Linguistic Gaps in English Vocabulary

Why does English have no phrase like “Bon Appé tit”? Has it ever occurred to you that there is no simple way of expressing your hope that someone will enjoy what he is about to eat? If you are entertaining, and say to your guest as you put his dinner before him “I hope you like it”, then he will probably think one of two things: either that there is an element of doubt about the meal, or that there is an element of doubt about him! – that the food is perhaps unusual, and he will not be enough of a gastronomic sophisticate to appreciate it. You can be certain of one thing – he will not interpret “I hope you like it” in the same way that the Frenchman interprets “Bon appé tit” – as a wish that focuses itself on the eater, and not on what is to be eaten. Those opposed to English cooking ¹⁾ will no doubt explain the lack by pointing to the quality of food in this country; it’s so bad, they will say, that no one ever really believes that it could be enjoyed. Hence, no need for a phrase that enjoins enjoyment! But surely not even English food can be as bad as all that.

Anyway, it’s not only a matter of food. Have you never felt the need for a simple, universal and socially neutral expression to use when drinking with someone? The Spaniard has his “Salud”, the German his “Prosit”, Swedes say “Skaal”, and the Frenchman, simply and sincerely “Avotre sante”. But what about the unfortunate English? For most of them, “Good health” is impossibly old-fashioned and stuffy. It may be all right for lawyers and stockbrokers, doctors and dons, or for crusty colonels ²⁾ inside the four walls of a club; but in the boozer down the Old Kent Road ³⁾ it just sounds out of place. It is true that there is a whole string of vaguely possible alternatives that range from the mildly jocular through the awkward to the phrase-book bizarre ⁴⁾; and if you listen carefully you may just hear people still saying “Here’s mud in your eye”, “Here’s the skin off your nose”, “Down the hatch” or “All the best” as they sink their pints or sip their sherries. But mostly they take refuge nowadays in “Cheerio” or its truncated version “Cheers”. And even here, for some people there is a sneaking suspicion that the term is not quite right. That it is somehow a shade too breezy, and comes most easily from someone addicted to tweeds and the phrase “Old chap” ⁵⁾.

Even when taking our leave it seems we English are victims of some strange deficiencies in our valedictory vocabulary. The standard term “Goodbye” is both too formal and too final. It may be just the job for ushering someone out of your life altogether; but most leave-takings – for better or worse – are temporary affairs. Perhaps in an attempt to escape implications of finality, many people now say “Bye bye” instead; others try to make this particularly nauseating bit of baby-talk more acceptable by shortening it to “Bye”. And in place of those many leave-takings which so easily accommodate the idea of another meeting – “Au revoir”, “Auf wiedersehen”, “Arrivederci” and so on, we have, alas, only such sad colloquialisms as “So long” and “I’ll be seeing you”.

These examples by no means exhaust the areas in which the English language doesn’t exactly help social contact. They have been called “linguistic gaps” and tend to turn up in some way or another in most languages. But according to Mr. Daniel Kane – a lecturer at the University of Chester ⁶⁾ – there seem to be more of them in English than in other languages – at least other Western European languages. At the moment Mr. Kane is seeking funds to finance a small research project into the problem. He wants first of all to question a large number of people about their feelings on the matter. “After all, I must be certain that the man in the street is aware of these gaps in the same way that I think I am”, says Mr. Kane. And then he proposes to compare English with several other languages in this respect, and “Look for possible sociological reasons” for the differences he finds.

¨ Explanatory Notes

¹⁾ Those opposed to English cooking – English people have always been fond of jokes about English food. There is also a widely-held belief, half-serious, half-jocular that all foreigners disapprove of English food.

²⁾ It is being suggested that the kind of people here – all of them, incidentally, identified by reference to their time-honoured professions – are likely to be among the more staid, conservative sections of the community, both socially and linguistically.

³⁾ the Old Kent Road – a famous London street, where lots of ordinary people may be found drinking in ordinary pubs.

⁴⁾ the phrase-book bizarre – a reference to the fact that books of useful phrases for foreigners have acquired a reputation for sometimes containing oddly useless bits of language.

⁵⁾ someone addicted to tweeds and the phrase “Old chap” – i.e. a rather “upper-class” member of society. Tweeds is a reference to the type of clothing associated with the popular image of “the country gentleman”; and it is being suggested here that “Old chap” is to be regarded as a similar social marker, but of a linguistic kind. There are several greetings of this form in English, in which “old” is used not in its normal sense, but as a term of friendliness. These include “old man”, “old boy”, “old girl” etc., and all carry overtones of the public school and upper middle classes, and are perhaps generally thought of as being either slightly comic, or too bluff and hearty.

⁶⁾ the University of Chester – fictitious, as is the research project.