler like myself was surprised about how little I knew about places like Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Denver, Columbus, Boston, Nashville, and even Scranton, PA. Places I once only thought of as stopovers between business meetings and my home in Portland, Oregon, I now think of as little worlds of their own, with their own rich traditions and idiosyncrasies. The book even informs you on things you should and should not say in places like Beijing, London, Tokyo, Paris, Rome, Rio and even Nairobi.

But the book also goes into gambling slang, golf slang, truck driver slang, day trader slang, military slang, ER slang, and even teenager slang (which will come in handy when my daughter becomes one next year). This book is a riot!

You won't have to be a world traveler like me to appreciate this book. You just have to be curious about the world around you and enjoy the subtle differences that make all of us interesting, wonderful and special. I don't know how the author documented all this, but kudos. What a fun and educational read! Highly recommend!

3.0 out of 5 stars Worked for me.., November 25, 2011

By 

Marilyn L. Murillo "Nanoo6" (Turlock, Ca.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slanguage : A Cool, Fresh, Phat, and Shagadelic Guide to All Kinds of Slang (Paperback)

I'd been looking for a small(er) book on Slang and this book fit my purpose. It's not "in depth", that is, it doesn't hold much detail. But it does cover basics.

2.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, but with many inaccuracies, March 31, 2010

By 

J. Jones (Baltimore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slanguage : A Cool, Fresh, Phat, and Shagadelic Guide to All Kinds of Slang (Paperback)

I was born and raised in Binghamton, NY and lived Baltimore, MD for a decade and a half. The entries for both cities (as well as for Washington DC, which any "Baltimoron" has a fair amount of experience with) had "slang" that either I had never heard of or which suggested a pronunciation that would mark anyone attempting to use that term/phrase as a definite outsider. This puts all other local slang in question.

It also provides incorrect names for both the "O's" and the "Skins" stadiums. Perhaps the FedEx stadium was too recent of a change when the book was published, but by 2000 the "O's" had been playing at Camden Yards (aka "The Yard") for nearly a decade (and Memorial Stadium was both closed and slated for demolition by the time this book was published).

While the idea is great, the factual innaccuracies, combined with the fact that the book has literally fallen to pieces with very little use, will keep me from ordering a new copy of this book for the library I work at.