Since moving into accommodation in London, I have been blessed with a very culturally and therefore linguistically diverse flat. I’m living with other students coming from all sorts of places, such as Manchester, Yorkshire, Pakistan, and even straight from Dubai. Whenever I come home after a day of classes, I’m able to continue my studies just by speaking to them (though they have no idea how often I find a point of linguistic interest in our conversations). As we all speak different varieties of English, with many of them speaking it as an additional language, there have been some funny miscommunications and moments where I see a concept from a previous lecture materialise before me.

Just the other day on the football pitch, I was talking to my flatmate from Manchester.

The conversation went something like this:

“What’s your favourite sport? Don’t tell me it’s tig.”

“What?”

“Tig!”

“What??”

“Oh… you call it tag.”

(I actually call it “it”).

It’s fascinating how just a simple letter change can cause so much confusion in conversation.  How many names can one children’s game (also called tip, tiggy and dob across the UK) possibly have? This was the very first time I had encountered lexical variation between UK dialects rather than just accent variation, and it proved to me that it is indeed possible to determine the regional background of a speaker based on their unique vocabulary.

There is, funnily enough, a lot of debate online about the etymology (meaning the origin of words) of the name ‘tag’, after a tweet came about claiming this originates from the acronym ‘touch and go’. This was widely believed by those with no interest in linguistics (so unfortunately most people). However, it was later debunked as false. Though the origin of the name is unclear, it is likely from the Old English verb ‘tick’ meaning to touch or tap lightly, from the Dutch ‘tikken’.

Another example I have is a linguistic issue that was brought up during a story my flatmate was telling. He described how his house had been burgled and subconsciously said they were made to call “911”. This is becoming a more and more frequent mistake in British English, one I only noticed because I myself have accidentally made it before (“Don’t you dare do that in an emergency!” – my mum).

The sheer amount of Americanisms entering British English, particularly amongst the younger generations due to the media they consume, may be cause for concern. There are many cop shows popularised in the UK—Brooklyn 99, Law & Order, and even ‘9.1.1’ to name a few, so much so that calling 911 in England and most of the EU now connects you to the local emergency services. Something that should be common knowledge from childhood has become confusing for those brought up with American influencers such as those on Youtube and Instagram shaping their lexicon from a young age, and it is therefore more difficult to unlearn such mistakes in an emergency where you go with your first instinct.

Finally, the funniest linguistic phenomenon that has occurred in our flat is the small-scale linguistic borrowing from each other. With the eight of us living in such close proximity with shared spaces, I suppose it was inevitable that we would begin to adopt each other’s style of speech, however I didn’t expect it to catch on so quickly. Within the relatively short time we have known each other, I can think of at least five words or phrases we now all say that almost have a unique meaning within the confines of our flat, although the origins of these are quickly forgotten. The latest example is the use of the word ‘perchance’—something myself and I assume most of us did not commonly, or ever, use before moving in. However, once one flatmate began using it frequently, within that same week it had caught on, and it is now the answer to most simple questions (which is becoming infuriating as it is neither a yes nor no!). I believe that by the time our year together is over, people outside the flat will barely be able to understand our conversations, as it seems a new catchphrase emerges each week!

It is clear that the contact between such a diverse group will always bring to light linguistic differences I may not have noticed otherwise. Living in accommodation has been one of the best decisions for both myself and my degree, as I am able to see real-world examples of what I am learning about (although I’m not sure that justifies the price…)

I will stay on the lookout for more instances of linguistic interest, but I am surprised by how many I have come across already within the first few weeks of my studies.