Army creole was a term used in

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

's book '' The Right Stuff'' to describe an English dialect spoken by military personnel. The dialect relies upon extensive use of profane

intensifier In linguistics, an intensifier (abbreviated ) is a lexical category (but ''not'' a traditional part of speech) for a modifier that makes no contribution to the propositional meaning of a clause but serves to enhance and give additional emotional co ...

s like "fuck" to gain attention in confusing circumstances requiring prompt, decisive action. Before 1980,

basic training Military recruit training, commonly known as basic training or boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique deman ...

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. Military personnel learning the dialect in training may use it to improve communication in stressful situations.

Historical use

After losing his uniform during boarding party combat aboard the sinking , World War II

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...

officer Hal Lawrence was mistaken for a German prisoner of war following rescue by the crew of the until Lawrence's fluency with the English military dialect convinced the American sailors of Lawrence's identity.

Evolution

AWOL Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or Military base, post without permission (a Pass (military), pass, Shore leave, liberty or Leave (U.S. military), leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with u ...

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 Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

have been widely adopted by conventional English dialects alongside profane acronyms like

snafu SNAFU is an acronym that is widely used to stand for the sarcastic expression Situation normal: all fucked up. It is a well-known example of military acronym slang. It is sometimes bowdlerized to "all fouled up" or similar. It means that the ...

. 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.

References

;Bibliography * Wolfe, Tom. ''The Right Stuff''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979, . * Wolfe, Tom. ''The Right Stuff''. New York: Bantam, 1979, . * Wolfe, Tom. ''The Right Stuff''. New York: Bantam, 2001, 1979, . (WorldCat)
--> {{refend Dialects of English Profanity Military slang and jargon 1979 neologisms