How To Make a Tree From Words

For many years I earned a living from words, either by speaking them on the radio or writing them in newspapers in various New England communities.  

Frankly the job of a radio newswriter is often boring, You work up to eight hours writing and rewriting  the same handful of stories for your entire shift, from six a.m. to two p.m. for example. 

In smaller communities the day's big news might be something like "Selectmen Push for New Town Hall." The story might run every hour, and in some stations also on the half hour, for eight hours or more.  If the article isn't rewritten and refreshed for every newscast, two things will happen.  One, the writer/reader will get bored, and two, many listeners will either space out or tune out.

Variety is the key.  The writer needs to know how to make the item seem fresh each time it's re-written.  

The key to being able to write interesting variations on a single theme is to be able to pluck new words and phrases from your own personal word tree.

A word tree is similar to a thesaurus - a book of synonyms and related concepts, except that the words come from your memory and not a book or a Google search.  If you write a word on paper, or digitally, and then write down the branches of the word, you'll quite likely memorize the whole tree with very little effort.   

Here's one that I built from the word, Dialect:

Dialect - a speech pattern specific to a certain area such as a "Bawhstin" (Boston Accent); as in "I went to  Hahvud (Harvard) University and lived in Kenmoah (Kenmore) Squay-yah (Square).  I used to pahk (park) my cah (car) near Fenway Pahk (Park). 

I came up with about a dozen related words.  Here are some of them.

Lingo: Special set of words particular to an occupation or industry, as in, "I didn't understand the instructions because they contained a lot of computer lingo. It is also used to denote a foreign language -   as in it's tough to get around in Paris if you don't speak the lingo.  In some cases 'lingo' and 'dialect' are interchangeable. 

Jargon: This word too can often, but not always, be a substitute for dialect, but I think it's more closely related to Lingo.  For example, Mirriam-Webster says jargon is 'the specific terminology of a special activity or group.  The example citied by the dictionary was the jargon of baseball - such as two sports fans discussing terms like RBIs, OBP, five tool player, bad ball hitter, and such. 

There are variant meanings, but I think it's fair to say that 'Jargon' and 'Lingo' are more closely related to eachother than they are to 'Dialect'.

Patois:  this is a word you'll hardly ever see used, but it is a legitimate branch of the "Dialect Tree". You will not go wrong if you substitute the one for the other.  The word is pronounced 'pat-twa'. 

Regionalism: This word has several meanings, one of which is a word or phrase found only in a particular section of a nation. It can't automatically be used as a direct substitute for dialect, because it generally refers to a single word such as the following local takes on  a "Submarine Sandwich".

Hoagies - Philadelphia
Grinders - Boston
Wedgies - Providence, Rhode Island
Heroes - New York City
Torpedos - Los Angeles
Po' Boys- New Orleans

Vernacular: This noun is pretty much a carbon copy of "Dialect" and qualifies as a substitute in nearly every case.

Patter:  There's no chance to successfully substitute 'patter' for the other words we've hung on the Dialect Tree.  Patter refers to a spiel rattled off mechanically by television pitchmen, circus barkers, and high pressure salespeople.  Still, 'patter' deserves to be a branch on the tree, because it is, in a sense, the dialect of a group - even if the group is largely composed of 'con-men'.

Argot: The word does refer to the speech of a certain group of people, but it's more closer kin to 'patter' than 'dialect'. In patter, the speaker wants people to understand him, but with 'Argot', the person speaking is usually conversing with a confederate and employing a more or less secret 'jargon' generally only understood by a particular group.  Some people use Pig Latin as an argot and are able to speak it so rapidly that only others skilled in the fake lingo can understand them. 

In pig latin, the first letter of a word, is moved to the end of the word and coupled with 'ay'.  Example: 'Pig Latin' in Pig Latin is Ig-pay Atin-lay.  

The final word,  and I'm it using as a tree topper is 'Cant' and I do not mean can't, the contraction for can not.  'Cant' is pretentious, hypocritical, sanctimonius speech generally involving religion or politics. "If they'd stop canting about 'honest work' they might get somewhere".

I hope you enjoyed building this word tree with me and I hope we can do it again sometime.

Bill