Language Rant

Yeah. I am one of those. When I say Puerto Rico it does NOT come out sounding like Porto Rico. I say it correctly, as it would be said in Spanish. Do I expect everyone to? No. But I took 9 years of Spanish in school, and although I am not fluent in it, I am conversant.

When I talk about Italian cities have I in the past said Firenze instead of Florence? Yes. Should that surprise you? Non, e va fan culo, stronzo!

But give me a break. I am also a linguist.
No, seriously. I have a Master's Degree in Linguistics.
So, let me preface this story by saying "I am an artist and I am sensitive about my shit."
Ahem, OK.... that was an Erykah Badu quote, but you catch my drift. I am sensitive to/about language.

Anyway, so I am walking into the building where I work this morning, and out in front is this refrigerator truck with huge lettering on the side:

BOO KOO ENERGY DRINKS

I nearly lost it. I did not know whether to laugh or be annoyed. I rolled my eyes and stood there staring in disbelief.

Let me break this issue down for you. "Boo koo" is southern urban slang for "a lot".
example: Mario makes boo koo bank, yo!

It comes from the French word beaucoup. And stuff like this happens all the time. Words get co-opted from another language quite often. We use them in everyday speech, and we do not always pronounce them correctly. Like, for example, croissant. I am just fine with this phenomenon.

And then there is slang. I am good with slang, too. I use it myself. But for the most part, slang is something we use in conversation. We speak it. We do not often write it.

And this just looks dumb in print. BOO KOO?!??!?! And not only in print, but as the name of a sports drink?

Now before you accuse me of being anti-urban or something, let me mention that if you go to the product's home page, it is all about Xtreme sports and motocross. Uh. Not so urban. More like suburban schoolkid, yeah?

So what gives? Am I just getting old and crochety? Or am I bothered cause this is a linguistic nightmare? Probably a little of both. Or maybe that company just needed to dig a little deeper to find a krunk name for a new sports drink.

Especially because last time I checked "boo koo" was about as played out as calling someone "boo" or saying something was "bumpin". And if my white ass knows that, it's time to update.