English Religious Slang: in Search of linguistic Identity

The research is concerned with English religious, slang, i.e. substandard, familiar, and informal vocabulary which is employed by persons identifying themselves as believers with reference to their religious affiliation. The historical precursor of religious slang studies was the empirical evidence collected by W. Tyndale, J.C. Hotten, J. Redding Ware, and E. Partridge in the 16th-20th centuries. As the core notion of this article, religious slang is differentiated from similar linguistic phenomena, namely general religious vocabulary and religion-related slang. The elaboration of a typology of religious slang allows for delimiting its three major types: Christian slang, Judaist slang, and Muslim slang. Christian slang is by far best represented, which is due to the worldwide spread of Christianity, the multiplicity of its denominations, and the longevity of the proselytizing tradition. Christian slang discloses 10 linguistic trends reflecting the on-going process of neologization of the English religious vocabulary, characterized by the emergence and synthesis of new notions, analogical and humorous word-formation, semantic change, and wordplay. Judaist slang contains a much more limited amount of empirical evidence, which has to do with its marked fixation on tradition, both linguistically and culturally, and manifests itself within two trends. Muslim slang is least represented among the three types, which results from the intrinsic conservatism of Islam.