BBC RSS Feed Confuses Techie
In the BBC Technology RSS feed, I came across this interesting description of an article:
The majority of office workers complain that computer jargon is as difficult to un user is bamboozled by jargon used .
Way to confoozle a techie, BBC.
Jargon is only Jargon until it’s called metalanguage. There is a point where the words used in an industry, whether it be medical, educational, or technical, where the jargon is no longer called by that oversimplistic and misleading name, but begins to go by the term metalanguage. A metalanguage is the inclusion of such terms which are not readily understood by those outside that industry/profession. Let’s face it, any technology consultant, either the office geek or the hired IT professional all seem to speak their own higher, profession inclusive language. Metalanguage in medicine would include such words as mastisize. In English education, it would be pedegogy. In digital technology it may be podcast, or RSS feed. Just because it’s used easily and only certain people bother to learn it does not make it the simplistic “jargon,” but shows how versitile and evolving our language is in that new industries, new fields of study develop new words. How cool is that?